Finding the right parcel
We start from the property appraiser's parcel record, not from the street address. The legal description is used in the form the clerk indexes it, so a search for Lot 7, Block 691 of Port Malabar Unit 15 does not pick up Lot 7 of another unit.
A document makes it into the report only when it ties to this parcel, to its owners, or to a court case about them.
Searching the records
The clerk's index is searched several ways for every property:
- each owner's name in every spelling the index uses, back to the last real purchase;
- earlier owners, for liens that stay with the land after a sale;
- the legal description;
- book and page and instrument numbers found inside other documents;
- every case number named in the records, with its docket.
Reading the documents
Each document found is opened and read from the scan. A satisfaction, release or dismissal clears only the instrument it names by book and page or instrument number. A release that names a different mortgage clears nothing on this lot, even when the lender and the owner match.
Amounts come from the index where the clerk records them and from the scan where it does not.
Deciding what is still open
An item with no release can still be dead under Florida law. The report shows how long each kind of record lives and the date this one runs out.
| Record | Lives | Law |
|---|---|---|
| Mortgage | 5 years after maturity, or 20 years after recording when the maturity can't be read | F.S. 95.281 |
| Money judgment | 10 years, once more for 10 if re-recorded | F.S. 55.10, 55.081 |
| Lis pendens | While the case is open when it rests on a recorded instrument; 1 year otherwise | F.S. 48.23 |
| Code enforcement lien | 20 years unless the city sues to foreclose it | F.S. 162.09 |
| HOA claim of lien | 1 year to file suit on it | F.S. 720.3085 |
| Condo claim of lien | 1 year to file suit on it | F.S. 718.116 |
| UCC financing statement | 5 years unless continued | F.S. 679.515 |
| Federal tax lien | 10 years from assessment unless refiled | 26 U.S.C. 6502 |
When a source can't be read
The clerk is only part of it. Taxes, city fines, permits and utility bills live elsewhere, and every county publishes them differently. A site that is down, blocked or asks for a login is never treated as "nothing found". The report opens with a line naming the source and the account or case number to look up yourself.
What a report is not
A TitleClue report is a search of public records. It is not title insurance or an opinion of title. It does not cover what is never recorded or published online, such as a survey, boundary lines, unrecorded easements or work done without a permit. Before you bid, read the documents behind any line that matters to your price.