Code liens on overgrown property: what owners should know
A code case that’s left open can end up as a lien recorded against the land. Here’s how that happens in Hillsborough and Pasco, how to check a property for one, and where payoffs and releases are handled.
By Pinewood Property Services · Checked against official pages October 2026
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A lien comes at the end of an open case.
Florida’s code enforcement law, chapter 162 of the Florida Statutes, lets counties and cities enforce their codes through a code enforcement board or a special magistrate. When an order sets a date to fix a violation and that date passes, the board can fine the owner for each day it continues.
A certified copy of the fine order can then be recorded in the public records. From that point it’s a lien on the land, and on other property the violator owns. Under the statute, the fine keeps adding up until the property complies or a court enters judgment.
There’s a second route, too. Some local codes let the government mow or clean up a lot itself, or hire a contractor, and bill the owner. If that bill isn’t paid, it can become a lien.
This guide sticks to what official pages say. It isn’t legal advice, and it can’t predict how any one case will turn out.
Each office has its own route to a lien.
The counties and the cities don’t follow one process, so read the one that matches your notice. If you’re not sure which office sent it, our notice guide explains how to tell.
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Unincorporated Hillsborough
An open case can go to the Code Enforcement Board or a Special Magistrate. They can set daily fines, and a recorded fine order becomes a lien in the county’s favor. On vacant or abandoned property, the county’s Property Preservation Program can have the work done instead and lien the unpaid cost.
Hillsborough County Notices -
Unincorporated Pasco
If a notice’s deadline passes, the county, or a contractor it hires, can correct the condition itself. The cost, a penalty, fees and interest are then assessed as a special assessment lien, with the same priority as county property taxes. A citation is also possible.
Pasco County Notices -
City of Tampa
When the city abates a condition after an order, it bills the owner, who can challenge the bill in writing. An unpaid bill becomes an abatement assessment lien. Fines from Tampa’s board and special magistrates can become liens as well.
Tampa Notices -
Other Cities
Zephyrhills, Dade City and Plant City can each have an overgrown lot cleaned up and lien the unpaid cost. Plant City and Temple Terrace also have code boards whose recorded fines become liens.
City Code Notices
How to find out whether there’s a lien.
Recorded liens sit in the county Clerk’s official records, next to deeds and mortgages. Both Clerks offer an online search: Hillsborough’s and Pasco’s. City liens land there too. Tampa records its liens in Hillsborough’s official records, and Zephyrhills files its lien claims with Pasco County’s.
Hillsborough County spells out its own steps on its lien settlement page. First, confirm the owner of record with the Property Appraiser. Next, search the address in the county’s code case search and open each case to see whether a lien is noted. Then confirm the lien in the Clerk’s records.
In Tampa, code lien searches go through an outside service linked from the city’s lien search page. Dade City takes lien search requests through its public records portal.
Pasco County’s 311 help pages send detailed lien questions to the Pasco Clerk & Comptroller. Anywhere else, ask the office named on the notice, or have a title company run a search.
The work comes before the paperwork.
Hillsborough County’s lien page is plain about it: “Any property must be in compliance before lien release or settlement can occur.” Its code agrees. The board, a magistrate or county staff can reduce, satisfy or settle a fine once compliance is reached.
Temple Terrace takes a similar line with buyers. In an arm’s-length sale, a buyer can sign a compliance agreement that sets a reduced amount, as long as the violations are fixed by the agreed date. Until they are, the lien keeps growing.
So if the grass, brush or debris is still on the lot, that’s where to start. Mowing and brush hogging get a starting price online, and debris or other cleanup is priced after a look. You can start either one in the quote tool and tick the code-notice box as you go.
Keep your own record once it’s done. Dated before-and-after photos and the invoice show when the property was brought back into shape.
Where to ask, and what each office says.
In Hillsborough County, a payoff request goes in writing to the county’s lien settlement mailbox, and it doesn’t need an application. To ask for a reduction, the owner or an authorized representative sends a signed, notarized settlement application to the same mailbox. Other routes, it warns, will slow things down.
Homesteaded property may get hardship consideration, for example for financial hardship, active duty or veteran status, age or a medical issue. Supporting documents are required. Once payment is received and verified, it issues a release of lien.
Tampa’s payoff letters come through its lien search page. Settling a board or special magistrate lien there follows a written city policy, and property bought at a tax deed sale isn’t eligible for a negotiated settlement.
In Temple Terrace, the city’s legal department handles reductions and settlements, and applications go to the city clerk. The city can then sign a satisfaction or release of the lien.
Florida law lets a board reduce a fine, and lets the local government sign a satisfaction or release. Whether a lien qualifies is that office’s call. For Pasco County and the other cities, start with the office on the notice.
Two rules worth knowing about.
Chapter 162 lets a board authorize foreclosure, or a suit for the money, once a fine lien has gone unpaid for a set time. It also says no lien created under that part can be foreclosed on a homestead. A lien for the cost of mowing a lot may rest on a local code instead, so ask a lawyer how that applies to yours.
Selling during an open case has rules of its own. Before the sale, the seller must tell the buyer about the case in writing, hand over the papers, and explain that the buyer becomes responsible. The code office has to be told about the sale as well.
Skipping the disclosures to the buyer creates a rebuttable presumption of fraud. Either way, selling doesn’t end the case: it carries on, and the new owner gets a reasonable time to fix the violation. Tampa’s lien page sums it up: “The owner of record has the responsibility of resolving any active code action.”
When to call a lawyer or a title company.
What’s here is the general process. It can’t tell you what you owe, whether a lien is valid, or how it’ll affect a sale or a refinance. Those are questions for a Florida real estate attorney or a title company.
An appeal of a board’s final order goes to circuit court, it’s limited to the record, and the window to file is short.
What a lawyer can’t do is mow the lot. In Hillsborough, a lien can’t be released or settled until the property complies, so the legal side and the work often run side by side.
Fix the property first. That part’s yours.
Most of a lien’s paperwork sits with the office and the Clerk. Getting the property back into shape is the step you control, and it’s where Pinewood comes in. We mow overgrown lawns and lots, brush hog land gone to tall grass and brush, and haul off exterior debris.
Send us the address, tick the code-notice box in the quote tool, and add the deadline if there is one. We’ll agree on a price and a date with you, and you pay after the work’s done. When it’s finished, we send before-and-after photos with the date.
Pinewood isn’t connected to any county or city office. We can’t settle a lien, close a case or speak to an office for you, so that stays between you and whoever sent the notice.
Open case or lien? Start with the address.
Send the case number or deadline if there is one, and a photo if you have it. You’ll hear back within one business day, and the price is confirmed once we’ve seen the property, in person or from your photos.
Just got a notice? Our notice guide covers what to do before the deadline.
Overgrown Property Notice