Lady Bird Deed Attorney in Florida: What It Costs and When You Actually Need One
Most people searching for a lady bird deed attorney in Florida want two answers: what the deed actually costs, and whether they need a lawyer at all. At Lorenzo Law I answer both on this page, with the statutory recording charges, the documentary stamp position, and the fact patterns where a downloaded form quietly fails. Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., Florida Bar No. 107002.
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Is there a Florida statute creating this deed? | No. It is common law, recognised in title practice by Uniform Title Standards 6.10–6.12 |
| Witnesses required? | Two subscribing witnesses, under § 689.01 |
| What it costs at Lorenzo Law | $675 flat, recording included |
| What recording actually costs | $10.00 first page, $8.50 each later page, under § 28.24 |
| Documentary stamp tax on recording | DOR advised none is due in TAA 20B4-004 — see the caveat below |
| Homestead exemption kept? | Yes, on the reasoning of § 196.031 |
| Probate avoided? | Yes, if the deed is valid and the remainder is correctly drafted |
| Who to call | Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr. · (305) 224-6811 |
Do I need a lawyer for a lady bird deed in Florida?
No law requires one. Florida lets any competent adult sign a deed. Whether that is wise depends on who else has a claim to the property: a spouse, a minor child, a lender.
The deed itself is a single page. The analysis behind it is not. Before drafting, the questions that decide whether the instrument works are: does anyone occupy the property as homestead, is there a surviving spouse, is there a minor child, is there a mortgage, and how is title currently held. Get any of those wrong and the deed either fails at the courthouse or fails years later when the family tries to sell.
That is the honest division. The document is cheap. The judgment about whether it fits your title is what you are paying for.
How much does a lady bird deed cost in Florida?
$675 at Lorenzo Law, recording included. That covers the title review, the drafting, the execution and the county’s recording charges. In most cases no documentary stamp tax is due on top.
| Component | Amount | Authority / note |
|---|---|---|
| Lorenzo Law flat fee | $675 | title review, drafting, execution, recording |
| Base service charge, page one | $5.00 | § 28.24, inside the fee |
| Records modernization and court technology | $5.00 more on page one | same statute, separate subsections |
| Recording, page one, all in | $10.00 | what the counter actually takes |
| Recording, each later page | $8.50 | $4.00 base plus $4.50 in add-ons |
| Indexing, each name past the first four | $1.00 | § 28.24 |
| Documentary stamp tax | generally none | DOR TAA 20B4-004 |
Those recording figures are broken out because you will see them quoted elsewhere as though you pay them separately. Beware in particular the widely repeated claim that a deed records for $5.00 — that is the base charge in isolation, and no county collects it alone. The add-ons are statutory and identical statewide, so a two-page deed records for $18.50 almost everywhere. What genuinely differs by county is the stamp rate, which is $0.70 per $100 outside Miami-Dade.
The flat figure holds for a standard matter: one property, a clean chain of title, a straightforward set of beneficiaries. A blended family, a reverse mortgage, an out-of-state co-owner or a parcel last conveyed by a defective quit claim takes more work, and anything outside the standard case is quoted after the title review rather than guessed at beforehand.
Can you do a lady bird deed without an attorney?
You can, and thousands of people do. The risk is not rejection at the counter. It is that the clerk accepts the deed and nobody finds the defect until the owner has died.
Recording is largely ministerial. Under § 695.26 the instrument needs printed names and post-office addresses beneath the signatures, the preparer’s name and address, printed witness names, and a three-inch by three-inch blank square at the top right of the first page. Meet those formatting rules and it goes on record. None of it tests whether the conveyance is legally effective.
What does a lady bird deed attorney actually do?
Four things, in this order: read the current vesting deed, test the homestead and family restrictions, draft the enhanced life estate language, then confirm the exemption survives on the appraiser’s roll.
A lady bird deed is a deed reserving a life estate together with a retained power to sell, mortgage or convey the whole fee without the remaindermen joining. An enhanced life estate deed is the same instrument under its formal name. That retained power is the entire mechanism, and it is also the part that a generic template most often gets wrong or waters down.
Reading the existing vesting deed matters more than people expect. If the property is held as tenants by the entireties, or as joint tenants with an express survivorship clause under § 689.15, the survivorship already controls and a new deed signed by one owner may accomplish nothing.
When does Florida homestead law block the deed?
When there is a surviving spouse or a minor child. § 732.4015 bars devising homestead in that situation, except a devise to the spouse where no minor child exists.
Where a restricted transfer fails, § 732.401 takes over: the surviving spouse takes a life estate with a vested remainder to the descendants, or may elect a one-half tenancy in common within six months. The outcome is a property owned by people who did not choose each other and often cannot agree to sell.
This is the single most common defect in a homemade deed. A parent with a minor child at home signs a deed to an adult child from a first marriage, and the restriction voids the result.
Does a lady bird deed trigger documentary stamp tax?
Florida’s Department of Revenue has advised that it does not. Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004 concluded the deed transfers no present beneficial interest, because the remainder stays contingent until the life tenant dies.
Two qualifications belong with that answer, and most competing pages omit both. First, under § 213.22 a technical assistance advisement binds only the taxpayer who requested it; it is guidance, not a statute. Second, § 201.02 defines consideration to include the amount of any mortgage, “whether or not the underlying indebtedness is assumed.”
Mortgaged property is therefore the open question, and it is the situation where a wrong assumption costs real money at $0.70 per $100 statewide. If there is a loan on the house, that analysis should happen before the deed is signed, not after the tax notice arrives.
Will I keep my homestead exemption and Save Our Homes cap?
Generally yes, because the life tenant keeps beneficial title. § 196.031 grants the exemption to a person holding “the legal title or beneficial title in equity” who occupies the property as a permanent residence.
The assessment cap follows the same logic. § 193.155 reassesses homestead at just value after a change of ownership, and excludes transfers between legal and equitable title where no new applicant claims the exemption. Because the life tenant remains in possession with full control, practitioners treat the cap as undisturbed.
State that as a reasoned position rather than a holding. No Florida case or property tax rule squarely decides it, and any page telling you otherwise is overstating what the authorities say.
Does a lady bird deed stop Medicaid estate recovery?
In Florida, yes — because recovery runs only through probate. § 409.9101 directs the agency to recover by filing a claim against the estate “as provided in part VII of chapter 733.”
Federal law at 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(b)(4) lets a state extend recovery, at its option, to interests passing outside probate by life estate, joint tenancy or trust. Florida did not take that option. Property that vests in the remaindermen automatically at death never enters the probate estate, so no claim can attach to it. Separately, § 409.9101 exempts property protected from creditors under the state constitution.
What goes wrong with a free lady bird deed form?
Four failures recur, and each one is invisible until the owner has died.
| Failure | What happens |
|---|---|
| Retained power drafted too narrowly | Life tenant cannot sell or refinance without the remaindermen signing |
| Homestead restriction ignored | Transfer void; § 732.401 descent applies instead |
| Legal description copied from a tax bill | Instrument records but does not convey the parcel |
| Remainderman predeceases, no alternate named | Interest lapses back into the estate; probate happens anyway |
A DIY form cannot check any of these, because a blank template has no way to know what your existing deed says. The template is not the problem. The absence of anyone reading your title is.
Is a lady bird deed the same as a transfer on death deed?
No — and Florida is why the question comes up. About half the states have a transfer on death deed statute. Florida does not, which is why the enhanced life estate deed became standard here.
That absence explains a lot of the confusion online. Forms marketed nationally as “transfer on death deeds” have no statutory footing in Florida, and a Florida clerk recording one is not validating it. The Florida instrument that achieves the same result is the deed described on this page.
It is also distinct from a quit claim deed. A quit claim conveys whatever interest the grantor holds, immediately and irrevocably, and hands the grantee a present ownership stake along with the grantor’s control. Comparing the two matters because a quit claim signed to “avoid probate” usually creates a gift, a tax event and a co-owner who must consent to any future sale.
Can a lady bird deed be contested in Florida?
Yes — on the same grounds as any other deed. Capacity, undue influence, forgery, and failure to meet the two-witness requirement are the usual challenges, and the homestead restrictions supply a fifth.
The practical difference is who bears the burden. A properly witnessed and recorded deed carries a presumption of validity, so the person attacking it must prove the defect. A deed signed without witnesses, or witnessed by the very people who take the remainder, invites the argument. That is one more reason the execution ceremony is not a formality to be rushed through at a kitchen table.
Where does a lady bird deed get recorded in Florida?
In the official records of the county where the land sits — not where you live, and not where the beneficiaries live. § 695.01 makes an unrecorded conveyance ineffective against creditors and later purchasers without notice.
The office that takes the filing is not uniform across the state. In most counties it is the Clerk of the Circuit Court. In Orange County the Comptroller keeps official records while the Clerk handles probate, so a filer who goes to the courthouse with a deed is in the wrong building. Recording surcharges and e-recording portals also differ county by county.
What should I bring to the first consultation?
The current deed, the property appraiser’s parcel number, and the mortgage statement. With those three documents the title question can usually be answered in the first meeting rather than the second.
Also useful: the names and ages of everyone who would inherit, whether any of them receives needs-based benefits, and whether anyone besides you lives at the property. If a beneficiary is on SSI or Medicaid, an outright remainder can cost them eligibility, and a different structure may serve better.
How do I hire a lady bird deed attorney at Lorenzo Law?
Call (305) 224-6811 and ask for a deed review. Bring the three documents listed above. For a standard matter the figure is $675, recording included, confirmed before any drafting starts.
I handle these personally across Florida — Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Hillsborough among them. If a deed is the wrong tool for your situation I will say so, and the comparison pages below set out the alternatives honestly: the lady bird deed practice guide, the Florida lady bird deed form, tax consequences in detail, deed versus living trust, and how it compares to a quit claim deed. Speaking with a lady bird deed attorney before signing costs far less than unwinding a defective instrument afterwards.
Which county page do you need?
Recording is local even though the law is not. Which office takes the deed, what the counter charges, which circuit hears the estate if the instrument fails — all of that changes at the county line, and in one county so does the tax itself. Six county pages carry the detail this one cannot.
| County page | What is different there |
|---|---|
| Miami and Miami-Dade | The only county in Florida below $0.70 per $100 — and a surtax that turns on how many residences one deed conveys |
| Broward County | Deeds recorded by a county department rather than by any court officer |
| Palm Beach County | One combined office for deeds and probate, and a homestead rule that flips on a seasonal home |
| Orlando and Orange County | Recording and probate split between two elected officers in two buildings |
| Altamonte Springs and Seminole | Deeds recorded in Sanford, in a circuit shared with Brevard County on the coast |
| Kissimmee and Osceola | Roughly half the homes carry no homestead exemption, and community development district assessments follow the property |
| Tampa and Hillsborough | Deeds on Pierce Street, probate two blocks away on Twiggs — and two different post office boxes |
| Jacksonville and Duval | Florida’s only consolidated city-county government, and why it changes nothing at the recording counter |
| Pinellas County | The oldest and most densely populated county in the state, with counters in Clearwater and St. Petersburg |
| Fort Myers and Lee County | Mandatory probate checklists, where a missing one gets the order deleted |
| Cape Coral | 77.2 percent owner-occupied against 49.1 percent statewide, inside a special flood hazard area |
| Naples and Collier County | No probate case management at all, in the same circuit as Lee |
| Sarasota | The property appraiser states in writing that a life estate keeps the homestead exemption |
| Pensacola and Escambia | Central Time, and a recording counter that closes at 3:30 on Fridays |
| St. Augustine and St. Johns | The oldest chains of title in the country, under a 50-year architectural review overlay |
Before any of those conversations, our preparation checklist sets out what to gather.
Last updated: 6 August 2026.
What changed: statutory citations refreshed against the 2025 Florida Statutes, the current published edition; documentary stamp discussion rewritten around DOR Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004 and its § 213.22 limits; mortgaged-property treatment flagged as unsettled.
Written and reviewed by Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., attorney, Florida Bar No. 107002.
This page is general information about Florida law and does not constitute legal advice for any particular situation. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.