Illegal immigration is in the news in 2018, including legal status of adults and their minor children. Florida courts have considered immigration status in the context of Florida homestead protection. The Supreme Court said in 1963 that only legal Florida residents can own a protected Florida homestead property. The reasoning…
The Florida homestead exemption is Florida’s best known asset protection law. The exemption becomes more complicated, and more limiting, when it interacts with certain provisions of federal law. One example is federal tax law pursuant to which the IRS may place a lien on a taxpayer’s homestead to collect taxes….
A client lives in a Florida homestead which se owns jointly with a former girlfriend who has since moved to New York. Ownership on the deed is 2/3 to my client and 1/3 to his ex-girlfriend as tenants in common. My client has been paying the mortgage and taxes…
The Florida Supreme Court established in the Havoco case that equitable liens are an exemption from Florida’s homestead protection. A judgment creditor may be entitled to an equitable lien on the homestead for the amount of money obtained by fraud or other egregious actions a judgment and subsequently used to…
Many senior citizens use reverse mortgages on their homestead to fund their retirement living expenses. One caller asked whether money received as periodic payments under a reverse mortgage is protected from judgment creditors after the money is deposited in to the debtor’s bank account.
A client is planning to sell her Florida homestead and move to Texas where she would buy a new homestead property. She wants to know if sales proceeds from the Florida homestead is exempt in a segregated bank account while she is looking for a house in Texas. Texas also…
A caller said the local property appraiser took away her homestead tax exemption after neighbors complained the owner was renting rooms to tourist for short-term occupancy. The caller asks whether losing the tax exemption automatically deprives her home from homestead protection from creditors.
A client wants to operate a software business on his Florida homestead property located outside a municipality. He is concerned about asset protection. He wants to build a separate building on the property, near his house, to use as an office. He wants to know whether he should create an…
A client lived in a home titled in the name of his father’s living trust. The client had previously owned the home and then transferred the house to his father’s trust. The deed reserved to the client a life estate in the home that his father could terminate at any…
Some institutional loan documents suggest that that the debtor’s default entitles the creditor lender to a lien on the debtor’s homestead. Can you indirectly pledge your homestead to secure a guarantee of a commercial loan?
