In Palm Beach County the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit and the Palm Beach County Clerk of the Circuit 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.
Tell us the address and what is happening with it. A person reads every message, and there is no obligation.
Foreclosure, a tax deed sale and a code enforcement lien are three separate processes in Palm Beach 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 Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, filed with the Palm Beach County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller in West Palm Beach. 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. 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 Palm Beach County 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 and Comptroller conducts tax deed sales online once a month on scheduled Wednesdays. The Tax Collector's office is the one that sells the tax certificates those sales grow out of.
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 Palm Beach County the Clerk and Comptroller covers the courts, the official records and the tax deed sales, while the Tax Collector is a separate office that bills the tax and sells the tax certificates. The Fifteenth Judicial Circuit covers only Palm Beach County. Code enforcement belongs to each municipality, and the county is large enough that a house in Wellington, which is a village, and one in Boca Raton, which is a city, are handled by different local departments with different case records.
Code cases are kept by each municipality. The Palm Beach County municipalities whose public case records we read are Wellington and Boca Raton. 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 Palm Beach County: West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Wellington, Jupiter, Lake Worth Beach, and Palm Beach Gardens. We read the public records for this county: Wellington and Boca Raton code cases, 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 Palm Beach 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 Palm Beach County guides: Sell an Inherited House in Palm Beach County, FL.
Neighboring counties: Sell a Distressed House in Broward County, FL.
If the Palm Beach 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.
See every Florida county we have a guide for: Florida county home-selling guides.