Search Certificates

GET /api/v1/certificates/search

Search Florida tax certificates (tax liens) aggregated from county tax-collector certificate-sale portals (LienHub, RealAuction / RealTaxLien, TaxCertSale, WFBS, county-local). Filter by county, certificate status, tax year, holder, source vendor, face-amount range, sale-date range, and whether the certificate has been redeemed.

A tax certificate is a first lien against a parcel for unpaid ad-valorem taxes — it is not ownership of the property and does not convey title. These records describe the lien and its auction/redemption lifecycle, not a transfer of title.

Authentication

curl -H "X-API-Key: fltc_test_..." \
  "https://fltaxcerts.com/api/v1/certificates/search?county=polk&tax_year=2023&status=sold&face_min=1000&limit=10"

Query Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
query	string (1-200 chars)	no	—	Free-text match on certificate number, parcel id, owner, or address.
county	string | string[]	no	—	County slug(s). Repeatable or CSV.
status	enum	no	—	One of available, advertised, sold, redeemed, lands_available, tax_deed_applied, cancelled.
tax_year	integer	no	—	Tax year the certificate was issued for (e.g. 2023).
holder	string (≤200 chars)	no	—	Certificate holder / fund name (contains match).
vendor	string (≤80 chars)	no	—	Source vendor (lienhub, realauction, taxcertsale, wfbs, county-local).
face_min	number	no	—	Minimum face amount.
face_max	number	no	—	Maximum face amount.
sale_after	date (YYYY-MM-DD)	no	—	Only certificates with a sale date on/after this date.
sale_before	date (YYYY-MM-DD)	no	—	Only certificates with a sale date on/before this date.
redeemed	boolean	no	—	true/false — only redeemed (or unredeemed) certificates.
sort	enum (face_desc, face_asc, year_newest, sale_date_desc)	no	—	Result ordering.
limit	integer 1-500	no	25	Page size.
offset	integer ≥ 0	no	0	Pagination offset.

Response (200)

List envelope { data: Certificate[], pagination, meta }.

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "cert_7a3f29b1",
      "certificate_number": "2024-04821",
      "county_slug": "polk",
      "county_name": "Polk",
      "parcel_id": "262813-000000-012345",
      "tax_year": 2023,
      "status": "sold",
      "face_amount": 3512.44,
      "delinquent_amount": 3284.17,
      "interest_rate": 5.25,
      "sale_date": "2024-06-01",
      "holder_id": "hld_3c19a7",
      "holder_name": "MAGNOLIA TAX FUND LLC",
      "vendor": "lienhub",
      "redeemed": false,
      "redeemed_date": null,
      "redemption_amount": null,
      "tax_deed_application_date": null,
      "owner_name": "DOE JANE",
      "site_address_full": "456 ORANGE AVE, LAKELAND FL 33801",
      "parcel_url": "https://floridapropertyapi.com/parcels/polk/262813-000000-012345"
    }
  ],
  "pagination": { "limit": 25, "offset": 0, "total": 1, "has_more": false },
  "meta": { "request_id": "req_1234567890abcdef12345", "dataset_status": "live" }
}

interest_rate is the winning bid rate (Florida certificates are bid down from 18%; 0 means a zero-interest bid). The parcel_url deep-links to floridapropertyapi.com for owner, valuation, and parcel-geometry detail. Coverage varies by county — see Sources for per-county feeds, and Field Dictionary for every field.

Error Responses

Status	Code	Cause
400	bad_request	Invalid query parameters.
401	unauthorized	Missing or invalid API key.
429	rate_limited	Rate limit exceeded.
500	internal_error	Server error — retry with backoff.