You Just Became Responsible for a St. Johns Property
Maybe a parent died and the house in St. Augustine is now yours to look after. Maybe the court appointed you personal representative (the person who runs a Florida estate), or you stepped up as trustee of a family trust holding a place in Ponte Vedra, Nocatee, World Golf Village, or out along the county road toward Hastings. However it happened, you are now the person the county expects to hear from, and the county is not one office. It is at least four, and none of them compares notes with the others.
The Property Appraiser decides what the property is worth on paper and which exemptions apply, across more than 183,000 parcels. The Tax Collector sends the bill and, eventually, auctions a lien if it goes unpaid. The Clerk on Lewis Speedway holds the deed that says who owns the place. And the city, or the county for property outside city limits, watches the condition of the house.
One warning before you start dialing. St. Johns has grown fast enough that a good deal of the information floating around about it is out of date, including who holds office. Several directory sites and older articles still name a former Tax Collector. Use each office’s own site for names and numbers rather than a search result, and be especially wary of anything arriving by email that claims to be a county office writing about a property.
If the house itself is the question, our guide to inheriting a house in Florida covers the ownership side, including who takes title, when probate is needed, and the routes around it. This page covers the offices.
The Property Appraiser: Homestead, Portability, and Deadlines
The St. Johns County Property Appraiser, Eddie Creamer, CFA, has led the office since 2017. His staff appraises more than 183,000 parcels of real and tangible property and administers more than 120,500 personal exemptions, which tells you something about the shape of this county. It holds a very large number of ordinary homeowners, most of them recent.
Start with the hard truth about the homestead exemption. It does not transfer when the owner dies. The exemption belonged to the person, not the house. In most cases the property is reassessed after the owner’s death, and the Save Our Homes cap that held the assessment down resets. A surviving spouse, or a dependent who already made the home their permanent residence, may be able to keep protections in place; ask the appraiser’s office before assuming either way. How Florida’s homestead rules protect the home itself is a separate topic, covered in our guide to Florida homestead law.
Coasting is also dangerous. If the roll keeps showing an exemption the new owners do not qualify for, Florida law lets the appraiser record a lien for the back taxes plus a 50 percent penalty for each year and 15 percent annual interest.
This office publishes the exact TRIM mail date, which is worth using.
Most counties say TRIM notices go out “in August.” St. Johns announces the day. In 2025 the office said it would mail 2025 TRIM notices to property owners on August 15. That matters because Florida law allows a late homestead application only up to 25 days after the notices are mailed, and the deadline to challenge your assessment is printed on the notice itself. So here you can put a real date in the calendar instead of guessing at “sometime in September.” Watch for the current year’s announcement, because the date can move.
The timely deadline is still March 1, and filing then rather than at the edge is the better plan. If you moved into an inherited St. Johns home and made it your permanent residence, file now. If you are also making Florida your legal home, the homestead filing pairs naturally with a declaration of domicile recorded with the Clerk; our St. Johns County declaration of domicile guide walks through it.
Portability lets a Florida homeowner carry accumulated Save Our Homes savings, up to $500,000, to a new homestead within the statutory window, and it moves your own savings when you move rather than carrying a decedent’s savings to an heir. Beyond homestead, the office administers additional exemptions including those for seniors meeting an income limit, widowed spouses, veterans, and people with disabilities.
Property Taxes, and the Line an Exemption Never Touches
The bill comes from the St. Johns County Tax Collector, Jennifer Ravan. Bills go out in November on Florida’s standard schedule, with early payment discounts of 4 percent in November, 3 percent in December, 2 percent in January, 1 percent in February, and none in March. The deadline is March 31, taxes become delinquent April 1, and after that the balance carries interest and advertising costs and moves toward a tax certificate sale, which Florida law requires to be held on or before June 1. A certificate is a first lien, and after two years the holder can apply for a tax deed sale of the property itself.
The part of the bill an exemption will not reduce.
A very large share of housing in this county sits inside a community development district, and the assessments that come with one appear on the same November bill as the property taxes without being property taxes at all. They are non-ad valorem assessments, they generally repay the infrastructure the community was built on, and no homestead exemption reduces them by a dollar. Families handling an inherited home in one of the newer master-planned areas get surprised twice, once when the Save Our Homes cap resets and the taxable value jumps, and again when they learn that a meaningful slice of the bill was never going to move. If you are deciding whether to keep or sell, work from the actual bill rather than an estimate built out of the millage rate.
Every August the Property Appraiser mails the TRIM notice, which is not a bill but is the year’s most important preview, showing the new assessed value, the exemptions still on the roll or newly missing, each taxing authority’s proposed rate, and the hearing dates. Read it rather than filing it. Two practical moves either way. Keep the taxes current even while probate is pending, and make sure the mailing address on the tax roll reaches a living person, which is fixed through the Property Appraiser’s office rather than the Tax Collector’s.
Official Records: Deeds, Recording, and the Fraud Alert
St. Johns deeds, mortgages, liens, and other official records are kept by the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, whose Official Records office is at 4010 Lewis Speedway in St. Augustine, at 904-819-3600. Florida clerks post the same statutory recording fee statewide, $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page, and Florida’s documentary stamp tax of 70 cents per $100 of consideration is collected at recording.
Before you record anything, pull what is already there. Find the prior deed and read it, because how the decedent actually held title decides everything that follows. A home owned jointly with survivorship rights passes outside probate, a home held in a trust follows the trust, a lady bird deed already named who takes, and a home in the decedent’s sole name is headed to court. There is a small piece of good news specific to a fast-growing county. On a house built in the last twenty years the chain of title is usually short and clean, which makes this evening’s search quicker than it would be on an older parcel. That is not true of the county’s historic core, where a St. Augustine chain can run a very long way back.
While you are in the records, search the owner’s name for mortgages, judgment liens, and recorded code enforcement orders; they all live in the same index. Then register for the Clerk’s free property fraud notification, which alerts you when a document matching a registered name is recorded. A vacant house whose owner’s death is public record is exactly what a deed forger looks for, and families usually discover a forged deed only when a sale falls apart. Register the decedent’s name and your own the same week you take over.
Code Enforcement and the Lien Trap
This is the section that saves estates the most money, because it is the trap nobody warns heirs about. Florida’s code enforcement law gives cities and counties a fast administrative track for property violations. An officer cites the property, the owner gets a deadline to fix it, and if nothing happens the case goes before a code board or a special magistrate who can order compliance and impose fines of up to $250 a day for a first violation and $500 a day for a repeat violation. A certified copy of the order is then recorded, where it becomes a lien on the property and on other real and personal property the violator owns. These liens cannot be foreclosed against a constitutional homestead, but an inherited house sitting empty usually is not anyone’s homestead anymore, which is exactly the problem.
Who to call depends on where the property sits.
- Unincorporated St. Johns. This is most of the county, including Ponte Vedra, Nocatee, World Golf Village, and Julington Creek. The county’s Code Enforcement office sits within Growth Management and answers at 904-209-0734 or [email protected]. The county also publishes a guide to code enforcement that is worth ten minutes if a notice has arrived.
- City of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach. Each runs its own code office under the same state framework. In the historic city, additional rules apply to buildings in the historic districts, and those are not the county’s rules.
- Before you list. Request the building, permit, and code file. The county takes those requests at [email protected]. Open permits on work done years ago are a common and expensive surprise at closing, and in a county that has been building this fast they are more common than usual.
Here is the judgment call. Never ignore a code notice because the estate is still in probate. Show up, explain the situation, and ask for time; magistrates deal with estates constantly. Then fix the violation, because compliance is what stops the daily accrual, and a complying owner is in a far stronger position to negotiate the accrued balance. If a lien has already been recorded and a sale is coming, deal with it early; it will not evaporate at closing.
Inherited a St. Johns property and not sure which fire to put out first?
That is what the free consult is for. In 30 minutes we will sort the deadlines that matter from the ones that can wait, and tell you plainly whether you need probate at all.
Book your free consultThe County Commission and Your Property
St. Johns is governed by a five-member Board of County Commissioners, and in a county that has spent two decades as one of the fastest-growing in Florida, its land use votes are the ones that visibly change neighborhoods. The millage votes each fall set the county’s share of the rate on the November bill. Rezonings, new district approvals, school and road capacity decisions, and impact fee changes all pass through the same agenda, and around here they arrive next door rather than across the county.
Agendas, backup materials, and meeting information are published on the county’s own site at sjcfl.us ahead of each meeting, and the county also publishes a who do I call directory that is genuinely useful when you are not sure which office owns a problem. If you are managing a property here from out of state, the agenda is how you find out what is coming before it arrives. The county’s iMap covers roughly 229,000 parcels with boundaries and land data, which pairs well with an agenda item that names a parcel you do not recognize.
Ordinances, Zoning, and the Association Layer
Every rule that binds your property lives in a published code, and in St. Johns there are usually two layers rather than one.
- St. Johns County. The county Code of Ordinances on Municode, alongside the county’s land development code, administered by Growth Management.
- Cities. St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach publish their own codes, and the historic districts carry additional review requirements.
- The private layer. Most of the county’s newer housing sits inside a homeowners association, a community development district, or both. Those documents are recorded, they bind the property, and they are enforced by an organization that is not the county. Restrictions on rentals, vehicles, exterior work, and even landscaping standards frequently live there rather than in any ordinance, which is why a family managing an empty house from another state can receive a letter from an authority they did not know existed.
So before you rent an inherited house out to cover the carrying costs, read both layers. Short-term rental limits in this county come as often from the private documents as from a code, and the enforcement mechanisms are different. When either text is ambiguous for your plans, ask in writing before you spend money on the assumption.
When Property Meets an Estate
Everything above is about managing the property. Underneath it sits the harder question. Who legally owns it now? The offices in this guide cannot answer that. Ownership passes by deed, by trust, or by a probate case, and until it passes cleanly, the property cannot be sold, refinanced, or often even insured properly.
The prior deed you pulled from the Clerk’s records tells you which road you are on. If the home was in the decedent’s sole name, it almost certainly needs probate in St. Johns County, and we handle the court work remotely for families anywhere; start with our Florida probate guide. If a trust or a survivorship deed holds title, the path is shorter but still has paperwork worth doing right. Our guide to inheriting a house in Florida walks the routes side by side, and if the estate is small enough there may be a shorter road entirely, which our guide to Florida summary administration explains.
And if this guide is teaching you what your own family would face someday, the cheapest moment to fix that is now. A lady bird deed passes a Florida home automatically at death, no probate, no court, for a flat $399 plus recording, while you keep full control for life. One recorded document today spares your family this entire page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Is the St. Johns County Tax Collector?
Jennifer Ravan, and this is worth stating because plenty of directory sites, older articles, and printed material still name a predecessor. If you are working from a search result or something you found in a parent’s files, check the office’s own site at sjctax.us before you rely on a name or a number. That is good practice everywhere, and it matters more when you are handling an estate from out of state and cannot walk in to check. The same caution applies to phone numbers generally, so use the office’s own published contact information rather than a third-party listing, and be especially careful with anything that arrives by email claiming to be from a county office about a property.
When Exactly Do TRIM Notices Go Out in St. Johns County?
The Property Appraiser publishes a specific date, which is unusual and useful. In 2025 the office announced it would mail TRIM notices to property owners on August 15. That date matters more than it looks, because Florida law lets you file a late homestead application only up to 25 days after the TRIM notices are mailed, and it also sets the deadline printed on the notice for challenging your assessment. So in a county that publishes the mail date, you can put the real cutoff in your calendar rather than guessing at "sometime in September." Watch for the current year’s announcement, since the date can move.
Why Is the Tax Bill Higher Than the Homestead Exemption Explains?
Because a large share of St. Johns housing sits inside a community development district, and the assessments that come with it appear on the same November bill as the property taxes without being property taxes at all. They are non-ad valorem assessments, they generally pay for the infrastructure the community was built on, and no homestead exemption reduces them by a dollar. Families handling an inherited home in one of the newer master-planned areas are frequently surprised twice, once when the Save Our Homes cap resets and the taxable value jumps, and again when they discover that a meaningful slice of the bill was never going to move regardless. If you are deciding whether to keep or sell, get the full bill rather than an estimate built only from the millage rate.
Does the Homestead Exemption Transfer When I Inherit a House in St. Johns County?
No. The exemption belonged to the person, not the house, and it does not ride along to you. In most cases the property is reassessed after the owner’s death and the Save Our Homes cap resets. If you plan to make the home your permanent residence, you must qualify and file your own application with the St. Johns County Property Appraiser, and the deadline is March 1. Florida law allows a late application only up to 25 days after the TRIM notices are mailed, and this office publishes that mail date, so the final cutoff is knowable rather than approximate. If the roll keeps showing an exemption nobody qualifies for, Florida law lets the appraiser lien the property for the back taxes plus a 50 percent penalty for each year and 15 percent annual interest.
Where Do I Record a Deed in St. Johns County?
With the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller. The Official Records office is at 4010 Lewis Speedway in St. Augustine, and it answers at 904-819-3600. Florida clerks post the same statutory recording fee statewide, $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page, and Florida’s documentary stamp tax of 70 cents per $100 of consideration is collected at recording. Deeds carrying no purchase price, like many estate distributions, usually owe only a minimal stamp, though a mortgage on the property can change that math. Before you record anything, make sure the deed does what the estate actually needs; recording a flawed deed creates a public problem that costs far more to unwind than it did to create.
Who Handles Code Violations on a St. Johns County Property?
For property outside a city, the county’s Code Enforcement office, which sits within Growth Management and answers at 904-209-0734 or [email protected]. The county publishes a guide to how its process runs, which is worth reading if a notice has arrived. Building, permit, and code records can also be requested from the county at [email protected], and that is the request to make before you list an inherited property, because open permits are a common and expensive surprise at closing. Inside the City of St. Augustine or St. Augustine Beach, that city runs its own code office instead. Either way the fines can reach $250 a day for a first violation and $500 a day for a repeat one, and a recorded order becomes a lien on the property and on other property the violator owns.
Common Situations
The bill that would not shrink. A daughter inherited her mother’s home in one of the master-planned communities and filed for her own homestead exemption as soon as she moved in, expecting the bill to return to something like what her mother had paid. It did not, for two reasons. The Save Our Homes cap had reset, and a substantial part of the bill was a district assessment that no exemption touches. Neither fact was hidden. Both were on the bill she had not read line by line.
The permit nobody closed. A family preparing to sell a Ponte Vedra house learned three weeks before closing that a lanai enclosure done years earlier had an open permit. Requesting the building and code file at the start would have surfaced it while there was time. In a county that has been building at this pace, open permits are ordinary, not exotic.
The name from an old file. A son working from his father’s papers called a number for a Tax Collector who no longer holds the office, then spent a week convinced the county had lost the account. Offices change hands; the office’s own site is the source that stays current.
Sources of Law and Official Sites
- Florida’s code enforcement framework: Fla. Stat. ch. 162, including §162.09 (fines up to $250 per day for a first violation and $500 per day for a repeat violation; a recorded certified order "shall constitute a lien against the land on which the violation exists and upon any other real or personal property owned by the violator"; no foreclosure of such a lien against constitutional homestead). (retrieved 2026-08-13)
- Homestead filing deadlines and late filing: Fla. Stat. §196.011 (March 1, and late applications up to 25 days after the TRIM mailing, which is why this county’s published mail date is worth watching). Improperly claimed exemption: §196.161. (retrieved 2026-08-13)
- Tax schedule: Fla. Stat. §197.162 (early payment discounts) and §197.432 (tax certificate sale on or before June 1). Documentary stamp tax on deeds: §201.02. Community development districts and the non-ad valorem assessments they levy are creatures of Fla. Stat. ch. 190; whether a particular parcel is inside one, and what it is assessed, is shown on that parcel’s own tax bill. (retrieved 2026-08-13)
- Official offices relied on for this page: the St. Johns County Property Appraiser (parcel and exemption counts, and the announced 2025 TRIM mail date of August 15), the St. Johns County Tax Collector, the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller for Official Records at 4010 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine, 904-819-3600, St. Johns County Code Enforcement and its guide, the county site at sjcfl.us including its who do I call directory, and the county code on Municode. Verified August 13, 2026. One caution worth repeating. Several third-party directories still list a former Tax Collector for this county. This page names the officeholder the office itself publishes. Where any name, number, or date here differs from the office’s own current page, the office controls.
Updated on August 13, 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 Florida law and St. Johns County offices, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Offices, fees, and deadlines change; verify against the linked official sources, and bring your specific facts to a free consult.