In Miami-Dade County the Eleventh Judicial Circuit and the Miami-Dade Clerk of the Court and Comptroller handle foreclosure cases, and the tax deed and code processes each run through a different office. A house can be sold as-is before any of them reaches the end.
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Foreclosure, a tax deed sale and a code enforcement lien are three separate processes in Miami-Dade County, run by three different offices. Until a foreclosure sale or a tax deed sale actually happens, the owner can usually still sell the house. The sale proceeds can pay off the mortgage, back taxes and recorded liens at closing, and the owner keeps whatever is left. Where each of these stands for your own parcel is a question for a Florida attorney.
A foreclosure starts as a lawsuit in the circuit court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, filed with the Miami-Dade Clerk of the Court and Comptroller in Miami. If the lender wins a final judgment, the property is sold at a court-ordered sale. The Clerk also conducts court-ordered foreclosure sales online, on the same kind of internet auction platform. The statewide version of this is in selling a house before a Florida foreclosure auction.
A tax deed sale is not a foreclosure. It follows unpaid property taxes: the Miami-Dade Tax Collector handles the tax bill, a tax certificate is sold on the unpaid amount, and if the certificate stays unredeemed the property can be put up for a tax deed sale. The Clerk's Tax Deed Unit runs Miami-Dade tax deed sales as an online auction, so bidders register and bid over the internet rather than on the courthouse steps.
The owner generally has until the sale to pay what is owed and stop it, and money left over after a tax deed sale can belong to the former owner. How that works is set out in how a Florida tax deed auction works.
In Miami-Dade one office, the Clerk of the Court and Comptroller, handles both the foreclosure lawsuits and the official records of deeds, mortgages and liens, and its Tax Deed Unit runs the tax deed auctions. The Tax Collector is a separate office that bills and collects the taxes. The Eleventh Judicial Circuit covers only Miami-Dade County. Large parts of the county are unincorporated and answer to county code enforcement, while a house inside a city such as Hialeah or Miami Gardens answers to that city's own department, so the first question for any address is which side of a city line it sits on.
Code and building cases come from several offices in this county: Miami-Dade County itself (for unincorporated areas and county-run cases), and city departments such as the City of Hialeah and the City of Miami Gardens. A code case can end in daily fines and a recorded lien against the property, and a lien stays on the title until it is paid or released. It does not stop a sale: the lien is typically paid from the proceeds at closing. See code violation liens in Florida.
We are a Tampa-based company that buys houses directly across Florida, including Miami-Dade County: Miami, Hialeah, Miami Gardens, Homestead, Coral Gables, Doral, Kendall, and North Miami. We read the public records for this county: Miami-Dade County code and building enforcement cases, code cases in Hialeah and Miami Gardens, and state tax-roll and sales-data records. Those are the same public records you can look up. We buy as-is, with no repairs, no clean-out and no agent. See also selling an inherited house in Miami-Dade County and selling a house in any condition.
Written 2026-10-26. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice, and we are not a law firm. For your own deadlines and rights, talk to a Florida attorney.
More Miami-Dade County guides: Sell an Inherited House in Miami-Dade County, FL.
Neighboring counties: Sell a Distressed House in Broward County, FL; Sell a House in Collier County, FL: Your Options.
If the Miami-Dade County house also comes with another problem: Can You Sell a House in Probate in Florida?; How a Florida Tax Deed Auction Works; Code Violation Lien in Florida: Can You Sell?; Selling a House Before a Florida Foreclosure; Sell a House With Back Taxes in Florida; Selling a House As-Is in Florida: Disclosure Rules; Sell a Hurricane-Damaged House in Florida; Sell a House With Liens on It in Florida; Inherited a House With a Reverse Mortgage in Florida; Sell a House Full of Belongings in Florida; Sell a Vacant House in Florida: What to Know; Sell a Florida House From Out of State; Sell a House With Problem Tenants in Florida; Sell a House With Sinkhole Damage in Florida; Sell a Florida Condo With a Special Assessment; Sell a House in Bankruptcy in Florida; Sell a Florida House With Title Problems; Sell a Florida House You Cannot Insure; Owe More Than the House Is Worth? Selling in Florida; Sell a House When the Owner Is in a Care Facility, Florida; What Is a Lis Pendens in Florida and Can You Sell?; Is a We Buy Houses Company Legit in Florida?; Sell a Fire-Damaged House in Florida; Sell a Condemned or Unsafe House in Florida; Sell a House With Unpermitted Work in Florida; Sell a House With HOA Liens in Florida; Sell a House During a Divorce in Florida; Heirs Disagree on Selling an Inherited Florida House.
Counts from our own records of public county filings: Florida Probate Filings We Track, by County; Florida Tax-Delinquent Properties by County; Florida Foreclosure Auctions: Next 60 Days; Miami-Dade Code Enforcement Cases: What We See.
See every Florida county we have a guide for: Florida county home-selling guides.