What liens survive a tax deed sale

Whether a lien survives a tax deed sale is set by the statute for that sale and by federal overlays that can apply after the sale. This article checks Florida's tax-deed survival statute and the related covenant rules, plus the federal IRS redemption right after certain nonjudicial sales and the federal CERCLA owner-liability frame. It is not a national list. For every other state, check your county or state rules on the education guides. Sources were reviewed October 1, 2026. This is not legal advice.

What "survive" means after a tax deed

Here, a claim survives if it is still enforceable against the property, or against the buyer, after the tax deed issues. A tax lien certificate is a different instrument: you hold a claim, not a deed, so nothing has been cut off yet. The lien-versus-deed and post-purchase articles cover that sequence for the states they check. A redeemable tax deed raises a separate question, covered in its own article: what the sale gives you and when redemption ends.

OCC Bulletin 2004-39 (August 31, 2004) notes that the laws governing the redemption and transfer of tax lien certificates vary among states and municipalities. The bulletin is about certificates. It does not say which claims a tax deed cuts off, and this article does not attempt a state-by-state count.

• Tax lien vs tax deed states
• What happens after you buy a tax lien
• Redeemable tax deed
• Education guides

Florida: what the statute says survives

Florida only. The quotes below are from the 2025 Florida Statutes on the Florida Senate website, retrieved October 1, 2026. That is a retrieval date, not an effective date. As our Florida guide explains, a Florida certificate gives a tax lien, and getting the property takes a later statutory process. This section covers that later deed stage. Certificate rates and redemption timing stay in the guide.

Florida Statutes § 197.552 (2025) says: "Except as specifically provided in this chapter, no right, interest, restriction, or other covenant shall survive the issuance of a tax deed, except that a lien of record held by a municipal or county governmental unit, special district, or community development district, when such lien is not satisfied as of the disbursement of proceeds of sale under the provisions of s. 197.582, shall survive the issuance of a tax deed." "This chapter" is chapter 197. So the starting rule is that rights, interests, and covenants do not survive unless chapter 197 says otherwise (§ 197.573, below, is one place it does). The one lien the sentence saves is a governmental, special-district, or community development district lien of record that is still unsatisfied when sale proceeds are disbursed under § 197.582.

Section 197.582 is the disbursement section that sentence points to. Under subsection (2)(a), when the property sells for more than the certificateholder's statutory bid, the clerk distributes the surplus to governmental units to pay any lien of record held by a governmental unit, including tax certificates not incorporated in the tax deed application and any omitted taxes. Subsection (7) requires a holder of a recorded governmental lien, other than a federal government lien or an ad valorem tax lien, to request disbursement within 120 days after the surplus notice is mailed, and requires the clerk or comptroller to pay governmental liens of record before nongovernmental claimants. The wording is not identical across the two sections: § 197.552 names municipal or county governmental units, special districts, and community development districts, while § 197.582 says "governmental unit." The clerk's disbursement record is made after the sale, so it confirms later whether the lien was paid. It is not something you can check before bidding.

Section 197.573 (2025) covers covenants. Under subsection (1), restrictions and covenants running with the land that appear in a deed or other recorded instrument in the chain of title survive a tax deed, a master's deed, or a clerk's certificate of title, and stay enforceable to the same extent as against a voluntary grantee of the prior owner. Subsection (2) limits that to the usual restrictions on use; the type, character, and location of buildings; covenants against nuisances and conditions the former parties considered undesirable; and similar restrictions. It does not protect covenants that create a debt or lien against the property, with two exceptions: a covenant providing for satisfaction or survival of a lien of record held by a municipal or county governmental unit, and a covenant providing a lien for assessments accruing after the deed to a condominium association, homeowners' association, property owners' association, or other person with assessment powers under the covenants. It also does not protect covenants that require the new owner to spend money, except to keep the premises sanitary or sightly or to abate nuisances or undesirable conditions. Under subsection (3), forfeitures, rights of reentry, and reverter rights are destroyed and do not pass to the tax deed grantee.

The survival exception in § 197.552 does not name private mortgages or judgment liens. What that means for a specific mortgage, and what this article does not settle, is covered in the mortgage section below.

• Florida tax lien guide
• Education guides for other states

Federal overlays that are not Florida's chapter 197

The next two statutes are federal. They are not Florida local-lien rules, and they are not a substitute for the county recorder index. Whether either one applies to a parcel is its own check.

IRS federal tax lien redemption (26 U.S.C. § 7425)

Federal. Source: 26 U.S.C. § 7425 (Cornell LII, reviewed October 1, 2026). Subsection (b) covers a sale of property on which the United States has or claims a lien, or a title derived from enforcement of a lien, under the Internal Revenue Code, when the sale is made pursuant to an instrument creating a lien, pursuant to a confession of judgment on the obligation secured by such an instrument, or pursuant to a nonjudicial sale under a statutory lien on the property. That sale shall, except as otherwise provided, be made subject to and without disturbing the federal lien or title if notice of the lien was filed, or the title recorded, in the place provided by law more than 30 days before the sale and the United States is not given notice of the sale in the manner prescribed in subsection (c)(1). The sale has the same effect on discharge or divestment of that lien or title as local law provides if notice of the lien or title was not filed or recorded more than 30 days before the sale, the law makes no provision for such filing, or notice of the sale is given under subsection (c)(1). Subsection (c)(1) says notice of a sale to which subsection (b) applies shall be given, in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary, in writing, by registered or certified mail or by personal service, not less than 25 days before the sale, to the Secretary.

Subsection (d)(1) is the redemption right. In the case of a sale of real property to which subsection (b) applies to satisfy a lien prior to that of the United States, the Secretary may redeem the property within 120 days from the date of the sale or the period allowable for redemption under local law, whichever is longer. That is where the 120-day figure comes from. It is a federal right, not a Florida chapter 197 rule, and this article does not claim every Florida tax deed sale is one to which subsection (b) applies. If the recorder index shows a federal tax lien, treat it as its own check. Any local redemption period is a county or state question for the education guides.

CERCLA owner liability (42 U.S.C. § 9607)

Federal. Section 9607 is not a list of liens that survive a tax deed. It is about who pays for cleanup. Subsection (a) of 42 U.S.C. § 9607 (Cornell LII, reviewed October 1, 2026) says that, notwithstanding any other provision or rule of law, and subject only to the defenses set forth in subsection (b), the covered persons include the owner and operator of a vessel or a facility, and a person who at the time of disposal of any hazardous substance owned or operated a facility at which such hazardous substances were disposed of. Those persons, with the arrangers and transporters the subsection also names, shall be liable for the removal, remedial, natural-resource, and health-assessment costs it lists. Subsection (b) says there is no liability for a person otherwise liable who can establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the release or threat of release and the resulting damages were caused solely by an act of God, an act of war, a qualifying act or omission of a third party, or a combination of those. The owner-and-operator category does not ask who caused the disposal. Causation comes in through the defenses, which the defendant has to prove. Section 9607 has other limits too, such as subsection (r) for a bona fide prospective purchaser, a term CERCLA defines elsewhere. Whether a tax deed buyer qualifies is a question for counsel.

A tax deed can put the buyer in the position of an owner. Whether that makes the buyer an "owner" of a "facility" under § 9607(a) is a question for counsel, so do not assume contamination is the prior owner's problem. Two other subsections create federal liens, though neither says every parcel has one. Subsection (l)(1) says costs and damages for which a person is liable to the United States under subsection (a), other than a vessel owner or operator under (a)(1), shall constitute a lien in favor of the United States on real property that belongs to that person and is subject to or affected by a removal or remedial action. Subsection (l)(3) makes that lien subject to the rights of a purchaser, security-interest holder, or judgment lien creditor whose interest is perfected under state law before notice of the lien is filed in the office the state designates, or, if the state has not designated one office, with the clerk of the United States district court for the district. Subsection (r)(2) says that if there are unrecovered response costs incurred by the United States at a facility for which an owner is not liable by reason of the bona fide prospective purchaser limit in (r)(1), and if each condition in (r)(3) is met, the United States shall have a lien on the facility. Subsection (r)(4)(C) makes that windfall lien subject to (l)(3).

EPA's Search for Superfund Sites Where You Live (reviewed October 1, 2026) is a diligence tool, not a survival statute and not a lien index. It offers a National Priorities List and Superfund Alternative Approach search, a where-you-live map, an advanced search of active and archived NPL and non-NPL sites, and Cleanups in My Community. An empty result does not mean no hazardous substance was released, and it does not show whether a § 9607(l) or § 9607(r)(2) notice was filed. Treat contamination risk, and the lien-notice record, as an open check until both are reviewed.

Does a tax deed wipe out a mortgage?

Florida only, and only as a reading of § 197.552, not a case holding. The statute says that, except as chapter 197 specifically provides, no right, interest, restriction, or other covenant survives issuance of the tax deed, apart from the governmental, special-district, and community development district liens it names when they are unsatisfied as of disbursement under § 197.582. A private mortgage is a right or interest, and that exception does not name it. That reading is not a reason to treat a named mortgage as cut off before you save the clerk's notice record. We did not review Florida case law for this article, and this article does not decide whether notice was constitutionally adequate for a specific parcel.

Florida Statutes § 197.522 (2025) is the notice section. Subsection (1)(a) says the clerk of the circuit court shall notify, by certified mail with return receipt requested, or by registered mail if the notice is sent outside the continental United States, the persons listed in the tax collector's statement pursuant to § 197.502(4) that an application for a tax deed has been made. The notice shall be mailed at least 20 days before the sale. If no address is listed in the tax collector's statement, no notice is required. Subsection (1)(c) says the clerk completes a certificate of the names and addresses of the persons notified and the date the notice was mailed, signs it, and affixes the official seal. That certificate is prima facie evidence that the notice was mailed. Subsection (1)(d) says: "The failure of anyone to receive notice as provided herein shall not affect the validity of the tax deed issued pursuant to the notice." That sentence is about a failure to receive the notice the section provides. It does not say that leaving a person off the tax collector's statement is harmless. This article did not open § 197.502(4), so whether a named mortgagee belongs on that statement is a record question. Counsel and a title review are still required.

Two further limits apply. Personal liability on the note is a separate question from the lien on the land. The sections cited here address what survives the deed, not whether the borrower still owes the lender. Other states differ, so check your county or state rules. This article does not state a result for any other state.

Surplus is a separate question. Section 197.582(2) includes a notice form saying that, to the extent possible, surplus funds will be used to satisfy in full each claimant with a senior mortgage or lien before any junior mortgage or lien claimant or the former owner, and that a lienholder claim not filed within the 120-day deadline is barred. The claim form in subsection (3) lists "Mortgage" as a lien type. That is a claim against surplus the clerk holds. It does not mean the mortgage stays enforceable against the property after the deed.

• Check your county or state rules

What evidence to save before you bid

Each check below has four parts: the question you still need answered, the record and office that answer it, the evidence to save (the source URL, the retrieval date, and the document number when one is printed), and an outcome of pass, fail, or unresolved. A missing value is an unresolved check, not a clean result. Keep the date you saved a file separate from the date the office published it. For parcel, assessor, and bankruptcy checks, use the full due diligence checklist. The checks here are about survival.

Which statute or official page governs survival for this county's tax deed?

• Question: Which statute or official page governs what survives this county's tax deed?
• Record and office: the legislature's statute for that sale, then the county sale notice. For a Florida tax deed, start with §§ 197.552, 197.573, and 197.582 (2025). For any other state, check your county or state rules.
• Evidence to save: the URL, the retrieval date, the compilation or version line, and the sentence that names what survives. Keep the retrieval date separate from any effective date printed on the page. October 1, 2026, is the retrieval date for the sources in this article.
• Outcome: Pass when the file has the official page and the survival sentence for that sale. Fail when the file uses another state's sentence. Unresolved when the statute or the sale notice will not open.

Is there a recorded governmental, special-district, or CDD lien that § 197.552 (or the local equivalent) would leave in place?

• Question: Pre-bid, does the recorder index show a lien of record held by a municipal or county governmental unit, a special district, or a community development district?
• Record and office: the county recorder, or the clerk of court where that office keeps the land records. The clerk's § 197.582 disbursement record is created after the sale, so it is not part of this pre-bid check. For a state other than Florida, use the local equivalent only if you have opened that statute.
• Evidence to save: the search criteria, the retrieval date, and the instrument number when one is printed.
• Outcome: Pass when the saved index shows no such lien, or shows one you accept as a priced risk. Fail when the index shows a governmental, special-district, or community-development-district lien you will not take. Unresolved when the index will not load, or, outside Florida, when the local survival statute was not opened. After the sale, save the clerk's § 197.582 disbursement record to confirm whether the lien was paid. That step is not part of the pre-bid check.

Was IRS / federal notice handled for any federal tax lien (if relevant to the parcel)?

• Question: Does the recorder index show a federal tax lien, and was notice to the Secretary handled under 26 U.S.C. § 7425 if this sale is one to which subsection (b) applies?
• Record and office: the county recorder index, and the file for written notice to the Secretary under § 7425(c)(1).
• Evidence to save: the search criteria, the retrieval date, the lien filing date if one is indexed, and the notice, or the page that says notice was not given.
• Outcome: Pass when the saved index shows no federal tax lien you can tie to this parcel; or when the notice file matches the subsection (b) and (c)(1) conditions you are relying on, including the Secretary's regulations that (c)(1) refers to; or when you treat the sale as under subsection (b) and the saved filing date shows the lien was not filed more than 30 days before the sale (so the local-law discharge path in (b) applies without the (c)(1) notice requirement). Fail only when you have determined that subsection (b) applies, the saved filing date shows the lien was filed more than 30 days before the sale, and the (c)(1) notice the statute describes is missing or inadequate. Unresolved when the index is down, the filing date is missing, you have not determined whether subsection (b) applies, or the notice status is unknown. Even a pass here does not rule out the United States' redemption right under § 7425(d).

Environmental / Superfund and use-covenant records reviewed?

• Question: Have you saved an EPA Superfund search, the recorded use covenants, and the recorder or lien-index result for any CERCLA lien notice under 42 U.S.C. § 9607(l) and any windfall-lien notice under § 9607(r)(2)?
• Record and office: EPA Search for Superfund Sites Where You Live, the recorded covenants, and the office where a federal lien notice is filed. In Florida, read the covenants against § 197.573. Section 9607(l)(3) says the notice is filed in the office the state designates, or, if the state has not designated one office, with the clerk of the United States district court for the district. In any other state, check your county or state rules for which covenants survive.
• Evidence to save: the search criteria, the retrieval date, the Superfund result page, the covenant document numbers, and the lien-index page for a § 9607(l) notice and a § 9607(r)(2) windfall-lien notice, including a saved page that shows none was indexed.
• Outcome: Pass when the Superfund search, the covenant instruments, and the saved lien-index pages for a § 9607(l) notice and a § 9607(r)(2) notice are in the file and match a risk you accept. Those subsections do not say every parcel has such a lien. Fail when a listed site, a use restriction you will not accept, or a noticed CERCLA or windfall lien you will not accept is in the file. Unresolved when the search errors, the address does not match the parcel, the covenants were not opened, or the lien or notice record under § 9607(l) or § 9607(r)(2) was not reviewed. A pass covers these records only. It does not settle owner liability under § 9607(a). If you would rely on the bona fide prospective purchaser limit in § 9607(r), review its conditions with counsel before you bid.

Was clerk notice to recorded lienholders saved under the governing notice statute (Florida § 197.522)?

• Question: Was notice to recorded lienholders handled under the statute that governs notice for this tax deed, and is the named mortgagee or lienholder on the saved list?
• Record and office: In Florida, the clerk of the circuit court certificate under § 197.522(1)(c) and the tax collector's statement the clerk uses under § 197.522(1)(a). For any other state, the official notice statute. Check your county or state rules.
• Evidence to save: the certificate of names, addresses, and mailing date, the retrieval date, and the tax collector's statement of persons to be notified. If the file shows a named mortgagee was omitted, save that page.
• Outcome: Pass when the clerk certificate and the mailed list are in the file for the named mortgagee or lienholder. Fail when the file shows the mortgagee was omitted from the tax collector's statement or the notice list and you will not take that risk. Unresolved when the notice file will not open, or when the saved statement lists no address for that person. Section 197.522(1)(a) then requires no mailed notice, but that does not settle whether notice was constitutionally adequate, so ask counsel.

The related articles below cover diligence, certificate interest, over-the-counter certificates, and team workflows. None of them is about which liens survive a tax deed.

• Tax lien due diligence checklist
• Tax lien evidence packs
• Tax lien interest rates by state
• Over the counter tax liens
• Tax-lien diligence at scale
• From spreadsheet to bid review
• Preparing certificate records for legal review
• Preparing a tax-certificate evidence pack
• The county data problem

Where Accrella fits

Knowing which claim categories a statute names is not the same as knowing what is recorded against a parcel. The statute gives you the rule. The recorder index tells you what is on this parcel. An organized evidence record is not a legal opinion.

In Accrella Discovery you can filter candidates by state and county. Use the Watchlist for diligence review before a bid-sheet export. Accrella gates that export on diligence and strategy approval. An exported file does not submit a bid or replace the auction platform registration and payment process. Coverage, a current list, and readiness to buy are separate questions. A geographic directory is not a current auction list.

• County coverage and sources
• Tax lien software

Questions investors ask

What liens survive a tax deed sale?

The statute for that sale, plus any federal overlay that applies to the parcel. This page checks Florida Statutes §§ 197.552 and 197.573 (2025), the disbursement cross-reference in § 197.582, the federal rule in 26 U.S.C. § 7425, and the federal owner-liability frame in 42 U.S.C. § 9607. It is not a national list. For every other state, check your county or state rules.

What liens survive a tax deed sale in Florida?

Under Florida law, § 197.552 says that, except as specifically provided in chapter 197, no right, interest, restriction, or other covenant shall survive the issuance of a tax deed, except a lien of record held by a municipal or county governmental unit, special district, or community development district that is not satisfied as of the disbursement of proceeds under § 197.582. Section 197.573 keeps the use restrictions and similar covenants it describes, but it does not protect covenants that create a debt or lien, except the governmental-lien covenant and the post-deed association-assessment covenant in subsection (2). Forfeitures, rights of reentry, and reverter rights do not survive under subsection (3). Other states have their own rules.

Does a tax deed wipe out a mortgage?

It depends on the state, and this page does not give a national answer. For Florida, see the next question. For any other state, check your county or state rules. Either way, personal liability on the note is a separate question from the lien on the land.

Does a tax deed wipe out a mortgage in Florida?

Florida only, and as a reading of § 197.552 rather than a case holding. A private mortgage is a right or interest, and it is not among the liens § 197.552 says survive. That alone does not let you treat a named mortgage as cut off. First save the clerk's notice certificate and mailed list under § 197.522 (see the mortgage section above). That section's failure-to-receive sentence does not decide whether notice was constitutionally adequate for a specific parcel, and it does not make an omitted mortgagee harmless. We did not review Florida case law. A mortgage holder's claim to surplus under § 197.582 is a claim on funds the clerk holds, not a sign that the mortgage stays on the land. Whether the borrower still owes the note is a separate question. Get counsel and a title review before relying on this.

Do HOA liens survive a tax deed in Florida?

Florida only. Two statutes answer two different questions. First, is the lien still on the land? Sections 197.573 and 197.552 answer that. Section 197.573(2) does not protect covenants that create a debt or lien against the property, with two exceptions: a covenant providing for satisfaction or survival of a lien of record held by a municipal or county governmental unit, and a covenant providing a lien for assessments accruing after the tax deed, master's deed, or clerk's certificate of title to a condominium association, homeowners' association, property owners' association, or other person with assessment powers under the covenants. The surviving-lien list in § 197.552 does not name a homeowners' association. So an association lien for pre-deed assessments is in the group § 197.573 does not protect, while a covenant lien for assessments accruing after the deed fits the second exception. That is a reading of those sections, not a case holding.

Second, does the new owner owe the old assessments anyway? That is owner liability under Florida Statutes § 720.3085 (2025), not chapter 197 survival. Subsection (2)(b) makes a parcel owner jointly and severally liable with the previous parcel owner for all unpaid assessments that came due up to the time of transfer of title, without prejudice to the present owner's right to recover those amounts from the previous owner. "Previous owner" does not include an association that took title through foreclosure or a deed in lieu of foreclosure, and in that case the present owner's liability is limited to assessments that accrued before the association took title. Subsection (2)(a) makes a parcel owner, "regardless of how his or her title to property has been acquired," including by purchase at a foreclosure sale or by deed in lieu of foreclosure, liable for all assessments that come due while he or she is the parcel owner. The text does not name a tax deed, so whether a tax-deed grantee is a parcel owner under chapter 720 is a question for counsel. This article does not cover the condominium statute or other association chapters.

Can federal tax liens affect a tax deed purchase?

Yes, under federal law, not Florida chapter 197. Section 7425(b) can leave a nonjudicial sale under a statutory lien subject to and without disturbing the United States' lien when notice of that lien was filed more than 30 days before the sale and the United States is not given the notice in subsection (c)(1). When a sale of real property to which subsection (b) applies satisfies a lien prior to the United States, § 7425(d) lets the Secretary redeem within 120 days from the date of the sale or the period allowable for redemption under local law, whichever is longer. Save the recorder index and the notice file. If either is missing, the check is unresolved.