1. Open the case before tracing anyone
Keep the county case number as your working ID. Open the clerk's docket and record the sale date, certificate of sale or disbursement, property address, plaintiff, and named defendants. Find the lis pendens and compare the owner named there with the deed or property appraiser record. A list labeled “former owner” can include the borrower, a prior seller, an LLC, or someone who never held title. Do not treat its name as verified just because it came from a county spreadsheet.
Write down the source URL, document date, name exactly as filed, and any spelling variation. Preserve the parcel ID and the owner's tax mailing address in separate fields. The property address locates the parcel; the mailing address may help distinguish the owner from a tenant.
2. If the owner is a person, find a contact candidate
Search the owner name together with the property and mailing addresses. A people-search result can return a spouse, adult child, former tenant and unrelated namesake at the same house. Compare name, age range, address history and dates before choosing a contact. A current phone linked to the property is not automatically the former owner's phone.
Keep every candidate's relationship label as a clue. “Possible relative” or “associated person” means exactly that. It does not say the person is an heir, can speak for the owner, or can claim funds. Check number status and applicable outreach rules before a campaign; a Do Not Call result does not grant consent.
3. If the owner may have died, move to estate records
An obituary can help you test identity and locate a death date, family names or a place of residence. It is a lead, not proof of death, relationship or entitlement. Match it against the owner you found in the court and property records. The same name in the same state is not enough.
For a Florida example, search the circuit court clerk's probate records in the county where the decedent was domiciled at death, which section 733.101(1)(a) sets as the venue. Domicile is not the same as the last mailing address, and a decedent with no Florida domicile falls under the separate rules in 733.101(1)(b) and (c), which can put venue where their property is. The clerk keeps the estate file. Note the probate case number, personal representative, filings and any court orders you can access. If the file is sealed, missing or ambiguous, stop and route it to a qualified reviewer. Do not turn an obituary's “survived by” list into a beneficiary list.
Florida's surplus statute distinguishes claims by the owner of record, subordinate lienholders and others; entitlement disputes can require an evidentiary hearing. Section 45.032(2) makes the owner of record presumptively entitled to the surplus after payment of subordinate lienholders who timely filed a claim, and that presumption is rebuttable. Read the condition carefully: it is payment of those lienholders, not merely the passing of their filing window. This is why step 1 is the anchor for the file: the name you can prove from the record is the one the statute starts with, and a competing claimant can still be heard. Timing changes the route. Under section 45.032(3)(c), surplus still held by the clerk one year after the sale is presumed unclaimed and is reported and remitted under chapter 717, unless a proceeding on entitlement is pending. Once it is remitted, only the owner of record the clerk reported, or a beneficiary of a deceased owner of record, is entitled to it. Record the sale date with each case so one near that mark is not worked as if the money were still with the clerk. A recovery team should have counsel review the case-specific claim route. Locate can help find a person to investigate or contact; it cannot decide who is legally owed the money.
4. If an LLC owned the property, prove the company match first
Copy the LLC name from the relevant property record and search the state's business registry. Compare document number where available, mailing or principal address, formation date, former names and filing history. When the same name belongs to two companies, keep both in review until evidence separates them. A mailing-address mismatch is a clue to investigate, not an automatic rejection.
Read the people on the matched filing by role. A manager or member may be a useful business contact; a registered agent accepts legal service and is not automatically an owner. If the manager is another LLC, follow that company record and show where the chain stops. Our Florida LLC walkthrough gives the detailed record method.
5. Carry the evidence into your worklist
For each case, keep columns for case number, parcel ID, owner name as filed, owner type, relevant record date, property address, owner mailing address, source links, candidate contact, match reason, DNC status and time, estate or entity review status, reviewer, and next step. Keep unknown values blank. Do not fill them with guesses to make a CSV look complete.
In Locate's surplus workflow, the county case number can stay with the row through review and export. You can compare the owner name with people found at the address and choose a contact, while associated people remain visible for review. This is contact research, not legal-heir research. The free CRM CSV checker can catch duplicate IDs and broken columns before import.
Sources and limits
- 2026 Florida Statutes 45.032. Subsection (1)(a) fixes the owner of record at the filing of the lis pendens; subsection (2) gives that owner a rebuttable presumption of entitlement after payment of subordinate lienholders who timely filed; subsection (3)(c) treats surplus still with the clerk one year after the sale as unclaimed and remitted under chapter 717, unless entitlement proceedings are pending. Checked October 8, 2026.
- 2026 Florida Statutes 733.101. Probate venue: subsection (1)(a) is the county of domicile, with nonresident cases in (1)(b) and (1)(c). Checked October 8, 2026.
- 2026 Florida Statutes 28.13. The clerk of the circuit court keeps and files the papers in each case. Checked October 8, 2026.
This is a Florida judicial-foreclosure research example for professional teams. County access, tax-sale rules, state law and case facts vary. It is not a claim instruction or legal opinion.