Tax sale glossary
Legal access (landlocked)
A parcel has legal access if it touches a public road or has a recorded easement to reach one. A parcel with neither is landlocked: you have no legal right to cross a neighbor’s land to reach it, which can cut its value to almost nothing. Checking access is the first and most important due-diligence step at a tax deed sale.
Go deeper: Due diligence before a tax sale.
Related terms
- Tax deed
- The instrument that conveys a property sold at a tax deed auction. Winning a tax deed can give you ownership, but it does not come with clean, insurable title, so a quiet title action is often needed before resale.
- ACH (bank transfer)
- Automated Clearing House: the electronic bank-to-bank transfer most auction sites use to collect deposits and final payments. ACH is not instant. Counties typically require your deposit to clear several business days before the sale, so funding late can lock you out of bidding.
- Easement
- A recorded legal right to use part of someone else’s land for a specific purpose, most often to cross it for access or utilities. A recorded access easement is what keeps an otherwise-landlocked parcel usable; the absence of one is a red flag when buying land at a tax sale.
- Bid-down-interest
- A lien-sale auction format where bidders compete by accepting a lower interest rate rather than paying more. The auction starts at the statutory maximum and the rate is bid down; the lowest rate wins. Florida uses this method, starting at 18 percent.
Tax Sale Atlas publishes educational information about public tax sale processes. This is not legal, financial, or investment advice. Rules, dates, and fees change; confirm with the county office before you bid.
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