The Florida constitution exempts a person’s primary residence from forced sale to satisfy a judgment debt.
Can you exempt as homestead a commercial building with a second-floor apartment used as your primary residence?
Under Florida law, the answer is that you can only exempt part of the commercial property.
When a debtor resides in a building used for residential and commercial purposes, the creditor can force the sale of the entire property. The court must apportion the net proceeds between the homestead and non-homestead portion rather than declare the building to be entirely homestead or entirely non-homestead.
