Kenst, I understand your frustration and you are right that this feels unfair.

In practice, recovering administrative fees in Florida is very difficult, even when a sale is cancelled due to a clerk error. Clerks usually take the position that those fees are earned once the sale process runs, so they refund the bid amount but keep the fees. That’s the standard response you’ll get almost everywhere.

Your situation is a bit stronger than usual because the cancellation order was already on the docket before the auction. That means the sale should never have gone forward. Still, clerks rarely refund fees on their own unless they have a court order telling them to do so.

A judge will not speak directly with you about this. If the court gets involved, it has to be through a formal filing in the case asking for relief, which is also the only way you would have any chance, even if small, of addressing the fees.

What I would do first is push the clerk in writing, attach proof that the cancellation was entered before the sale, and ask for the refund timeline. That usually helps move the money faster. If they stall or refuse to address the fee issue, then hiring a local foreclosure attorney may make sense, but mainly if the amount is worth the time and cost.

This is not legal advice, just an opinion based on experience. For anything definitive, consulting a Florida attorney is always recommended.

Hi Kenst,

This does happen, unfortunately, and the Clerk’s inefficiency after the pandemic is usually what pulls bidders into situations like this.

In a cancelled auction, the proper and standard procedure is an immediate formal notice telling the winning bidder not to pay the balance, followed by the refund of the deposit once the cancellation is processed in the system. That used to be the normal and legally correct behavior before the pandemic. Since then, many Clerk offices have become slower and less coordinated, and situations like this have become far more common.

Once the Clerk was aware that the auction had been cancelled, they should have acted right away to stop the payment process and initiate the deposit refund. When that doesn’t happen, and you are still being instructed to pay despite the cancellation, the safest response is always to ask for that instruction in writing. Something as simple as asking them to confirm in writing that payment is still required on a cancelled sale often forces an internal double-check. If they insist and you pay, that written confirmation becomes strong evidence that helps push the refund process forward (It could be as simple as email communications).

As for timing, two months is unfortunately realistic. It can be faster, but given current court and administrative delays, two months is not excessive by today’s standards. Judicial systems move slowly, and Clerks even more so since the pandemic.

Administrative fees are usually non-refundable, and that part is true. You can try to push back, and from a fairness standpoint you are right, but according to most Clerk manuals and internal regulations, they are allowed to retain those fees even when the auction is cancelled.

I would not recommend hiring an attorney at this stage. Legal fees and the time involved will likely cost more than any benefit, especially since you should eventually receive your funds back. An attorney only starts to make sense if the Clerk becomes completely unresponsive or the refund stretches far beyond what would be considered a reasonable delay.

Disclaimer: This is not legal advice and I am not an attorney, just sharing an opinion based on experience. For anything definitive, consulting a qualified attorney is always recommended.

Thank you for your reply @Fernando Alonso. Is there anything that I can do to recover administrative fees? Would judge accept to talk to him/her to talk about this? According to the docket, the cancellation order was posted before the auction but the clerk posted that the sale was not cancelled around half an hour after the sale. It is clear that it is the clerk's fault not to cancel the sale on time. It is so unfair to pay the fees in a case that is caused completely by the clerk's fault.