According to both articles, the property must be used or intended to be used as a principal residence. The scope of homestead protection is $500,000 under section 3, but may be higher under section 2. It is important to note that the protection of family property does not apply to secured creditors, such as the bank that holds the mortgage on the home. Instead, the homeowner is only protected from unsecured creditors who may come after the value of your home to satisfy claims on the homeowner`s assets. The Florida Constitution, Article X, Section 4 contains restrictions on invention, but does not address how ownership is created after the owner`s death or what happens if ownership is conceived or transferred in violation of the restrictions. These standard provisions are set forth in the Florida Estate Code § 732.401. Article (1) grants the surviving spouse, if any, a lifetime estate to the deceased`s property if the property is not conceived as permitted by law and constitution, and a documented remainder of descendants. They are all descendants, whether or not they are all beneficiaries of the deceased`s estate plan because the property passes outside the estate. While this may offer protection to some surviving spouses, it can be a challenge for many. The life estate creates an obligation for the surviving spouse to preserve the assets for the benefit of the other shareholders.
He/she would be responsible for all transportation costs on the property. Since there is no unit of property, the surviving spouse does not have the capacity to enforce the property through a partition action. The Florida legislature recently attempted to address this potential problem by creating section (2) to provide the surviving spouse with an alternative to managing a life estate that they may not want or can`t afford. The surviving spouse may choose to take over the estate provided for in Article (1) for life or half a share of the property. The choice of the surviving spouse to take half of the interest gives him the unity of the property with the descendants, so that an action for partition for the forced sale of the property is possible. This also means that the surviving spouse is only responsible for half of the maintenance costs. While this choice gives the surviving spouse an “exit” and prevents them from getting stuck in maintaining a property they can`t afford, there are a few downsides. The surviving spouse has no protection to keep him in the house as the descendants/co-owners can force the sale of the property.
If the surviving spouse wants to stay in the house, this may not be the best choice. There are ways to avoid the unintended consequences of restrictions on family property. According to Florida law § 732.401 (5), family property restrictions/protections do not apply to property owned by the deceased as a collective tenancy or condominium with right to survive. This means that if a person is co-owner of his property with another person in such a way that his interest ends on death, the co-owner can inherit from the deceased, whether the deceased had a spouse or a minor child. Indeed, the protection of property applies only to the economic interest of the property and the deceased would die out on his death, so that there would be nothing to protect. Similarly, the three restrictions listed above on the development and transfer of homesteads do not include any restrictions on the lifetime transfer of homesteads if that owner has minor children. This restriction applies to only one spouse. This is useful because a person can make certain lifetime transfers to a trust to prevent their ex-spouse from inheriting his or her property as guardian of minor children. Family property is intended to protect residential property from foreclosure and forced sale as long as the owner or insured family member occupies or intends to occupy the property as their primary residence. Section 2: An elderly person (62 years of age or older) or a person with a disability may register a family property in accordance with Article 2.
The Section 2 Homestead benefit does not extend to other family members in general, but any qualified homestead must present it. You can apply for a homeownership exemption at any time. If your application is postmarked before April 30, the exemption can be processed in time for your property tax bill, which will be published in the fall. If you file your return after April 30, the exemption will apply retroactively if you file your return up to one year after the tax late date (usually February 1 of the following tax year). You can also apply for an exemption for people over 65 or with disabilities at any time after you qualify for the exemption. The exemption will be applied retroactively if you submit within one year of age 65 or disability. You may be able to apply for a payment plan to pay your property taxes. If a person granted a homestead property exemption is in arrears with paying taxes, the collector must make a repayment plan for 12 to 36 months if requested by the owner, provided the owner has not completed a plan in the last 24 months.
Interest accrues at 12% per year. Exempted persons over age 65, disabled or disabled veterans can spread their tax payments over a year in four installments without penalty or interest. To use the installment plan option, you must include a note about it on your first payment. Payments are due before February 1, April 1, June 1 and August 1. Individuals generally believe that if they own land, they can sell it whenever they want, transfer it to whomever they want, or design it at will in their estate planning documents. However, this is not always the case if the owner has a spouse and/or minor children when it comes to properties in Florida that meet the definition of family property. The concept of homestead and how it is taxed, exempted, transferred, developed and otherwise treated is one of the most complicated concepts in Florida law. First of all, what is Homestead? The Florida Constitution defines Homestead as real estate representing no more than half an acre of contiguous land in a community owned by a natural person and the improvements made therein.
Art. X, §4(a), Fla. Const. The owner must have “made or intend to make the property his permanent residence or that of his family”. Aronson v. Aronson, 81 So.3d 515 (Fla.3d DCA 2012). In addition, it is not always necessary for the owner to live on the property at the time of death for the property to be considered property. It may or may not sound relatively simple, but there is abundant case law on what exactly is a family property, but it is beyond the scope of this article. For the purposes of this Article, family property is the dwelling and the attached country where the person or his or her family resides as a dwelling. This article focuses on the restrictions that the Florida Estate Code and the Florida Constitution impose on farms to limit the owner`s ability to transfer and develop property if it outlives a spouse or minor child. 4. What debts are exempt? What debts is a Homestead return not protected from? Exempted from family property protection are: federal, state and local taxes and privileges; mortgages taken out to buy the home and most other mortgages; debts and charges that existed prior to the submission of the declaration of ownership; executions before the probate court for spousal or child maintenance; Seizures of land not belonging to the owner of the property and executions ordered by the court in cases of fraud, error, coercion, undue influence and lack of capacity.