A Florida foreclosure sale wipes out the mortgage being foreclosed and any lien recorded after it — but not everything. Property tax liens survive by law no matter when they were recorded, and any lien senior to the foreclosed mortgage survives too. Confirm lien priority before you bid, not after you've won.
A foreclosure sale only extinguishes what's junior to the loan being foreclosed. A senior mortgage, a senior HOA lien, or a recorded easement that predates the foreclosed loan rides through the sale and becomes yours. This is one of the most expensive mistakes a first-time bidder makes at the courthouse — winning a "good deal" that isn't, because a bigger lien was standing behind it the whole time.
Delinquent property taxes are different from every other lien. Florida law makes the tax lien a first lien, ranked above every other claim on the property, and that priority doesn't reset because a foreclosure happened. Walk in assuming any unpaid taxes are now your bill.
The only way to know what survives on a specific property is a title search run before auction day — not a guess based on the property's condition or the plaintiff's name. That's what lien-survival classification inside a SIGNAL$ Property Report exists to answer for the parcel you're actually bidding on, pulled the same day, not from memory of "how foreclosures usually work."
Fla. Stat. §197.122 — official text
"All taxes imposed pursuant to the State Constitution and laws of this state shall be a first lien, superior to all other liens, on any property against which the taxes have been assessed and shall continue in full force from January 1 of the year the taxes were levied until discharged by payment or until barred under chapter 95."
Only if that second mortgage was recorded after the loan being foreclosed — otherwise it can survive, and you inherit it.
Yes. Florida law makes property tax liens a first lien with priority that survives the sale.
A title search on that parcel before auction day — a SIGNAL$ Property Report includes lien-survival classification for exactly that reason.
This is general educational information, not legal, financial, or investment advice. Auction data and value estimates should always be independently verified. Consult a licensed Florida attorney and title professional before bidding on any property.