Lady Bird Deed in Lake Nona, Florida

A Lady Bird deed in Lake Nona passes your home to your children without probate while you keep every right you have in it today — the right to sell it, refinance it, or change your mind about who inherits. This guide covers what is specific to Lake Nona: which county actually records the deed, the Orange–Osceola parcel trap, documentary stamp tax, Save Our Homes, and the CDD assessment your heirs inherit along with the house.

The general rules for a Florida enhanced life estate deed — a ladybird deed, as it is more often spelled — are the same statewide. The rest of this page is the part that is true only here. We at Lorenzo Law draft and record these deeds for Orange and Osceola County property, remotely — no office visit, no drive downtown.

Where Is Lake Nona, and Which County Records Your Deed?

Lake Nona is part of the City of Orlando, in Orange County. The Lake Nona planned development covers roughly 9,044 acres south of Dowden Road, west of Narcoossee Road, east of Orlando International Airport and north of Boggy Creek Road, annexed into the City of Orlando in two steps in 1992 and 1994. Its principal ZIP codes are 32827 and 32832.

The City’s own planning documents name the neighbourhoods: Laureate Park, Northlake Park, Lake Nona Estates, Isles of Lake Nona, VillageWalk, Lake Nona Town Center, Mid-Town, and the Medical City area — anchored by the UCF College of Medicine at 6850 Lake Nona Boulevard, Nemours Children’s Hospital at 6535 Nemours Parkway, the Orlando VA Medical Center at 13800 Veterans Way, the University of Florida Research and Academic Center at 6550 Sanger Road, and the USTA National Campus.

Where do I record a deed in Orange County, Florida?

In Orange County, deeds are not recorded with a clerk of court. They are recorded with the Orange County Comptroller’s Official Records Department:

• In person: 109 East Church Street, Suite 300, Orlando, FL 32801
• By mail: P.O. Box 38, Orlando, FL 32802
• Electronically: through the Comptroller’s approved e-recording vendors — Corporation Service Company (CSC), eRecording Partners Network (ePN), Simplifile and Hopdox as volume vendors; Record Nation, Deeds and eRecording USA for low-volume filers
• Hours: Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
• Phone: (407) 836-5115

How much does it cost to record a deed in Orange County?

Recording fees are set by section 28.24, Florida Statutes, and are the same in every Florida county:

• $10.00 for the first page
• $8.50 for each additional page
• First four names indexed free; $1.00 for each name after that

A typical two-page Lady Bird deed naming two beneficiaries therefore records for $18.50. Documentary stamp tax is collected by the same office at the time of recording — see documentary stamp tax below.

A Lake Nona address is not always an Orange County parcel

This is the local point almost every page misses, and it changes everything downstream. The southern boundary of the Lake Nona development is the Orange–Osceola county line. Communities immediately south and southeast that are routinely marketed as “Lake Nona area” — the Sunbridge corridor, Weslyn Park, Del Webb Sunbridge, and much of the 34771 / St. Cloud belt — sit in Osceola County. Different recording office. Different property appraiser. Different tax collector. Different courthouse.

Before anything is drafted, we pull the parcel from the property appraiser rather than trusting the community name on the mailbox. A deed recorded in the wrong county is not recorded at all.

Orange County vs Osceola County: where your deed goes

	Orange County	Osceola County
Recording office	Orange County Comptroller, Official Records Department	Osceola Clerk of the Circuit Court & County Comptroller
Address	109 E. Church St., Suite 300, Orlando, FL 32801	2 Courthouse Square, Kissimmee, FL 34741
Mailing	P.O. Box 38, Orlando, FL 32802	2 Courthouse Square, Kissimmee, FL 34741
Phone	(407) 836-5115	(407) 742-3500
Hours	Mon–Fri, 7:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m.	Mon–Fri, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.; recording accepted until 4:30 p.m.
Branch office	—	Poinciana branch, 4547 Pleasant Hill Rd., Kissimmee, FL 34759
Recording fee	$10.00 first page / $8.50 each additional / $1.00 per name over four	$10.00 first page / $8.50 each additional / $1.00 per name over four
Documentary stamp tax	$0.70 per $100 of consideration	$0.70 per $100 of consideration
E-recording	Yes — CSC, ePN, Simplifile, Hopdox and others	Yes
Property appraiser	200 S. Orange Ave., Suite 1700, Orlando, FL 32801 · (407) 836-5044	Osceola County Property Appraiser, Kissimmee
Probate division	Orange County Courthouse, 425 N. Orange Ave., Suite 335, Orlando · (407) 836-2057	Osceola County Courthouse, Kissimmee
Judicial circuit	Ninth Judicial Circuit — both counties

How Do I Look Up a Recorded Deed in Orange County?

Every deed ever recorded on your Lake Nona parcel is a public record, and you do not need a lawyer or a title company to read it. The Orange County Comptroller publishes a free official records search covering deeds, mortgages, liens, judgments and plats. This is the Orange County deed search people mean when they go looking for a deed lookup by owner name or by address: you can search by name, by document type, or by the book and page number printed on the top of your existing deed.

Osceola County publishes the same kind of official records search through the Clerk’s office for parcels on the south side of the line.

What to pull before your deed is drafted

1. Your current recorded deed. The legal description on the new deed must match it exactly. Copying a description off a builder’s plat, a closing statement, or a tax bill is the most common way a Lake Nona deed goes wrong.
2. The property appraiser’s parcel record. This confirms the county, the parcel identification number, the homestead exemption status, and the assessed and just values.
3. Your most recent November tax bill. This is where you will see the non-ad valorem CDD assessment broken out from the ad valorem tax.
4. Your mortgage statement, if the home is financed. See the mortgage section.
5. Your HOA documents, for any transfer or notice obligation.

Where Does Probate Happen for a Lake Nona Home?

Section 26.021(9), Florida Statutes, provides that “the ninth circuit is composed of Orange and Osceola Counties.” For an Orange County property, the probate division sits at the Orange County Courthouse, 425 North Orange Avenue, Orlando, FL 32801; the Clerk’s Probate Division is in Suite 335 and can be reached at (407) 836-2057. Attorneys file electronically through the statewide Florida Courts E-Filing Portal.

Venue follows the decedent’s domicile under section 733.101 or, for someone not domiciled in Florida, any county where property is located. That is a live issue in Lake Nona, where a great many homes belong to people who moved here from another state or who own the house as a second home.

Note also section 733.304: a person who is not domiciled in Florida cannot serve as personal representative unless they fall inside a closed list of relatives. An out-of-state friend, cousin or business partner named in a will does not qualify. Avoiding probate on the homestead altogether — which is what a properly drafted Lady Bird deed does for that parcel — sidesteps the problem instead of litigating it after the fact.

For the full picture of how a Lake Nona estate moves through the Ninth Circuit, see our guide to the Orange County probate court.

Does a Lady Bird Deed Cost Documentary Stamp Tax in Orange County?

Florida’s documentary stamp tax on a deed is 70 cents per $100 of consideration under section 201.02(1)(a), Florida Statutes, collected by the recording office — here, the Comptroller — at the time of recording. Miami-Dade is the only Florida county that levies an additional surtax. Orange County and Osceola County are both at the standard 70 cents.

For an enhanced life estate deed specifically, the Florida Department of Revenue addressed the question in Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004, concluding that such a deed transfers no present beneficial interest — the life tenant keeps every right and the remainder interests are contingent on the life tenant’s death — and is therefore not subject to documentary stamp tax regardless of consideration.

Two honest caveats belong with that, and you will not find them on a form site:

• A technical assistance advisement binds the Department only as to the taxpayer who requested it, and only on the facts described in that request. It is not a rule and it is not precedent.
• The facts in that advisement involved property that carried no mortgage. Section 201.02 still provides that consideration includes the amount of any mortgage or other encumbrance, whether or not the underlying indebtedness is assumed.

Most Lake Nona homes still have a mortgage — does that change anything?

It changes two things, and Lake Nona is exactly the place where it matters. A substantial share of this community was purchased in the last fifteen years and is still financed.

First, the due-on-sale clause. Nearly every residential mortgage lets the lender call the loan if the borrower transfers an interest in the property. The federal Garn–St. Germain Act, 12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3, overrides that in nine specific cases. Subsection (d)(6) exempts “a transfer where the spouse or children of the borrower become an owner of the property,” and a bankruptcy court in this state applied it to a mother-to-son transfer in In re Jordan, 199 B.R. 68 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. 1996).

Three details are commonly misstated on Florida law firm websites, so they are worth stating precisely:

• The statute’s subsection (d)(6) contains no occupancy requirement. Congress wrote occupancy conditions into subsections (d)(1) and (d)(8) and left one out of (d)(6).
• The regulation is not so clean. The implementing rule at 12 C.F.R. § 191.5(b)(1)(v) lists the spouse-or-children transfer underneath an umbrella clause describing a transfer “in which the transferee is a person who occupies or will occupy the property.” Because a Lady Bird deed gives your children only a future interest and they do not occupy the home during your lifetime, a lender reading the regulation rather than the statute could try to accelerate. The statutory exemption is the defence, and no Florida court has resolved the tension in this context. It is a reason to know your loan documents before recording, not a reason to abandon the plan.
• The exemption reaches a spouse or child only — not a sibling, a niece, a friend or a trust — and section 1701j-3 applies only to loans secured by residential real property containing fewer than five dwelling units.

Will I owe documentary stamp tax if my Lake Nona house has a mortgage?

This is the honest answer, and it is not the answer you will find on a form site: the question is unresolved in Florida, and the exposure is real.

Section 201.02(1)(a) defines consideration to include the amount of any mortgage or other encumbrance, whether or not the debt is assumed, and the Florida Supreme Court has read the statute to tax the total consideration including outstanding mortgages — Florida Department of Revenue v. De Maria, 338 So. 2d 838 (Fla. 1976); Kendall House Apartments, Inc. v. Department of Revenue, 245 So. 2d 221 (Fla. 1971). The Department’s rules follow: Rule 12B-4.013(16) taxes a gift of mortgaged realty on the unpaid balance, and Rule 12B-4.013(19) includes encumbrances in total consideration.

There is a homestead exemption in Rule 12B-4.013(24)(c) — but it applies only to transfers between spouses where the mortgage is the only consideration. There is no equivalent rule for a parent-to-child transfer. And Rule 12B-4.014, which lists conveyances not subject to tax, contains no exemption for life estate deeds or enhanced life estate deeds of any kind. These rules were amended effective 25 January 2026 and the amendments did not add one.

The argument that no tax is due is a good one: because you keep the power to revoke, nothing of substance passes to your children while you are alive, so arguably nothing is “conveyed” within the meaning of the statute. But no Florida court, rule, or advisement has squarely held that, and TAA 20B4-004 cannot be borrowed — under section 213.22(1), Florida Statutes, a technical assistance advisement has no precedential value except to the taxpayer who requested it and only for the transaction described.

The numbers make it concrete. At 70 cents per $100, a $300,000 mortgage balance would produce roughly $2,100 in tax if the Department took that position. On an unencumbered home the same deed records for the minimum.

So on a financed Lake Nona home there are three defensible paths, and we will tell you which one we think fits: request your own technical assistance advisement before recording; pay the tax on the mortgage balance and seek a refund if the Department’s position is later clarified; or record on the strength of the retained-power argument with the audit exposure understood and documented. What we will not do is tell you it is free and let you find out otherwise.

Will a Lady Bird Deed Cost You the Homestead Exemption or Save Our Homes?

Florida caps the annual increase in a homestead’s assessed value at the lower of 3% or the change in the Consumer Price Index under section 193.155(1), Florida Statutes. That cap — Save Our Homes — resets to just value on a change of ownership, which the statute defines broadly as any sale, foreclosure, or transfer of legal or beneficial title.

The exception a Lady Bird deed relies on is at section 193.155(3)(a)1.c.: there is no change of ownership where the same person remains entitled to the homestead exemption and the instrument lists the owner as both grantor and grantee, with one or more other individuals additionally named as grantees.

The statute then adds the trap in the same breath: if any individual who is additionally named as a grantee applies for a homestead exemption on the property, that application is itself considered a change of ownership.

So the accurate statement is not “a Lady Bird deed never affects Save Our Homes.” It is that the cap survives so long as you remain the homestead exemption holder and none of your remaindermen applies for homestead on the same property. That is a conversation to have with the family before the deed is signed.

One further point of precision, because worked examples on other sites get it wrong: Florida does not perform a partial reassessment. Where a change of ownership occurs, the property is reassessed at just value in its entirety, not merely as to the portion affected. Because appraisers apply this provision to the instrument as written, we confirm the treatment with the Orange County Property Appraiser rather than predicting it.

The Orange County Property Appraiser, and the March 1 deadline

The Orange County Property Appraiser is at 200 South Orange Avenue, Suite 1700, Orlando, FL 32801, (407) 836-5044, and accepts homestead applications online.

The homestead exemption application deadline is March 1 under section 196.011, Florida Statutes, and missing it waives the exemption for that year. You must have owned and occupied the home before January 1. You will need a Florida driver licence plus one of: a Florida vehicle registration, a Florida voter registration, or a Declaration of Domicile recorded with the Comptroller’s office.

Where the home is owned by more than one resident, section 196.031(1)(a) apportions the exemption among them.

Portability, if you moved to Lake Nona from elsewhere in Florida

Lake Nona is full of people who moved here from Winter Park, Windermere, Dr. Phillips or the coasts. If you transferred a Florida homestead, section 193.155(8) allows you to port accumulated Save Our Homes savings to the new homestead within the statutory window. Portability is applied for through the property appraiser, and it is worth confirming your port was granted before layering a Lady Bird deed on top of it.

CDD Assessments: The Lake Nona Detail Nobody Warns You About

A great many Lake Nona homes sit inside a community development district — a special-purpose local government created under chapter 190, Florida Statutes, to finance and maintain the roads, drainage, water and amenities that made the community possible.

Orange County publishes a list of roughly 47 active independent special districts. Four are relevant to the Lake Nona area:

• Boggy Creek Improvement District — approximately 1,126 acres inside the City of Orlando, north and south of State Road 417, east of Boggy Creek Road, west of and adjacent to Lake Nona Boulevard, financing master public infrastructure for the portion of the Lake Nona development within it.
• Greeneway Improvement District — which built Nemours Parkway, Tavistock Lakes Boulevard and Laureate Boulevard.
• Poitras East Community Development District — governing development south of Orlando International Airport.
• Storey Park Community Development District.

Which Lake Nona community is in which district?

We are deliberately not publishing a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood map, because district boundaries have been amended more than once as Lake Nona expanded and the published boundary descriptions do not line up cleanly with marketing names. The reliable answer is on your own tax bill. Here is how to find it in about five minutes:

Step	Where	What you are looking for
1. Confirm the county	Orange or Osceola County Property Appraiser	Your parcel identification number and the county that holds it
2. Pull the November tax bill	County tax collector	The non-ad valorem assessment section, listed separately from ad valorem tax
3. Read the levying authority	Same bill	The district’s name printed beside the assessment — this is your CDD
4. Note the annual amount	Same bill	The figure your beneficiaries will inherit as an annual obligation
5. Check for a debt portion	District’s own website or budget	Whether the assessment includes bond debt service with a payoff date, or only operations and maintenance

Communities commonly marketed as Lake Nona include Laureate Park, Northlake Park, VillageWalk, Isles of Lake Nona, Lake Nona Estates, Eagle Creek, Storey Park, Waters Edge, East Park, Somerset Park and Lake Nona Preserve. Nearly all of them carry both an HOA and a district assessment; which district, and how much, varies parcel by parcel.

What is the difference between a CDD and an HOA in Lake Nona?

	CDD (community development district)	HOA (homeowners association)
What it is	A unit of special-purpose local government under chapter 190	A private not-for-profit corporation
Created by	Ordinance or rule, following a public process	The developer, by recorded covenants
What it funds	Roads, drainage, water and sewer infrastructure, amenities, often financed with bonds	Ongoing maintenance, landscaping, rules enforcement
How you pay	On the November property tax bill, as a non-ad valorem assessment	Billed directly by the association
If you don’t pay	Collected and enforced like county taxes — including tax certificates and, ultimately, a tax deed	Association lien and foreclosure under chapter 720
Public records	Yes — meetings, budgets and audits are public	Limited to members

Does my Lake Nona CDD assessment pass to my heirs?

Yes, and this is why the subject belongs on a deed page.

Under section 190.021, Florida Statutes, both benefit special assessments (subsection (2)) and maintenance special assessments (subsection (3)) “shall be entered by the property appraiser on the county tax rolls, and shall be collected and enforced by the tax collector in the same manner and at the same time as county taxes.” Subsection (4) then applies the full machinery of delinquent county taxes to the district — the sale of lands for unpaid taxes, the issuance and sale of tax certificates, redemption, and the issuance of tax deeds. Districts may alternatively use the uniform collection method under sections 197.363 and 197.3632.

In plain terms: the assessment arrives on the same November bill as your ad valorem tax, it is enforced the same way, and non-payment can ultimately cost the property.

A Lady Bird deed moves the house. It does not move the assessment. Whoever takes the property at your death — a child in another state, a beneficiary who has never seen a CDD line item on a tax bill — inherits both the ad valorem tax and the non-ad valorem district assessment, and inherits the consequences of not paying either. Telling your remaindermen what the annual figure actually is, before it becomes their problem, costs nothing and prevents a great deal.

Does a Lady Bird deed change my CDD or HOA obligations?

No. During your lifetime nothing changes at all — you remain the owner of record for tax, assessment and association purposes, you keep paying the same bills, and the association has no new member. At your death the obligations follow the property to the remaindermen by operation of law. Some associations require notice of a change in record ownership; we check the governing documents while the deed is being prepared.

Lake Nona Is Still Being Built — and That Changes the Advice

This is not an established neighbourhood with settled titles. The City of Orlando’s planning documents for the Lake Nona planned development show entitlements for 20,817 residential units against roughly 8,049 built and 1,066 more approved through specific parcel master plans — figures current as of the City’s most recent published planned development ordinance, meaning a substantial majority of the community was still unbuilt at that point.

Three practical consequences follow for anyone planning an estate around a Lake Nona home:

1. Most purchases here are recent and financed, so the mortgage questions above are live rather than theoretical.
2. Many owners moved from another state, so homestead may be newly established, portability may be in play, and the executor named in an out-of-state will may not qualify to serve in Florida under section 733.304.
3. Nearly every parcel carries an HOA and often a CDD, which means the person who inherits is inheriting obligations as well as a house.

None of that argues against a Lady Bird deed. It argues for one drafted after somebody looked at the parcel, the mortgage, the marital situation and the district — rather than one downloaded and signed.

What Is a Lady Bird Deed, in One Section

A Lady Bird deed — commonly written as a ladybird deed — is Florida’s name for an enhanced life estate deed. You convey a remainder interest in the property to your chosen beneficiaries, reserve a life estate for yourself, and — this is the “enhanced” part — expressly retain the power to sell, mortgage, lease, convey or revoke without the remaindermen’s consent.

The practical result during your lifetime is that nothing changes. You are still the owner. You still claim homestead. You can sell tomorrow and keep every dollar. At your death, whatever is left passes to the named remaindermen outside probate.

Compared with a plain life estate deed, the difference is control: under a traditional life estate you cannot sell or refinance without the remaindermen signing, and their divorces, judgments and bankruptcies become your problem. The enhanced version removes that.

Is a ladybird deed the same as a Lady Bird deed?

Yes — there is no difference at all. Ladybird deed, lady bird deed and Lady Bird Deed all describe the same instrument, and the Orange County Comptroller records a ladybird deed exactly as it records one spelled either other way. The one-word spelling is how most people type it into a search box.

As for the name: it is usually attributed to the late Florida attorney Jerome Ira Solkoff, who is said to have used Lady Bird Johnson in a teaching example. The widely repeated story that President Johnson actually used one to convey land to her appears to be apocryphal. Neither spelling appears anywhere in the Florida Statutes, for the reason set out below — no statute names the instrument at all.

What the deed must actually say

The enhanced powers are not implied. They have to be written into the instrument. A deed that reserves a life estate and stops there creates an ordinary life estate — the exact outcome the client was trying to avoid — and that is the single most common defect we see in do-it-yourself Lake Nona deeds. The reservation language must expressly retain the right to sell, convey, mortgage, lease and otherwise dispose of the property, and to revoke or revest the remainder, during the grantor’s lifetime and without the joinder of the remaindermen.

How the process works, start to finish

1. Parcel check. We confirm the county, the parcel ID, the exact legal description from the recorded deed, the homestead status and the district.
2. Drafting. The deed is prepared with the reservation and enhanced-powers language, and with the correct grantor/grantee recitals for section 193.155(3)(a)1.c.
3. Execution. You sign before two witnesses and a notary. This can be done where you are.
4. Recording. We e-record with the Orange County Comptroller — or the Osceola Clerk, if that is where your parcel sits — and send you the recorded instrument.
5. Afterward. You keep paying the taxes, the assessments and the insurance, and you keep the right to change your mind.

Is There a Florida Lady Bird Deed Statute?

No. There is no section of the Florida Statutes that creates, authorises, defines or names a Lady Bird deed or an enhanced life estate deed — not in chapter 689, which governs conveyances of land, and not anywhere else. It is a creature of Florida conveyancing practice: an ordinary conveyance of a remainder, with a life estate reserved, coupled with a retained power to sell, mortgage, convey or revoke without the remainderman’s consent.

Florida also has no statutory transfer-on-death or beneficiary deed for real property. Florida’s transfer-on-death statute, chapter 711, applies to securities only. In states that have a TOD deed, that is the tool people use for exactly this purpose; in Florida, the Lady Bird deed is the substitute that developed instead.

The statute that does bear on it is section 732.4017, Florida Statutes, which provides that an inter vivos transfer of an interest in homestead is not a devise where the transferor fails to retain a power to revoke or revest that interest. A Lady Bird deed is defined by the retained power, which puts it on the far side of that line.

What that means if you have a spouse or a minor child

Because the safe harbour in section 732.4017 does not apply, the homestead restriction in section 732.4015 and Article X, section 4(c) of the Florida Constitution still governs. Homestead may not be devised if the owner is survived by a spouse or a minor child, except to the spouse where there is no minor child.

If you are married and have no minor child

Section 732.7025 supplies specific statutory language that, when included in the deed itself, waives the spouse’s homestead rights for devise purposes. The statute expressly contemplates the waiver appearing in a deed rather than in a separate instrument. Almost nobody publishes this, and it is the cleanest available fix.

Getting it wrong is not a technicality. In Rogers v. Guardianship Program of Dade County, Inc., 408 So. 3d 846 (Fla. 3d DCA 2025), a quitclaim deed conveying homestead to the grantor for life with a remainder to a third party was held void ab initio because it did not contain the section 732.7025 waiver language showing the surviving spouse had waived her homestead interest. That is close to the structure of a Lady Bird deed, and it is a 2025 decision.

Three points of precision that follow:

• A waiver executed after the marriage also requires fair disclosure of the other spouse’s estate under section 732.702(2).
• Section 732.7025(2) waives only the devise restriction. It does not waive the protection against the owner’s creditors during life, and it does not waive the constitutional joinder requirement for alienating homestead while you are alive.
• Section 732.7025 addresses devises. As the First District held in Weaver v. Hatfield, 424 So. 3d 545 (Fla. 1st DCA 2025), it does not govern lifetime conveyances — those are governed by the Article X, section 4(c) joinder requirement. Older deed language once thought sufficient to waive homestead rights is now open to question; see Thayer v. Hawthorn, 363 So. 3d 170 (Fla. 4th DCA 2023).

If you have a minor child

A Lady Bird deed cannot be used on your homestead. Neither can several of the workarounds people bring us:

• A revocable living trust does not fix it. Section 732.4015(2) defines “owner” to include the grantor of a revocable trust and “devise” to include a disposition of homestead by that trust. In re Johnson’s Estate, 397 So. 2d 970 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981), held that a revocable trust with a retained right of revocation operates in contravention of the constitutional prohibition.
• A spousal waiver does not fix it. Section 732.7025 reaches the spousal restriction only. The homestead remains non-devisable while a minor child survives.
• Deeding the home to your spouse to pass on later does not fix it. A conveyance that cannot be made one way is not saved by doing it another way with the same result.

But “a Lady Bird deed can’t do it” is not the same as “nothing can.” Florida leaves three routes open, and the right one depends on the family:

1. An irrevocable inter vivos transfer that satisfies section 732.4017 — one where you retain no power to revoke or revest. Section 732.4017(3) expressly allows you to retain a separate interest such as a life estate, to delay possession until death, and to make the transfer subject to divestment on a stated event, so long as none of that amounts to a power to revoke or revest. A married grantor still needs the spouse’s joinder or waiver.
2. Tenancy by the entireties with your spouse.
3. Joint tenancy with right of survivorship. Section 732.401(5) confirms the homestead descent rules do not apply to property held in tenancy by the entireties or joint tenancy with survivorship, because it passes by operation of law rather than by devise.

Each carries different tax, creditor and control consequences. This is the point at which a form stops being an option and a conversation starts.

What happens if the deed is recorded anyway

The remainder is void — not merely voidable. Florida courts treat homestead transfers that violate the constitutional restriction as void, and a void deed conveys nothing and cannot be ratified by the passage of time. Schlossberg v. Estate of Kaporovsky, 303 So. 3d 982 (Fla. 4th DCA 2020), states the framework: void deeds are essentially forged deeds and deeds violating homestead protection, while fraud or undue influence renders a deed merely voidable.

Title then passes at the moment of death under section 732.401 — a life estate to the surviving spouse with a vested per stirpes remainder in the descendants, or, if the spouse elects within six months, an undivided one-half interest as tenants in common. Ballard v. Pritchard, 332 So. 3d 570 (Fla. 2d DCA 2021), shows it in operation: a devise of a life estate to the spouse with remainder to one son was invalid, and the homestead passed by intestate succession instead. The named beneficiaries take nothing under the deed, and clearing the recorded-but-void instrument off the title usually takes a court action.

Legal Requirements for a Valid Deed in Florida

Three separate statutes govern, and they are frequently confused with one another:

Requirement	Statute	What it says
Execution — witnesses	§ 689.01	A conveyance of land must be signed in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. The statute does not require the witnesses to be disinterested. Subsection (2) allows the requirement to be met by witnesses appearing by remote online notarization.
Acknowledgment	§ 695.03	For recordability, the instrument must be acknowledged, proved by a subscribing witness, or legalized — three routes, not notarization alone.
Recording formalities	§ 695.26	Names and post office addresses of the parties, a 3-inch by 3-inch clerk space, and — since 1 January 2024 — the post office address of each witness.
Priority	§ 695.11	Priority runs by consecutive official register number assigned at recording.

How many witnesses does a Florida deed need in 2026?

Two, plus a notary — and, since 1 January 2024, each witness’s post office address must appear on the instrument. That requirement came in with chapter 2023-238, Laws of Florida, which amended section 695.26(1)(c). It is now among the most common reasons a deed is bounced back by a Florida recording office, and it is the sort of thing a downloaded form from 2019 will not have.

Two useful distinctions, because the consequences are not the same:

• A missing witness address is a recording problem, not a title problem. Section 695.26(4) provides that the clerk’s failure to comply with the section “does not impair the validity of the recordation or of the constructive notice imparted by recordation.” The clerk may reject the deed at the counter — that is the practical cost — but a deed that slips through is still a valid conveyance between the parties.
• A genuinely missing witness is a title problem, and a curable one. Florida courts hold a deed lacking two subscribing witnesses insufficient to convey title — Santos v. Bogh, 334 So. 2d 833 (Fla. 3d DCA 1976); American General Home Equity, Inc. v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., 769 So. 2d 508 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000); Tunnage v. Green, 947 So. 2d 686 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007) — but not void. Earp & Shriver, Inc. v. Earp, 466 So. 2d 1225 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985), reversed a judgment declaring such a deed void and applied the curative statute, section 95.231(1). The Fourth District confirmed in February 2026, in Hi-Land Properties, LLC v. Gantt, No. 4D2025-1354 (Fla. 4th DCA Feb. 18, 2026), that the cure is automatic and self-executing five years after recording, with no court order required.

None of which is a reason to be casual about it. Five years is a long time to hold a defective title, and the curative statute does not run where there is fraud, adverse possession or pending litigation.

Can My Child’s Creditors Reach My Lake Nona Home?

Not while you are alive, in the sense that matters most: your beneficiary cannot force a sale or a partition of your home during your lifetime. But the common claim that a beneficiary’s creditors “can’t touch it” is overstated, and a Lake Nona homeowner deserves the accurate version.

Your beneficiary holds a real property interest from the moment the deed is recorded — a future interest subject to being completely divested if you sell or revoke. It is not a mere expectancy. Under section 55.10, Florida Statutes, a judgment creditor of that beneficiary can record a certified copy of the judgment in Orange County, and the lien attaches to whatever beneficial interest the beneficiary holds. Florida law has long held that a judgment lien reaches the debtor’s beneficial interest in real estate, Miller v. Berry, 78 Fla. 98, 82 So. 764 (1919), and a remainder interest has been levied on and sold at a sheriff’s sale — Carroll & Associates, P.A. v. Galindo, 864 So. 2d 24 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003), in the ordinary life estate context.

The practical consequence is a cloud on title. Even though you hold the paramount power to convey — confirmed most recently in Varano v. Varano, No. 4D2024-1571 (Fla. 4th DCA June 11, 2025), which states that under a Lady Bird deed the life tenant retains the right to convey or mortgage without the remainderman’s joinder, and in Hirschenson v. Compu-Link Corp. of MI, 389 So. 3d 574 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023) — a title underwriter insuring your sale will very often require the judgment to be satisfied or released before closing. Legal power and practical closing requirements are two different things.

Two further points, stated honestly:

• No Florida appellate court has decided what happens to a judgment lien on a Lady Bird remainder when the life tenant exercises the retained power and sells. The better analysis is that the interest — and the lien on it — is divested. It is not settled.
• If you die without exercising the power, the remainder ripens into fee simple title and any recorded judgment against that beneficiary attaches to it. That is the situation in Aetna Insurance Co. v. LaGasse, 223 So. 2d 727 (Fla. 1969), where a prior recorded judgment against the remainderman took priority and the remainderman could not claim homestead against it. LaGasse is frequently cited for the opposite of what it holds.

The remedy is the deed’s best feature. If a named beneficiary picks up a judgment, a tax lien or a divorce, you do not have to negotiate with anyone. You simply sign and record a new Lady Bird deed naming someone else — without that beneficiary’s knowledge or consent. That option does not exist with a quitclaim deed, and it does not exist with an ordinary life estate.

What Does a Lady Bird Deed Cost in Lake Nona?

Our fee for a standard Lady Bird deed is a flat $675, with recording included. That covers the parcel and title review, the drafting, the execution arrangements, e-recording with the Orange County Comptroller or the Osceola Clerk, and delivery of the recorded instrument.

One carve-out, stated up front: the flat fee covers our work and the recording charge. It does not cover documentary stamp tax on a mortgaged property, which — as explained above — is an unresolved question in Florida and is assessed on the outstanding mortgage balance if the Department of Revenue takes that position. If your Lake Nona home is financed, we will price that conversation into the engagement before you commit to anything.

Item	Amount	Note
Lorenzo Law flat fee	$675	Recording included
Recording — first page	$10.00	§ 28.24, same in every county
Recording — each additional page	$8.50
Indexing over four names	$1.00 per name
Documentary stamp tax — unencumbered home	Minimum	Consistent with DOR TAA 20B4-004
Documentary stamp tax — mortgaged home	Unresolved	Potentially $0.70 per $100 of the mortgage balance — see above
Probate, if you do nothing instead	Thousands, plus 6–12 months	See below

For comparison: a formal administration in Orange County starts with a filing fee of roughly $400 and runs several thousand dollars in attorney and personal representative compensation before anything is distributed. The three-month creditor claim period under section 733.702, Florida Statutes — which runs from the first publication of the notice to creditors, not from the date of death — sets the floor on timing. The estate cannot close until it has run, and a contested matter or a homestead determination pushes it well beyond that.

Do I Need to Come to an Office to Sign a Lady Bird Deed?

No. We handle Orange and Osceola County deeds remotely. The parcel review happens from the public records, the deed is drafted and sent to you, execution is arranged where you are — section 689.01(2) expressly allows the two subscribing witnesses to appear by remote online notarization — and the instrument is e-recorded with the Comptroller or the Clerk the same way a title company would file it. Nothing about a Lady Bird deed requires you, or us, to appear anywhere.

Our offices are in Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale, and we handle probate, Lake Nona estate planning and deed matters throughout Florida, including Orange and Osceola Counties. If you have been searching for a ladybird deed attorney near me or a lady bird deed attorney near Orlando, distance is less of a constraint than it looks — none of this work requires you to sit in a conference room. If you would rather meet by video, that is how most of these are done. Hablamos español.

Myths About Ladybird Deeds in Lake Nona

Myth: You can’t sell the house, or change your mind, once the deed is signed.
False. The retained powers are the whole point. You can sell, mortgage, lease or give away the property without the remaindermen’s consent, and you can change the beneficiaries — or revoke the deed entirely — at any time.

Myth: Signing the deed triggers taxes right away.
Generally no. Because the gift is incomplete while you retain the power to revoke (see Treas. Reg. § 25.2511-2(b)–(c)), the property remains in your gross estate under 26 U.S.C. § 2036(a), and your heirs take a stepped-up basis at your date-of-death value under 26 U.S.C. § 1014. Florida documentary stamp tax is addressed above, with the mortgage caveat.

Myth: Title companies won’t touch these deeds.
Partly true, and the honest answer is that it varies by underwriter. Most Florida title underwriters will insure a properly drafted enhanced life estate deed. Some, on a later sale by the life tenant, will nonetheless ask the remaindermen to join in order to clear the record — which is inconvenient, and is a reason to raise the question with the underwriter before you list the house rather than at closing.

Myth: My child’s creditors can’t touch the property at all.
Overstated — and this is worth getting right, because it is the claim most often published carelessly. See the full answer below.

Myth: A Lady Bird deed automatically ruins — or automatically preserves — Medicaid eligibility.
Neither, and the accurate version has conditions attached.

Eligibility. Recording a Lady Bird deed on your own homestead is generally not treated as a transfer of assets for less than fair market value triggering a penalty under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c) and Fla. Admin. Code r. 65A-1.712(3) — for two reinforcing reasons: the homestead is an excluded resource, and you have not completed a transfer while you keep the power to revoke. But that depends on three conditions. The property must be your principal residence; you must have an intent to return (or a spouse or dependent child living there); and your equity must not exceed the federal home equity limit, which is adjusted annually. On a non-homestead property — a rental or a second home — the analysis is different and a penalty is possible.

Estate recovery. Florida’s Medicaid Estate Recovery Act, section 409.9101, Florida Statutes, recovers by filing a claim in the probate estate. Florida has not adopted the expanded estate definition that federal law would permit at 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(b)(4)(B). Property passing by enhanced life estate deed never enters probate, and section 409.9101(7) separately bars enforcement against property exempt from creditors under the Florida Constitution. Two independent shields — but both rest on a legislative choice that a future legislature could change.

One more caution about sources. The DCF ESS Policy Manual provision usually quoted online for the “no transfer has occurred” proposition is an internal agency document, not a promulgated rule, and it can change without rulemaking. The citable authority is the rule chain above. If long-term care is on the horizon, get advice on the whole picture, not just the deed.

Myth: A quitclaim to my child does the same thing for less.
No. A quitclaim transfers ownership now. You lose control, you may lose your homestead exemption and your Save Our Homes cap, your child’s creditors and divorce become your problem, and you have made a completed gift that starts a Medicaid look-back — with no step-up in basis at your death. See our comparison of Lady Bird deeds and quitclaim deeds in Florida.

Myth: Transferring to my child disqualifies me from Medicaid for five years.
Imprecise. The look-back is 60 months for transfers made on or after 1 January 2010. The penalty period that results from a disqualifying transfer is calculated under Fla. Admin. Code r. 65A-1.712(3) by dividing the uncompensated value transferred by the average monthly private-pay nursing facility rate set by the Department — so it can be far shorter or considerably longer than five years depending on what was given away. Ask for the current divisor at the time you apply; it is updated by rule amendment.

Myth: A Lady Bird deed replaces a will.
It does not. It moves one parcel. Everything else you own — accounts, vehicles, personal property, other real estate — still needs a plan.

Myth: I can just download a form.
You can, and people do. What we see when they fail: a legal description copied from a tax bill instead of the recorded deed, missing enhanced-powers language that turns the instrument into an ordinary life estate, a witness address omitted in breach of section 695.26(1)(c), a deed recorded in Orange County for a parcel that sits in Osceola, and a spouse who never joined.

Common Mistakes on Lake Nona Deeds

1. Recording in the wrong county. Sunbridge, Weslyn Park, Del Webb Sunbridge and the 34771 belt are Osceola parcels marketed as Lake Nona.
2. Copying the legal description from a builder’s plat or a tax bill. It must match the recorded deed exactly — and in a community this new, plats have been amended.
3. Leaving out the enhanced powers. A reserved life estate without them is an ordinary life estate.
4. Ignoring the CDD. Heirs inherit the assessment and its enforcement consequences.
5. Getting the grantor/grantee recitals wrong, which is what section 193.155(3)(a)1.c. turns on for Save Our Homes.
6. Not addressing the spouse. Homestead is constitutional, not contractual.
7. Assuming the mortgage does not matter. It matters for doc stamps and for the due-on-sale analysis.
8. Naming a remainderman without a contingency. If a beneficiary predeceases you and the deed says nothing, the share can pass in ways nobody intended.

Lake Nona Lady Bird Deed FAQs

Can I get a Lady Bird deed in Orlando, Florida?

Yes. Lake Nona is inside the City of Orlando, and the deed records with the Orange County Comptroller. We prepare and e-record these for Orlando and Orange County property without requiring an office visit.

Is Lake Nona in Orange County or Osceola County?

The Lake Nona planned development is in Orange County, within the City of Orlando. But communities immediately south and southeast that market themselves as “Lake Nona area” — Sunbridge, Weslyn Park, Del Webb Sunbridge and much of the 34771 corridor — are in Osceola County. Confirm the parcel with the property appraiser, not the mailing address.

Where do I record a deed in Osceola County?

With the Osceola Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller, 2 Courthouse Square, Kissimmee, FL 34741, (407) 742-3500, Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with recording accepted until 4:30 p.m. Fees match Orange County: $10 first page, $8.50 each additional, $1 per name over four.

How do I look up a recorded deed in Orange County?

Through the Orange County Comptroller’s free official records search, by name, document type, or the book and page printed on your existing deed. Osceola County offers the equivalent search through the Clerk’s office.

Will a Lady Bird deed raise my Lake Nona property taxes?

It should not, provided you remain the homestead exemption holder and none of the additionally named grantees applies for homestead on the property. Section 193.155(3)(a)1.c. is the provision that protects the Save Our Homes cap, and the same paragraph creates the trap if a remainderman applies.

Do my heirs inherit my CDD assessment?

Yes. Chapter 190 assessments run with the land, appear on the November tax bill, and are collected and enforced in the same manner as county taxes, including through tax certificates and tax deeds. The deed transfers the house and the obligation together.

Can I do a Lady Bird deed if my Lake Nona home has a mortgage?

Usually yes. Where the beneficiaries are your spouse or children, 12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3(d)(6) exempts the transfer from due-on-sale enforcement, and the statute imposes no occupancy requirement — though the implementing regulation at 12 C.F.R. § 191.5(b)(1)(v) is drafted less cleanly and a lender could read an occupancy condition into it. The documentary stamp treatment of a mortgaged enhanced life estate deed is genuinely unresolved in Florida and carries real exposure; see the discussion above before assuming the deed records for the minimum.

Is a ladybird deed the same thing as a Lady Bird deed?

Yes. A ladybird deed and a Lady Bird deed are the same document — an enhanced life estate deed. The spelling makes no difference to the Orange County Comptroller, the Osceola Clerk, or any Florida court.

How much does a Lady Bird deed cost in Florida?

Ours is $675 flat, with recording included. Recording itself is $10 for the first page and $8.50 per additional page. Documentary stamp tax is generally not due on an unencumbered enhanced life estate deed.

Do I have to come to your office?

No. Lake Nona deeds are drafted, executed and e-recorded remotely.

Does my spouse have to sign a Lady Bird deed in Florida?

If the property is your homestead and you are married, yes — the spouse joins or executes the statutory waiver under section 732.7025, and the waiver language belongs in the deed itself. In Rogers v. Guardianship Program of Dade County, Inc., 408 So. 3d 846 (Fla. 3d DCA 2025), a life-estate-plus-remainder deed of homestead was held void ab initio for lacking that language.

Can I use a Lady Bird deed if I have a minor child?

Not on your homestead. Article X, section 4(c) prohibits devising homestead where the owner is survived by a minor child, and a Lady Bird deed, a revocable trust and a spousal waiver all fail to get around it. Other routes remain open — an irrevocable transfer that satisfies section 732.4017, tenancy by the entireties, or joint tenancy with right of survivorship — but they carry different tax and control consequences and need to be chosen deliberately.

Can my child’s creditors reach my home before I die?

They cannot force a sale or partition while you are alive. They can record a judgment lien that attaches to your child’s remainder interest and clouds title, which a title underwriter will typically want satisfied before you can close a sale. The clean fix is to record a new Lady Bird deed naming a different beneficiary — you do not need the encumbered beneficiary’s consent.

Where would probate be filed for a Lake Nona home?

In the Ninth Judicial Circuit, which section 26.021(9) composes of Orange and Osceola Counties. For an Orange County parcel, the probate division is at the Orange County Courthouse, 425 North Orange Avenue, Suite 335, Orlando.

Is there a Florida Lady Bird deed statute?

No. Florida has no statute creating or naming the enhanced life estate deed, and no transfer-on-death deed for real property — chapter 711 covers securities only. The Lady Bird deed is a product of Florida conveyancing practice.

How many witnesses does a Florida deed need?

Two subscribing witnesses plus a notary, and since 1 January 2024 each witness’s post office address must also appear on the instrument under section 695.26(1)(c).

Talk to a Lady Bird Deed Attorney for Lake Nona and Orange County

A downloaded deed on a Lake Nona home can cost far more than it saves — an accidental ordinary life estate, a lost Save Our Homes cap, a deed recorded in the wrong county, or an heir who inherits a district assessment nobody mentioned.

We prepare and record Lady Bird deeds — ladybird deeds, however you spell it — for property in Lake Nona, Orlando, and the St. Cloud and Sunbridge corridor, across Orange County and Osceola County — remotely, at a flat fee of $675 with recording included.

Call (305) 224-6811 or send us a message to talk through your parcel. Hablamos español.

Written by Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., Esq., Florida Bar No. 107002. Last reviewed September 2026. This article is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Statutes, agency policy and recording office practices change; confirm current requirements before acting.