Last updated October 21, 2026

Selling a House in Chapter 7 in Florida: When the Trustee Sells

Short answer: When a Chapter 7 case is filed, the house becomes property of the bankruptcy estate, and the Chapter 7 trustee, not the homeowner, decides whether it is sold. A qualifying Florida homestead is protected with no dollar limit, so trustees often leave it alone. Second homes, rentals and homes with unprotected equity are what trustees sell, with court approval.

A trustee sale uses a broker the court has approved and needs a court order for the sale itself. If you want to sell your own house during a Chapter 7, talk to your bankruptcy attorney first.

Informational purposes only. This is not legal or tax advice and no attorney-client relationship is created by reading it. PBP Real Estate, LLC is a licensed Florida real estate brokerage (License CQ1064615), not a law firm. We list and sell real estate; we do not advise on debts, on whether or how to file, on exemptions or on the bankruptcy case itself. Ask your bankruptcy attorney about your situation.

Can I sell my Florida home during Chapter 7?

Not on your own while the trustee still controls it. Filing a Chapter 7 case creates a bankruptcy estate that includes your interest in real property. The trustee's job is to find property that is not exempt and turn it into money for creditors. Property that is exempt, or that the trustee abandons, stays with you, and once the trustee no longer has an interest you can sell it like any owner.

Florida's homestead protection comes from the state constitution. It has no dollar limit, but it does have size limits: up to one-half acre of contiguous land inside a municipality, or up to 160 contiguous acres outside one. Federal law adds a cap: under 11 U.S.C. 522(p), for cases filed from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2028, the protection for a home acquired within 1,215 days before filing is limited to $214,000, with exceptions, including equity rolled over from an earlier Florida home.

Whether your home qualifies, and for how much, is a legal question. Your bankruptcy attorney answers it, ideally before the case is filed.

When does the trustee sell the house?

When there is equity the exemptions do not protect. The trustee starts with what the property would sell for, then subtracts the mortgage, recorded liens, property taxes, association balances, costs of sale and any exemption that applies. If what is left is worth the effort of a sale, the trustee sells; if not, the trustee usually abandons the property back to the owner.

The properties trustees most often sell in South Florida are second homes, rental houses and condos, vacant lots, and homesteads that fall outside the protection because of size, ownership or the federal cap. A trustee can ask the court to sell free and clear of liens under section 363(f), with the liens paid from the sale price at closing.

What happens if the trustee lists my second home or rental?

The trustee is the seller, and you are asked to cooperate. Under 11 U.S.C. 521(a)(3) a debtor must cooperate with the trustee, which normally means keys, access for photographs and showings, the leases and the association contacts. Tenants keep the rights their leases give them; a sale does not end a lease by itself.

If you want to keep the property, there are sometimes options, such as an offer for the trustee's equity. Those are negotiated between the trustee and your attorney, not with the trustee's broker. If you own a property the trustee may sell and want it priced first, the bankruptcy property information form is confidential. If the trustee goes ahead, the broker's job is to get the property in front of the widest pool of buyers so the estate, and in some cases you, receive the most the market will pay.

What does a trustee's broker do?

Nothing until the court approves the employment, then everything a careful listing needs, documented for the court. The trustee files an application to employ the broker with the broker's verified statement of connections to the debtor, creditors and other parties (Rule 2014). After the employment order the broker secures and photographs the property, prices it, markets it, keeps a log of every offer and supports the trustee's sale motion with the executed contract and a written opinion of value prepared by hand.

We do this for trustees across Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie; the details are on our page for bankruptcy trustees and attorneys. We do not prepare the application, the motion or the order. The trustee's counsel does.

What happens to the money from a trustee sale?

Liens first, then any exemption, then the estate. At closing the title company pays the mortgage, recorded liens, taxes, association balances and the costs of sale, including the commission as approved by the court. If part of the equity is exempt, that amount is paid as the order directs. The rest goes to the estate, and the trustee distributes it to creditors under the Bankruptcy Code. The order approving the sale controls every line of the closing statement.

Related

• Selling a house in a Florida bankruptcy: the hub
• Selling a house during Chapter 13
• Selling a house after your bankruptcy case closes
• The bankruptcy home sale, step by step
• For bankruptcy trustees and attorneys

Published by Gia Freer, Broker of Record, PBP Real Estate, LLC · Florida broker license BK689801 · brokerage license CQ1064615. Last updated October 21, 2026.