Unclaimed Surplus Funds Recovery

There may be a refund notice
with your name on it
no one delivered.

When a foreclosed home or tax-sale property sells for more than what was owed, the leftover money — called surplus funds, excess proceeds, or an overage — belongs to the previous owner or their heirs. Most never find out it exists. We do the work of finding it, verifying it, and helping you claim it.

Start my free case search How surplus funds work
$0upfront, ever
2 minto check eligibility
Attorneynetwork on judicial cases
UNCLAIMED
Notice of Surplus Proceeds
Foreclosure Sale Overage
Case TypeTax Deed Sale
Property Sold For$400,000
Debt Owed$50,000
StatusUnclaimed — 11 mo.
Amount owed to you $350,000
This is an illustrative example. Actual surplus amounts vary by case and are confirmed through public county and court records before any claim is filed.
The 30-second version

The county keeps what it's owed. The rest is legally yours.

When a homeowner falls behind on property taxes or defaults on a mortgage, the county or lender can foreclose and sell the property at auction. But they're only entitled to keep what they were actually owed — not a penny more.

If the winning bid comes in higher than the debt, that difference is called the surplus, and by law it belongs to the previous homeowner, or their heirs if they've passed away. Depending on which state and county you're in, that same money gets called different things — excess proceeds, excess funds, an overage, an overbid, or surplus money. They all mean the same thing: money left over from the sale of your home that was never returned to you. Here's roughly how the math plays out on a typical case:

Property sells at auction for$400,000
− Back taxes / debt owed to county$50,000
Surplus owed to the homeowner$350,000

The catch: the county mails a notice to the address that was just foreclosed on. The owner isn't living there anymore, the letter goes nowhere, and the county has neither the budget nor the obligation to track anyone down. That's the gap we work in.

How it works for you

Three steps, and about two hours of your time from start to finish.

01 / SEARCH

We find your case

We monitor county tax sale and foreclosure auction records to identify properties that sold for more than the debt owed — and trace who's entitled to the difference.

02 / VERIFY

We confirm every detail

Before we ever contact you, we verify the sale, check that no one else has already filed a claim, and check for other liens against the property, using county and court records.

03 / CLAIM

You get paid

We walk you through a simple agreement, file the claim directly or route it through our attorney network when the county requires it, and you receive your funds once approved.

Why this isn't a scam

We know exactly how this sounds. Here's how we prove it.

✦ No upfront fees, ever

We're paid a percentage of the funds we recover for you, and only once you're actually paid. If there's no recovery, you owe us nothing.

✦ Every claim comes with proof

We show you the auction sale results, the county surplus list, and the underlying court or county documents — not just our word for it.

✦ Licensed attorney network

For judicial foreclosures and probate cases, we route your claim through attorneys who specialize in surplus fund recovery in your state.

✦ You can verify us independently

Search the case yourself in the public county record. We'll point you to exactly where to look before you sign anything.

Your State's Law

This isn't a sales pitch. It's written into your state's law.

We detected your general location to show you the actual statute that entitles you to surplus funds where you are. No account, no personal info needed.

Detecting your state…

Statute lookups are provided for general information, not legal advice — the exact procedure depends on your county and case type. We verify every claim against the current code and county record before filing.

Frequently asked

Common questions about claiming surplus funds

How do I know if I'm owed surplus funds?+
If your home was sold at a tax sale or foreclosure auction and it sold for more than you owed, there's a good chance a surplus exists. You wouldn't necessarily know — the county mails the notice to the foreclosed address, which you've usually already left. The only way to be certain is to check the county and court record for the actual sale amount against the debt. That's the free case search we do; you can also request the sale results from the county yourself.
Is surplus funds recovery a scam?+
Surplus funds are real and the claims process is written into state law — but this field does attract bad actors, so the skepticism is fair. Warning signs to watch for with any company: asking for money upfront, pressuring you to sign immediately, refusing to show you the county documents proving the surplus exists, or not telling you plainly what percentage they take. You can always verify a claim yourself by contacting the county clerk or checking the public court record, and you're free to file on your own without paying anyone.
What's the difference between surplus funds, excess proceeds, and overages?+
Nothing — they're regional names for the same money. Counties and state statutes use different terms: "excess proceeds" is common in California and Texas, "excess funds" in Georgia, "overage" or "overbid" in other places, and "surplus funds" in Florida and much of the country. If you've seen any of these terms on a county notice, it refers to the leftover money from your property's sale.
How much of the surplus do you keep?+
Our fee is a percentage of the funds actually recovered, typically in the 15–30% range depending on the complexity of the case and whether an attorney is required. You'll see the exact rate in writing before you sign anything, and you pay nothing if we don't recover funds.
What if I'm the heir, not the original homeowner?+
Surplus funds pass to the estate when the original owner has passed away, which usually means a probate process. We work with our attorney network to handle these cases correctly.
How long does it take to actually get paid?+
It varies by county and whether the case is judicial or non-judicial, but most claims resolve in a few months once filed. We'll give you a realistic timeline specific to your case before you commit to anything.
Can't I just file the claim myself for free?+
In many cases, yes — and we'll tell you that upfront if your case is simple enough to file yourself. We're most useful when the case requires tracking down the county record, an heir search, a lien check, or an attorney for a judicial or probate filing.
Get started

Tell us about the property. We'll tell you what we find.

What happens after you submit

We check public county and court records for a matching sale, confirm no one else has already filed, and check for competing liens. There's no cost and no obligation for this step.

If we find a case, we'll call or email you directly, walk you through exactly what we found, and show you the underlying documents before asking you to sign anything.

About Us

The people behind North Star

Solan (Sol) Kano

Solan (Sol) Kano

Co-Founder

Sol got into this after running across the same story over and over: someone's home sold at auction for way more than they owed, and the difference just sat there because no one ever told them it existed. That never sat right with him. He taught himself how to read county tax rolls and court dockets, and he still does most of the case-checking himself — cross-referencing every sale against the record before anyone on the team makes a call — because he'd rather tell someone the truth up front than get their hopes up over a case that doesn't hold up.

Mahilet (Molly) Sayed

Mahilet (Molly) Sayed

Co-Founder

Molly leads how North Star actually talks to people — and that's harder than it sounds, since most clients' first instinct is that this has to be a scam. She built the process for walking someone through their case calmly and in plain language, documents in hand, so that by the time they sign anything they understand exactly what's being claimed, why, and what happens next.