Florida foreclosure surplus — the 12% fee cap you can't legally exceed.
Florida caps assignments of foreclosure surplus at 12% of proceeds under Fla. Stat. §45.033(3)(a). Calculate the ceiling on a real claim, see where a 25% contract puts you at risk, and get the disclosure language that has to accompany every assignment.
Statutory cap: 12% of surplus proceeds
What Fla. Stat. §45.033 actually says
Under Fla. Stat. §45.033, an assignee of foreclosure surplus funds may receive no more than 12% of the surplus proceeds as compensation, and the assignment must include the statutorily required disclosure language stating the owner does not need an attorney to recover surplus themselves.
A February 2026 appellate ruling in National Equity Recovery Services, Inc. v. Amerifund Equity Group spotlighted a statewide standard-form assignment quoting a 12% base plus an additional 7.5% in costs — the court flagged that the effective fee stack pushed past the statutory ceiling and that the required disclosure was missing.
How the SurplusEdges compliance engine handles this
- Every proposed assignment is measured against 12% of the surplus proceeds before it can leave the platform.
- The disclosure block required by §45.033(3)(a)2 is auto-inserted; assignments without it are blocked from e-signature.
- 60-day filing deadlines are tracked per case, with alerts as the window closes.
Real parcel & identity data
Leads matched against an owned parcel/owner/identity spine, not a rented or scraped county list.
Fee-cap & deadline enforcement
Automated, state-specific compliance checks — a feature SurplusFundsList does not offer at any tier.
Lower price
Every tier undercuts the closest SurplusFundsList equivalent (as of Aug 2026) — without cutting the feature set.
SurplusEdges vs. SurplusFundsList
Same category of product — leads, CRM, skip-trace — but built on different foundations. Here's the feature-by-feature breakdown.
Swipe to see the full comparison →
| Capability | SurplusEdges | SurplusFundsList |
|---|---|---|
| Top-tier monthly price | $899/mo | $1,299/mo |
| Nationwide lead access | $349/mo | $499/mo |
| Entry-level single-state tier | $79/mo | From $170/mo |
| Lead data source | Proprietary parcel / owner / identity spine | Rented or aggregated county-list data |
| Pipeline / CRM | Included | Included |
| Skip-traced contacts | Included | Included |
| Attorney directory | Included | Included ("The Vault") |
| E-signature workflow | Included | Included |
| Automated state fee-cap enforcement | Included — Elite tier | Not offered |
| Automated filing-deadline tracking | Included — Elite tier | Not offered |
| Contract required | No — cancel anytime | No — cancel anytime |
| Setup fees | None | None |
SurplusFundsList pricing and features verified directly from surplusfundslist.com/pricing and surplusfundslist.com/compare/excess-elite.
Three tiers, each undercutting the SurplusFundsList equivalent
Subscribe now or join the waitlist for early-access updates. No bundled "free seats" gimmick that hides the real per-seat price — one number, cheaper, every tier.
Single-state lead access, matched against a real parcel/owner/identity spine.
- One state, full historical surplus data
- Skip-traced claimant contacts
- Built-in CRM & pipeline
All-state lead access plus the same spine-based match quality.
- Every applicable state, unlimited search
- Attorney directory
- Skip-trace + e-signature workflow
Everything in Pro, plus automated fee-cap and filing-deadline enforcement — a feature SFL does not offer at any tier.
- State-by-state fee-cap enforcement
- Auto-computed filing deadlines
- Everything in Pro
Leads get you the claim. Compliance is where operators actually get caught.
A Florida appellate concurrence flagged potential fee-cap and disclosure issues
Florida's fee-cap statute limits surplus-fund assignments to 12% of proceeds. In a February 2026 appellate ruling, a concurring opinion reviewed a surplus-fund recovery firm's standard-form assignment and observed that the fee structure — 12% plus up to 7.5% for costs — may exceed the statutory cap, and that the mandatory "no attorney needed" disclosure required under Fla. Stat. §45.033(3)(a)2 appeared to be missing. The majority did not rule on these issues; the observations appear in a special concurrence.
"12% of the surplus proceeds, plus up to 7.5% additional... for costs, expenses, research fees, and attorney's fees." — standard-form assignment language quoted in National Equity Recovery Services, Inc. v. Amerifund Equity Group, Fla. 6th DCA (Feb. 6, 2026) (concurring opinion)
This is exactly the failure mode the Elite tier's compliance engine is built to catch automatically, before a contract ever goes out — flagging fee stacks that exceed a state's cap and confirming the required disclosure language is present.
What SurplusEdges checks automatically
Everything you already rely on in SurplusFundsList — matched or exceeded
Pipeline & CRM
Full deal-stage tracking, notes, and task automation — same workflow you already run claims through today.
Skip-traced leads
Claimant contact data resolved against a proprietary identity graph, not a bolted-on third-party lookup per lead.
Attorney directory
Vetted attorney network for states that require licensed counsel to file the court or county paperwork.
E-signature
Send and track assignment agreements for signature without leaving the platform.
What's the maximum fee you can charge on a real claim?
Pick a state and enter a surplus amount. We'll show you the statutory cap and compare it to the 25%+ contract most operators still send. This is the same engine that runs inside the Elite tier.
Get on the SurplusEdges launch list.
We're onboarding operators state by state, starting with Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia. Reserve your seat and lock in launch pricing.
No contracts, cancel anytime once you're paying. We'll only email you launch and pricing updates — never sell the list.
Sources
- SurplusFundsList pricing table — surplusfundslist.com/pricing
- SurplusFundsList Reserve-tier feature comparison — surplusfundslist.com/compare/excess-elite
- Florida foreclosure-surplus fee cap and disclosure requirement — Fla. Stat. §45.033, Online Sunshine
- Standard-form surplus-fund assignment language, quoted in appellate concurrence — National Equity Recovery Services, Inc. v. Amerifund Equity Group, Fla. 6th DCA (Feb. 6, 2026)
- North Carolina property-finder and special-proceeding fee caps — N.C.G.S. §116B-78, Justia
- Georgia DOR-held unclaimed property fee cap — O.C.G.A. §44-12-224(d)(1), Justia
- New Jersey escheated unclaimed-property fee caps — N.J. Legislature bill text amending R.S. 46:30B-106
- Colorado public-trustee and state-treasurer custody fee rules — HB16-1090 summary, Colorado General Assembly