Public service notice. Nothing in this article is legal advice or legal instruction. The only legal information it contains is quoted or summarized from the state and county government publications cited in the numbered notes, and it is shared as a public service announcement only.
“Lady bird deed” is the common name for what the Florida Department of Revenue calls an “Enhanced Life Estate Deed, also known as a Lady Bird Deed.”¹ Few county offices explain the deed in detail, so this article draws on the clearest official explanation available, a ruling by the Department of Revenue, along with a county clerk’s published form, a Florida Attorney General opinion on homestead, and a county property appraiser’s guidance. The numbered notes at the end link to each original.
Everything that follows is quoted or summarized from the publications cited. None of it represents legal advice, legal instruction, or the legal opinions of the author.
What the Department of Revenue says a lady bird deed is
In a 2020 Technical Assistance Advisement on documentary stamp tax, the Florida Department of Revenue addressed “Enhanced Life Estate Deeds, which are commonly referred to as ‘Lady Bird Deeds’.”¹ The deed reviewed in that ruling had been recorded in Putnam County, and the Department quoted its key language. The owners, called the “Life Tenants,” reserved and retained “a LIFE ESTATE with full power and authority to grant, sell, convey, reconvey, mortgage, encumber, lease, renounce, divest, transfer, assign, gift, hypothecate or otherwise dispose of the caption property, in fee simple, with or without consideration, without joinder of any Remainderperson.”¹
The same deed reserved “full power and authority for the Life Tenant to divest any Remainderperson of their Remainder Interest and to reconvey the Remainder Interest to the Life Tenant, and/or to any successor Remainderperson, with or without consideration, and without joinder of any Remainderperson.” It then provided that “upon the death of the last surviving Life Tenant, the REMAINDER INTEREST, if any” would pass to the named remainderpersons, who in that case were the owners’ three daughters.¹
How the official sources describe its effects
The Department of Revenue’s ruling states its position this way: “An Enhanced Life Estate Deed, also known as a Lady Bird Deed, does not transfer any present beneficial interests in real property. In the present case, the Life Tenants retain all rights to the subject properties. The remainderpersons’ interests, if any, is contingent upon the death of the Life Tenants.”¹ On that basis the Department concluded that “Since there is no present transfer of beneficial interests in the subject properties, Deed is not subject to documentary stamp tax regardless of any consideration.”¹
The ruling carries its own limits. It states that it “is binding on the Department only under the facts and circumstances described in the request for this advice” and that “subsequent statutory or administrative rule changes, or judicial interpretations of the statutes or rules, upon which this advice is based, may subject similar future transactions to a different treatment.”¹
On homestead, the Florida Attorney General’s opinions on life estates quote section 196.041(2) of the Florida Statutes, which provides that a person otherwise qualified for the homestead exemption “shall be entitled to such exemption where his possessory right in such real property is based upon an instrument granting to him a beneficial interest for his life, such interest being hereby declared to be ‘equitable title to real estate.’”² The St. Lucie County Property Appraiser’s FAQ on recording a new deed notes that the effect on homestead can depend on “how you own the property (the ‘tenancy’), and if the new owner files for Homestead Exemption on your property.”³
A county clerk’s published form
The St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court publishes a blank form titled “Enhanced Life Estate Deed (Lady Bird Deed)” among its official records forms.⁴ The form’s header includes spaces for “This instrument prepared by,” the preparer’s name and address, and the “Parcel ID#,” above a “space above reserved for recording information.” Its operative language states that “the Grantor does transfer and convey the following described property to the Grantee Beneficiary effective on the Grantor’s death” and reserves to the Grantor “a life estate for himself/herself during the Grantor’s lifetime.”⁴
The Department of Revenue’s ruling describes the general documentary stamp tax rate on deeds as “$0.70 ($0.60 in Miami-Dade County)” for each $100 of consideration, before explaining why the enhanced life estate deed it reviewed was not subject to the tax.¹
What the county offices say about legal advice
The St. Lucie County Property Appraiser’s FAQ addresses questions about recording a new deed and states, “The Property Appraiser’s Office cannot legally advise you, since there are many serious considerations that go beyond how Homestead Exemption is calculated, including income and estate tax consequences.”³ The Department of Revenue’s ruling, as noted above, applies only to the facts of the deed it reviewed.¹
No services offered. BeforeYouFile.Info and Form America LLC do not prepare, complete, review, or record lady bird deeds or any other deeds. Form America limits its form-completion work to forms approved by the Supreme Court of Florida, and deeds are not part of that work. A deed also involves choices about legal language, the property’s legal description, and homestead, tax, and estate consequences, which call for the judgment of a licensed Florida attorney.
Notes
- Florida Department of Revenue, Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004, Documentary Stamp Tax: Enhanced Life Estate Deed (October 16, 2020)
- Office of the Attorney General of Florida, Opinion on Homestead Tax Exemption and Life Interests (Walton County Property Appraiser)
- St. Lucie County Property Appraiser, FAQ: Recording a New Deed
- St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court, Enhanced Life Estate Deed (Lady Bird Deed) form
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