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 has unlimited homestead exemption.
The concept of a “homestead account” is well established in Florida. Proceeds from the sale of a Florida homestead property remain exempt for a reasonable time while the homeowner searches for a replacement homestead. The homestead account most often refers to a separate bank account where the owner deposits the sale proceeds. Is protection lost…
A caller stated that he defaulted on a contract to sell his homestead. The contract buyer sued him for specific performance seeking a court order against the seller to complete the sale. The seller asked me if the Florida homestead protection applies to the specific performance suit. The seller tells me that he read that…
Bankruptcy is very hard on wealthy debtors. In a Florida Chapter 7 bankruptcy case decided last month (March) a bankruptcy court applied the 10 year look-back provided for in Section 522 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to deny a homestead exemption because the court found that the home was purchased with the intent to defraud…
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 New York attorney states that he represents a married couple that jointly owns a house in Florida. The wife is subject to a civil judgment entered by a New York court. The spouses maintain separate residences; the wife lives in New York with her children, and the husband resides full time in the Florida…
A reader asks in an email whether a creditor can go after fire insurance proceeds owed to the debtor by the fire insurance company for a fire loss suffered to the debtor’s Florida homestead? The debtor was forced to move to another residential address because of the fire.
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 LLC to own the business…
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 time in his sole discretion….
