Claiming Homestead In A Land Trust

  The State of Florida is famous for having one of the most generous homestead exemptions in the country. With that said, very few Floridians need their primary residence to be placed in a trust, but for those of us that just prefer to hold real estate in a land trust for other reasons and for those outside of Florida, this post will cover how to claim homestead exemption on your property that is in a trust.

  Everyone from real estate agents, attorneys and even the property appraiser’s office have told me a property placed in a land trust is not entitled to homestead exemptions, but that is not true so don't take no for an answer. The Florida Attorney General wrote an opinion way back in 2008 discussing this very subject.

“… it is my opinion that section 689.071, Florida Statutes, would confer upon a beneficiary of a land trust a sufficient possessory interest to support a homestead tax exemption if the person otherwise qualifies by residence for the exemption in section 196.031, Florida Statutes, and the beneficiary's possessory right in the real property is based on an instrument granting to him or her a beneficial interest for life”. – Bill McCollum.

  Therefore, in order to claim homestead exemption on a property held in a land trust your deed must be properly drafted to include the proper FL. Stat. 196.031 language, and the beneficiary must otherwise qualify for the exemption. Please note, in order for a beneficiary to qualify it will need to be a natural person (as opposed to the LLC many clients prefer). Don’t worry, none of this information becomes public record. The deed for public records purposes still only shows the trust as the titled owner.

  In the event you decide to elect homestead on a property after you have already taken title, you do not need to redraft the deed in order to add the proper language. Instead, the trust/trustee may provide the property appraiser with a notice of homestead stating the trust is electing to claim under FL. Stat 196.031.


  I’ll admit that in order to avoid exhaustive back and forth explanations with the recording office/taxing authority the language required for the deed and/or notice needs to be pretty specific. The exact drafting instructions would be too long to cover in a simple post so if by some chance you run in to a road block you can hopefully find a nice property appraiser to get the 196.031 language or just call an attorney or title agent with land trust experience to take care of it for you. 

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