Your folio number tells you who makes the rules
Miami-Dade has 34 cities, towns and villages, and a very large area that belongs to none of them. On the Census Bureau's 2024 estimates, 43.5% of the county's people live in unincorporated Miami-Dade, where the county itself is the local government. In Broward the figure is under 1%.
The folio number settles it. It has 13 digits, and the first two are a municipal code: 02 is Miami Beach, 03 is Coral Gables, 30 is unincorporated. Look it up by address on the Property Appraiser's property search. The same record shows the lot size, the owner of record and the assessed value.
The tax bill and the deed stamps
The Miami-Dade Tax Collector mails the annual bills around 1 November, with a discount for paying early. Unpaid taxes become delinquent on 1 April, and a tax certificate can be sold on the lot from 1 June. A lot you do not live on gets no homestead exemption, so the full bill arrives every year.
Deed stamps are different here from every other Florida county. Miami-Dade charges 60 cents per $100 of the price plus a 45-cent surtax, so $1.05 per $100 in total. The surtax does not apply to a deed that transfers only a single-family home, so it is a vacant lot that pays it. On a $1,000,000 lot that is $10,500, against $7,000 in Broward. Your written offer from us says who pays it.
Seawalls: county permits, city heights
Any work in, on or over tidal water anywhere in Miami-Dade needs a Class I permit from the county's environmental regulator, DERM, under Chapter 24 of the county code. That covers a new seawall and most repairs to an old one, in every city.
The height a wall must reach depends on where the lot is. The County Flood Criteria map, effective 28 October 2022, sets a minimum top-of-seawall elevation of 6.0 feet NAVD88 unless the map shows higher. Miami Beach has its own ordinance: a new wall, or repairs costing $500 or more per linear foot, must reach 5.7 feet NAVD88. A cited Miami Beach owner must show progress within 60 days, apply for permits within six months and, if the work crosses that threshold, finish within 730 days.
Rules change and the thresholds are specific, so confirm anything that matters to you with the city or the county before you act on it.
Biscayne Bay, Government Cut and Haulover
Boats reach the ocean from Miami-Dade through two main inlets. Government Cut, at the Port of Miami, is a federal ship channel with a project depth of 52 feet from the sea buoy. Bakers Haulover Inlet, at the north end of the bay, had a controlling depth of 11 feet when the Coast Pilot last reported it (2008 to 2009), and the A1A bridge over it is fixed at 32 feet of clearance. A boat taller than that goes the long way round.
Inside the bay, the Julia Tuttle Causeway is the low point. Its main span over the Intracoastal is fixed at 56 feet, which NOAA's Coast Pilot gives as the lowest fixed-bridge clearance on the whole Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. On the Miami Beach Channel, the eastern spans of the Julia Tuttle and MacArthur causeways are fixed at 35 feet. The Intracoastal drawbridges at NE 163rd Street, Broad Causeway, 79th Street and the Venetian Causeway open to federal schedules set in 33 CFR 117.261.
Where the waterfront lots are
Waterfront lots here sit under many different local governments, which is why the seawall rules above vary so much. These are the areas we look at, grouped by who governs them.
- Miami Beach: Sunset Islands, Star Island, Palm and Hibiscus Islands, Di Lido, Rivo Alto and San Marino on the Venetian Causeway, La Gorce, Normandy Shores, Biscayne Point
- City of Miami: Morningside, Belle Meade, Shorecrest, Coconut Grove
- Coral Gables: Gables Estates, Cocoplum and the Gables waterways
- North Miami: Keystone Point, Sans Souci
- Their own towns and villages: Golden Beach, Bay Harbor Islands, Bal Harbour, Sunny Isles Beach, Aventura, Key Biscayne, Palmetto Bay
Flood zones
The FEMA flood maps in force in Miami-Dade date from 11 September 2009. New preliminary maps have been published, but until they take effect the 2009 maps set your zone and base flood elevation. Two zones are common on the waterfront: AE, where flooding is expected without significant waves, and VE, where waves are expected and building to code costs more.
Check your lot on FEMA's Map Service Center by address. For us the zone is a cost line in the rebuild, not a reason to walk away.