How a surplus funds claim works

Before we ever call you

Foreclosure and tax sales are public. We monitor the records — substitute trustee's deeds, sale prices, and county excess-proceeds deposits — and work backward to figure out which sales produced money above the debt.

By the time we reach out, we have usually already estimated the payoff, checked what else was recorded against the property, and formed a view of what is realistically claimable. That is why the first conversation is short and specific rather than a sales pitch.

Stage one — the free claim review

You confirm the property and roughly when it sold. We confirm you are the person with the right to claim, or identify who is.

We then give you three things in plain language:

• What the property sold for and what was owed against it
• What we believe is actually recoverable after competing claims
• Whether the file is simple, or complicated by heirship or a lienholder

If the answer is that there is nothing worth chasing, we say so. That happens, and we would rather tell you in week one than string it out.

Stage two — documentation and the agreement

Claims fail on proof, not on merit. Before anything is filed we assemble the record a judge will want to see: identity, chain of title, the death certificate and heirship record if the owner has passed, and the sale documents themselves.

You then sign one engagement letter. It states the fee as both a percentage and, where the recovery is known, a dollar figure. It states that you owe nothing if nothing is recovered. It does not ask you for a deed, an assignment of the funds, or a power of attorney over anything but the claim itself.

Stage three — the attorney files

Overage Desk is not a law firm. A licensed Texas attorney reviews the file, prepares the petition, files it in the county holding the funds, gives notice to everyone entitled to it, and appears at the hearing.

If a junior lienholder or another claimant has filed against the same money, that is resolved here. It is the single most common reason a claim takes longer than expected, and it is also the reason having counsel on the file matters.

Stage four — disbursement

When the court signs the order, the clerk disburses the funds. The fee comes out of the recovery exactly as your agreement states. You receive the balance, a copy of the signed order, and a written accounting showing every dollar.

What we need from you

• Confirmation of the property and approximate sale date
• Government-issued identification
• Anything you already have from the sale — notices, letters, the trustee's deed
• For a deceased owner: the death certificate and what you know of the family
• A signature on the engagement letter, and one on the claim documents

That is the whole list. You do not attend the hearing unless the court asks for you, and you never advance a dollar.