The Six Offices That Now Matter to You
When a Miami-Dade house lands in your hands, you inherit its paperwork along with its keys. Six public offices each hold a piece of that paperwork. The Property Appraiser decides what the county thinks the home is worth and which tax breaks apply. The Tax Collector sends the bill. The County Recorder keeps the deed. Code enforcement watches the lawn, the fence, and the permits. The County Commission writes the rules, and the zoning maps say what the property may be used for. None of them will call you. Each of them has a deadline or a fine that keeps running whether or not you knew about it.
One question shapes almost everything below. Is the property inside one of Miami-Dade’s more than 30 cities, or in the unincorporated part of the county? Inside a city, that city handles code enforcement and zoning. Outside city limits, the county handles both. If you are not sure, the county’s free map tools (linked in the zoning section below) answer it in seconds. And if you are reading this because someone died, start with our calm first-steps guide to what to do when a parent dies in Florida, then come back here for the Miami-Dade specifics.
The Property Appraiser: Exemptions and the March 1 Deadline
Here is the trap that catches more inheriting families than any other. The homestead exemption belonged to the person who lived in the house, not to the house itself, and it does not ride along to a new owner at death. If nobody tells the Property Appraiser and the tax break quietly stays on a home that no longer qualifies, Florida law lets the office collect up to ten years of wrongly exempted taxes, plus a 50 percent penalty and 15 percent interest per year. The fix costs nothing. Notify the office after the death, and let whoever actually lives there apply fresh.
The office, led by Property Appraiser Tomas Regalado, explains the benefit on its homestead exemption page. The exemption removes up to about $50,000 from the assessed value of a permanent Florida residence, and it brings the Save Our Homes cap with it, which holds assessment increases to 3 percent a year no matter what the market does. Applications are due March 1 and can be submitted through the office’s online filing portal. Miss March 1 and a late window runs until the deadline printed on the August TRIM notice, with a small fee, but the clean path is to file on time.
After a death, the rules sort people into three groups. A surviving spouse or a dependent who was already living in the home can generally keep the benefits. An heir who moves in and makes the home their permanent residence must qualify on their own and file by March 1. An heir who rents the home out or leaves it empty gets no exemption at all, and leaving the old one in place is what triggers the back taxes above. One more tool is worth knowing. A widow or widower who sells and downsizes can carry up to $500,000 of accumulated Save Our Homes savings to the next Florida home, using the portability application described on the office’s portability page, filed within three tax years of leaving the old homestead. And remember that homestead in Florida means far more than a tax discount; it also controls who may inherit the home and what creditors can touch, which we explain in our guide to Florida homestead law.
Property Taxes, the TRIM Notice, and the Discount Calendar
Property tax billing in Miami-Dade changed hands recently. Since January 2025 the Tax Collector has been an independent elected office rather than a county department, currently held by Dariel Fernandez, with its own website at mdctaxcollector.gov for bills, payments, and receipts.
The year runs on a fixed rhythm. In August the Property Appraiser mails the TRIM notice (the Notice of Proposed Property Taxes). It is not a bill, and many people throw it away, which is a mistake. It shows the value the county has placed on your property, the exemptions applied, and the taxes each authority proposes. If the value looks wrong, or an exemption you deserve is missing, you have 25 days from the mailing date to file a petition with the Value Adjustment Board through the Clerk’s Value Adjustment Board section. Miss the window and you generally wait a full year for another chance.
The bill itself arrives around November 1, and paying early is rewarded with 4 percent off in November, 3 percent in December, 2 percent in January, 1 percent in February, and the full amount through March 31. On April 1 the taxes go delinquent, and on June 1 the Tax Collector can sell a tax certificate, which is an investor paying the tax in exchange for interest against your property. Left unpaid long enough, roughly two years, that certificate can push the property toward a tax deed sale. If you are the personal representative (the person the court appoints to settle an estate) or the trustee, keeping the taxes current is one of your first duties, because the discount calendar and the delinquency calendar both keep moving while the estate is open.
Recording a Deed in the Official Records
Every deed, mortgage, lien, and judgment affecting Miami-Dade land lives in the Official Records, kept by the Clerk of the Court and Comptroller, Juan Fernandez-Barquin. You can search the Official Records online for free, and your first stop should be the current deed. How the deceased held title, alone, jointly, or through a deed that names a beneficiary, decides almost everything about what happens next.
When you have a document to record, the County Recorder gives you three routes. You can record in person at the Osvaldo N. Soto Miami-Dade Justice Center, by mail to the Office of County Recorder, 20 NW 1st Avenue, Suite 5.246, Miami, FL 33128, or electronically through an approved e-recording vendor, which returns the recorded image within about 36 to 48 hours. Recording costs $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page, with certified copies at $1 per page plus $2 for the certification. Deed transfers may also owe documentary stamp tax, and Miami-Dade is the one county with its own rate of 60 cents per $100 of consideration plus a 45 cent county surtax that does not apply to single-family residences, where the rest of Florida pays a flat 70 cents.
Many estate transfers are recording jobs rather than court cases. If the deceased signed a lady bird deed, for example, the home passed automatically at death, and clearing title mostly means recording the death certificate and supporting paperwork. But if the deed named the deceased alone, no amount of recording fixes it; the property must usually pass through probate first, because the recorder will not turn a stranger into an owner.
Code Enforcement, Hearings, and How Liens Attach
A vacant inherited house is a magnet for citations. Grass grows, a fence leans, a pool goes green, a work permit the deceased pulled years ago sits expired, and an inspector writes it all up whether or not the new owner has ever seen the property. The fines that follow can run daily, and on a house nobody is watching they compound quietly for months.
Who enforces depends on the map. In unincorporated Miami-Dade, the county’s Consumer and Neighborhood Protection division enforces the county code, reachable through the county’s 311 Contact Center, and you can look up open enforcement cases in the county’s Regulation Cases search. Inside the City of Miami, the Code Compliance Department handles it at 305-416-2087. In Miami Beach, the Code Compliance Department at 1680 Meridian Avenue answers at 305-673-7555. Every other municipality runs its own office through its city hall.
The process looks similar everywhere because Florida law sets the framework. The owner gets a written notice and a chance to fix the problem. If it is not fixed, the case goes to a hearing, in the cities typically before a special magistrate (a lawyer appointed to decide code cases), and in the county’s own system before a hearing officer, with hearings scheduled through the Clerk’s Code Enforcement section by Zoom or in person and a 20-day window to appeal a county citation. The order that follows can impose a fine that accrues daily until the violation is cured.
Here is the part that matters most to an heir. Once that order is recorded, it becomes a lien on the property itself, and county penalties can also attach to other property the violator owns. The lien does not care that the violation happened on someone else’s watch; it follows the land into your hands, it blocks permits and licenses while unpaid, and after a year it can be foreclosed. The playbook is the same in every jurisdiction. Cure the violation first, because a fixed property is the ticket to any reduction, then deal with the accrued fines, and run the Official Records search plus a case search before you list the property for sale, so the lien surprises you in month one instead of at the closing table.
Inherited a Miami-Dade property and not sure what is lurking on it?
In a free 30-minute consult we look at how the property is titled, what the estate needs, and what to check before you spend a dollar on it.
Book your free consultFollowing the County Commission (and Your Commissioner)
The rules that govern your property are not fixed. A rezoning two blocks away, a special assessment on your street, a change to vacation-rental rules. All of it happens at the Board of County Commissioners, thirteen members each elected from a district. The commission’s page lists all thirteen and includes a lookup to find yours, which is worth doing once, because a call from a constituent in the district carries more weight than most people expect.
Miami-Dade publishes its legislative work through its own Legislative Information Center, a county-built system rather than a third-party portal. You can search every legislative item going back to June 1996, with full text and its complete history, and agendas post four business days before each meeting, with minutes available in draft form two to three days after. Two features do the watching for you. A free email subscription delivers commission and committee agendas to your inbox, and a webcast carries every Board and committee meeting live, with an archive for anything you missed. If an item touches your property, search it by address or topic, note the item number, subscribe, and watch the vote from your kitchen table.
Looking Up Ordinances and Zoning
The laws themselves are free to read. The Miami-Dade County Code of Ordinances is published on Municode, and the City of Miami’s code lives there too, at its own Municode library. Each of the county’s other municipalities publishes its own code, so the rules about fences, rentals, noise, and lot maintenance can change at a city line you cannot see from the street.
Zoning follows the same split. For unincorporated properties, the county’s Zoning and Development Services online tools let you pull a parcel by address or folio number and see its zoning district, and the county’s GIS portal gathers the map applications that show boundaries, flood zones, and whether the parcel sits inside a city at all. Inside a city, zoning questions go to that city’s planning department. Before you rent the property out, add a structure, or list it as a short-term rental, spend ten minutes here; the zoning district and any open permits on file decide what the property can legally do, and surprises in this department tend to arrive as the code enforcement cases described above.
When Property Meets an Estate
Every office on this page assumes one thing, that you have legal authority over the property. That is the piece most families discover last. If the deed named the deceased alone, the exemption filings, the deed recordings, and the sale all wait until a probate court hands someone that authority. If the home passed by survivorship or a lady bird deed, most of this guide is yours to act on today. Our overview of inheriting a house in Florida walks through which situation you are in, and our guide to probate in Miami-Dade covers the local courthouse, the costs, and how we handle it remotely so you never need to fly in.
We help personal representatives, trustees, and heirs get the title right, keep the deadlines, and plan the property’s next chapter so the following generation skips probate entirely. Our fees are flat and posted on the pricing page, and the first conversation is free. Bring the deed, or just the address; we can pull the rest.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Homestead Exemption Transfer When the Owner Dies?
No. The exemption belonged to the person who lived in the house, not to the house itself. It generally stays in place through the end of the year of death, and then the new owner must qualify on their own. A surviving spouse or a dependent who was already living in the home can usually keep the benefits, but an heir must move in, make it their permanent home, and file their own application with the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser by March 1. If the old exemption is quietly left on a home that no longer qualifies, Florida law allows the office to collect up to ten years of back taxes plus a 50 percent penalty and 15 percent annual interest. Telling the office about the death is free; not telling them is expensive.
How Do I Record a Deed in Miami-Dade County?
Through the County Recorder section of the Clerk of the Court and Comptroller. You can record in person at the Osvaldo N. Soto Miami-Dade Justice Center, mail the original document to the Office of County Recorder at 20 NW 1st Avenue, Suite 5.246, Miami, FL 33128, or use an approved e-recording vendor, which returns a recorded image within about 36 to 48 hours. Recording costs $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page, and deed transfers may owe documentary stamp tax depending on the consideration. Miami-Dade has its own rate of 60 cents per $100 plus a 45 cent county surtax that does not apply to single-family residences.
When Are Miami-Dade Property Taxes Due?
Bills go out around November 1 and can be paid through March 31 of the following year. Paying early earns a discount, 4 percent in November, 3 percent in December, 2 percent in January, and 1 percent in February. On April 1 the taxes become delinquent, interest and fees are added, and on June 1 the Tax Collector can sell a tax certificate on the property. If the debt stays unpaid for roughly two years after that, the certificate holder can push the property toward a tax deed sale. Taxes do not pause while an estate is being settled, so keeping them current is one of the first jobs of a personal representative or trustee.
How Do I Find Out if an Inherited Property Has Code Violations or Liens?
Start with two free searches. Search the property address and the owner’s name in the Clerk’s online Official Records, where recorded code liens, mortgages, and judgments appear. Then check for open enforcement cases. The county publishes a Regulation Cases search for unincorporated Miami-Dade, and each city’s code office can tell you about open cases inside its limits. Before selling, most title companies will also order a municipal lien search, which asks the county or city directly about open violations, unpaid fines, and unrecorded charges. Finding a problem early is far cheaper than finding it at closing.
Who Handles Code Enforcement for the Property I Inherited?
It depends on where the property sits. In unincorporated Miami-Dade, the county’s Consumer and Neighborhood Protection division enforces the county code, and you can report or ask about a property through the county’s 311 Contact Center. Inside a city, that city’s own office handles it, whether that is the City of Miami’s Code Compliance Department at 305-416-2087, the Miami Beach Code Compliance Department at 305-673-7555, and each of the county’s other municipalities through its own city hall. If you are not sure whether the property is inside a city, the county’s free GIS maps will tell you.
How Do I Watch a County Commission Item That Affects My Property?
Through the county’s Legislative Information Center at miamidade.gov/govaction. You can search every legislative item going back to June 1996 with its full text and history, read agendas that post four business days before each meeting, and sign up for a free email subscription so commission and committee agendas arrive in your inbox. Meetings are webcast live and archived, so you can watch a rezoning, assessment, or ordinance item without driving downtown. If you want to speak with your own commissioner, the county elects thirteen of them by district, and the commission page has a lookup to find yours.
Do I Need Probate Before I Can Sell an Inherited House in Miami-Dade?
It comes down to how the deed was written. If the home was held jointly with survivorship rights, or the deceased signed a lady bird deed naming you, clearing title is mostly a recording job, a death certificate and the right paperwork, no court case. If the deed named the deceased alone, the home usually must pass through probate before anyone has authority to sell it, and the Official Records will not accept a deed from someone who does not yet own the property. A short review of the recorded deed answers the question, and that is exactly the kind of thing we sort out in a free consult.
Common Situations
The exemption nobody removed. A daughter in Pembroke Pines inherited her mother’s Westchester house and rented it out, and the homestead exemption stayed on the tax roll for three years. When the Property Appraiser caught it, the bill came with the penalty and interest attached. A single notification after the funeral would have avoided all of it, and unwinding it took far longer than the call would have.
The vacant house and the running fine. A son in Georgia let his father’s Kendall house sit empty during probate. Overgrowth and an unsecured pool drew county citations, the daily fine ran for months, and a lien hit the Official Records before he knew the cases existed. He cured the violations, attended the hearing, and resolved the accrued fines, but the payoff came out of the sale proceeds. A 311 case check in month one would have cost him nothing.
The widow who carried her savings with her. A widow sold the family home in Palmetto Bay and bought a smaller condo nearby. Because she filed her homestead application and the portability request by March 1, decades of Save Our Homes savings moved with her, and her new tax bill reflected the low assessed value she had earned, not the condo’s market price.
Sources of Law
- Local government code enforcement, special magistrates, running fines, and code liens: Fla. Stat. ch. 162, via Online Sunshine. Miami-Dade County’s own enforcement track (civil citations, hearing officers, liens): Miami-Dade County Code ch. 8CC, via Municode. Documentary stamp taxes on deeds: Fla. Stat. ch. 201. (retrieved 2026-08-12)
- Homestead exemption, portability, and TRIM figures verified at the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser (miamidadepa.gov); recording methods and fees at the Clerk of the Court and Comptroller (miamidadeclerk.gov); the property tax calendar at the Miami-Dade Office of the Tax Collector (mdctaxcollector.gov); code enforcement contacts at miamidade.gov, miami.gov, and miamibeachfl.gov. (retrieved 2026-08-12)
Updated on August 12, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate and tax planning, business structuring, and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. General information about Miami-Dade offices and Florida law, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Offices, fees, and deadlines change; confirm current details with the office or with us at a free consult.