Selling a Florida house with code violations, open permits or code liens

Can you sell a house with code violations in Florida?

Yes. Florida law does not stop you from selling a house with code violations, open permits or code liens. What changes is who fixes the problems, who pays the fines, and what you must tell the buyer.

• An open code case. A code officer has cited the property, for example for an overgrown yard, a damaged roof or work done without a permit.
• A code lien. A board or magistrate ordered daily fines, and the order was recorded against the property.
• Permit problems. A permit never closed, a permit that expired before final inspection, or work that never had a permit.

A buyer's title company orders lien searches from the city or county, and a buyer with a loan faces lender and inspection demands too. That is why houses with code problems often sell as-is to cash buyers, or sell after the owner fixes what is cheap to fix.

How does code enforcement work in Florida?

Under chapter 162 of the Florida Statutes, an inspector gives notice and a reasonable time to fix the problem. If it is not fixed, a code enforcement board or special magistrate holds a hearing and can order daily fines that become a lien once recorded.

1. Complaint or inspection. An inspector cannot open a case from an anonymous complaint unless there is an imminent threat to health or safety (Fla. Stat. 162.06).
2. Notice. The owner gets a reasonable time to correct the violation. Repeat violations and serious threats can go straight to a hearing.
3. Hearing. A code enforcement board or special magistrate decides whether a violation exists and sets a deadline (Fla. Stat. 162.03).
4. Fines. After the deadline, fines can run daily: up to $250 a day for a first violation, $500 for a repeat, and $5,000 for one that cannot be undone. A county or city with 50,000 or more people can raise those to $1,000, $5,000 and $15,000 by ordinance (Fla. Stat. 162.09).
5. Lien. A recorded fine order becomes a lien on the land with the violation and on other property the violator owns. Fines keep adding up until the owner complies.
6. Collection. After 3 months unpaid, the government may foreclose or sue for a money judgment, but it cannot foreclose a code lien on a homestead. A code lien lasts up to 20 years unless a court action extends it (Fla. Stat. 162.10).

How are code liens found, paid or reduced when you sell?

The title company orders lien searches, gets a payoff letter, and pays the lien from the sale money at closing. If the fines are large, you or the buyer can often ask the local government to settle for less once the property is in compliance.

1. Search. Each government runs its own lien search, with its own fee and turnaround (see the county section below).
2. Payoff letter. It states the amount owed and is good for a set time. Tampa's is valid for 45 days.
3. Fix, then settle. Most programs require the violation to be fixed first. The board can weigh how serious it was, what the owner did to fix it, and past violations (162.09).
4. Closing. The title company pays the agreed amount, and the government records a release of lien.

Fine reduction is never automatic, and each government does it differently:

• City of Tampa. Under Executive Order 2022-16, once a homestead property is in compliance, fines may settle for $250 to $1,000, depending on how long the fix took; other properties for $500 to $5,000. The city's own cleanup costs are not negotiable. A New Owner Program lets an arm's-length buyer of a property still out of compliance negotiate if they fix it by a set date.
• Pinellas County. The property must be in compliance, though a potential new owner of a property that is not can also apply. The fee is $300, and a Special Magistrate signs the reduction (how to request a lien reduction). In 2021 the county announced caps of $20,000 per violation for single-family homes in unincorporated areas (news release); ask whether that cap applies to your lien.
• Hillsborough County. A staff Lien Settlement Team decides. The property must be in compliance and the application notarized; replies usually take 7 to 10 business days, and you have 30 days to pay an offer. Hardship review is for homesteaded properties (lien settlement).
• St. Petersburg. The Code Enforcement Board hears reduction or release requests on a notarized application, and will not reduce liens on properties with active violations (Codes Enforcement).
• Clearwater and Pasco County. We did not find a published reduction process for either one online as of October 2026, so call Code Compliance and ask.

Can you sell a house with unpermitted work or open permits in Florida?

Yes. Florida requires a permit to build, alter, repair or demolish a building, with some exceptions (Fla. Stat. 553.79). Open, expired and missing permits do not stop a sale, but buyers and lenders often want them closed out first or the price adjusted.

• Open or expired permit. The work never passed final inspection. You usually close it by scheduling the final inspection or renewing the permit, often with the original contractor. Pasco permits, for example, are valid for 6 months, and expired ones are extended or closed by written request (Pasco Building Construction).
• Very old permits. A building department may close a permit 6 years after it was issued, even without a final inspection, if it finds no apparent safety hazard (553.79).
• A past owner's open permit. A building department cannot deny a permit to, cite or fine an arm's-length buyer solely because a previous owner's permit was never closed. It can still pursue the old owner and contractor (553.79).
• Unpermitted work. An inspector or appraiser may spot it, such as an enclosed garage or an added bathroom. Options usually include a permit after the fact (which can mean opening walls for inspection), removing the work, or pricing it in.
• Owner-builder work. Owners can pull their own permit to improve a home for their own use. Selling within 1 year after the work is done creates a legal presumption that it was built for sale, which breaks the owner-builder rule (Fla. Stat. 489.103).

Search the local permit portal by address to see a property's permit history (links in the county section). Some older records are not online; Hillsborough County keeps its 1976 to 2004 permit records offline.

What do you have to disclose, and can you sell a condemned house?

Disclose any pending code case in writing, and tell the buyer about known problems they cannot easily see. A condemned or unsafe house can still be sold, but the order and any cost liens stay with the property until they are resolved.

A pending code case. If you transfer the property after being served and before the hearing, you must tell the buyer about the case in writing, give them copies of the case papers, tell them in writing they will be responsible for fixing the violation, and notify the code office of the new owner within 5 days. Skipping the written disclosures creates a rebuttable presumption of fraud, and the case does not end with the sale (Fla. Stat. 162.06(5)).

Known defects. Florida courts require a home seller to disclose known facts that materially affect the value and that the buyer cannot readily see (Johnson v. Davis, 1985, as summarized in a Florida House staff analysis). An as-is sale changes who makes the repairs, not what you know. Ask a Florida real estate attorney what to disclose for your house.

Unsafe or condemned buildings. Pinellas County, Hillsborough County and St. Petersburg each say they can condemn unsafe buildings, and Hillsborough says it can also demolish dangerous ones. The City of Tampa posts a list of condemned properties under demolition review. When a government repairs, secures or tears down a building itself, it can charge the owner, and that cost can become part of a lien (162.09). The price for a condemned house has to reflect the cost to repair or demolish it.

Fix, settle, list or sell as-is: which option fits?

If the fixes are small and the fines are low, fixing and closing out usually leaves you the most money. As the repairs, fines or permit problems grow, selling as-is starts to make more sense.

To compare what a cash sale would leave you with what listing might, see our cash offer vs. listing comparison.

Where do you check code cases, liens and permits in Tampa Bay?

Code enforcement is local. Pinellas and Hillsborough counties handle only unincorporated areas, and cities such as St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Tampa run their own, so check with the government where the house actually sits.

Because a fine order becomes a lien when it is recorded, code liens also show in each county Clerk's Official Records. Search by the owner's name, for example in Hillsborough's Official Records search.

How does Tao Home Buyers handle a house with code problems?

We buy houses as-is in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco, including ones with open code cases and fines, and we work them out with the city or county.

We are the end buyer: Tao Builders LLC buys in its own name and closes at a licensed title company, and we do not assign or wholesale contracts. Earnest money goes to the title company the same day you sign (or the next business morning if you sign after hours). Our proof of funds is a letter from our lender.

We can close in as few as 10 days when the title is clear, and you pick the closing date. Our cash offer will usually be below what the house would sell for fully repaired, and code problems are part of the reason; if the fixes are small, closing them out yourself and listing may leave you more. Matan, the owner, has bought houses around Tampa Bay for 4 years and has personally bought more than 50. He is a licensed Florida real estate sales associate with Jay Alan Real Estate, buying for his own company as a principal, not as anyone's agent.

Sources

Official sources we checked for this page. Rules change, so confirm anything important with the source or a Florida attorney.

1. Fla. Stat. 162.06, code enforcement procedure and sale during a case (Florida Senate)
2. Fla. Stat. 162.09, fines and liens (Florida Senate)
3. Fla. Stat. 162.10, duration of code liens (Florida Senate)
4. Fla. Stat. 553.79, building permits (Florida Senate)
5. Fla. Stat. 489.103, owner-builder exemption (Florida Senate)
6. Florida House staff analysis, CS/CS/HB 1049 (2024), seller disclosure duties (Florida Senate)
7. Executive Order 2022-16, code lien settlement (City of Tampa)
8. Lien search and payoff letters (City of Tampa)
9. How to request a lien reduction (Pinellas County)
10. Code enforcement lien settlement (Hillsborough County)
11. Codes Enforcement (City of St. Petersburg)
12. Lien search requests (City of Clearwater)