Lady Bird Deed Broward County: Recorded by the County, Not the Clerk
A lady bird deed Broward County residents sign does not go to the Clerk of Courts at all. It goes to a division of county government on Andrews Avenue, which makes Broward the odd one out among Florida’s largest counties. At Lorenzo Law I handle these throughout Broward. Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., Florida Bar No. 107002.
| Broward County | Where |
|---|---|
| Deeds | Records, Taxes and Treasury Division, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Room 114, Fort Lauderdale |
| Homestead and parcel data | Property Appraiser, same building, Room 111 |
| Probate | Clerk of Courts, 201 SE 6th Street, Room 03150 — a different building |
| Judicial circuit | Seventeenth — Broward County alone |
| Recording, page one | $10.00, then $8.50 each later page |
| Documentary stamps | $0.70 per $100 — the standard rate, no surtax |
| Lorenzo Law flat fee | $675, recording included |
| Call | (305) 224-6811 |
Who records deeds in Broward County?
The county does — Records, Taxes and Treasury, at 115 S. Andrews Avenue, Room 114. It is a department of county government, staffed by county employees, answering to no elected officer of its own.
Everywhere else in Florida the recorder is a constitutional officer. § 28.222 states the default in one line: the clerk of the circuit court shall be the recorder of all instruments required or authorised by law to be recorded in the county. The section carries no exception for anybody else.
Broward’s Clerk of Courts describes itself as the record-keeper for the county’s court system. Its published fee schedule runs to appeals, civil, family, probate, marriage licences and passports, and contains no recording fee at all, because it does not record deeds. That is not an oversight. It is the arrangement.
| County | Who takes the deed | Who takes the probate |
|---|---|---|
| Broward | Records, Taxes and Treasury — county administration | Clerk of Courts, a different building |
| Miami-Dade | Clerk of the Court & Comptroller, level five | Same building, level six |
| Palm Beach | Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller | Same office, same address |
| Orange | County Comptroller, East Church Street | Clerk of Courts, North Orange Avenue |
| Seminole | Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller | Civil Justice Center, four miles away |
Five counties, four different arrangements, and Broward is the only one where the deed never touches a court office.
Is that arrangement still supposed to be in place?
Statutorily, no — and this is worth saying out loud. A special act sent the recorder function back to the elected Clerk with effect from 7 January 2025. The county is still performing it.
The history runs like this. Broward’s 1975 charter moved the clerk’s county administrative duties to the county administrator and its fiscal duties to a finance department. In 2018 the voters approved a constitutional amendment that removed the power to reassign those offices by charter. The Legislature then passed a special act — chapter 2020-194, approved in June 2020 — whose section 2(2) says the recorder duties “shall be transferred by Broward County to the clerk of the circuit court effective January 7, 2025,” or earlier if the two of them agreed.
As of today the county still holds itself out as the recorder, still runs the official records portal, and still publishes the recording fee schedule; the Clerk still charges no recording fee and still points enquiries about deeds to the county. I searched for a later special act, a repeal, an extension or a published interlocal agreement leaving performance with the county, and did not find one. That does not mean none exists.
The practical answer for anyone recording a deed this month is unchanged: take it to 115 S. Andrews Avenue, Room 114, or send it there. Telephone 954-831-4000 first, because the county does not publish counter hours for that room and because this is precisely the sort of arrangement that changes without a press release. The reason to know any of it is narrower than it looks. When an office moves, indexes and procedures move with it, and a deed recorded in a transition is the kind of document that goes missing for a fortnight.
What does a lady bird deed Broward County owners record cost?
$10.00 for the first page, $8.50 after that, and seventy cents per $100 in stamps. A two-page deed with four or fewer names records for $18.50 before tax.
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| First page | $10.00 |
| Each additional page | $8.50 |
| Each name indexed beyond four | $1.00 |
| Record search, per name per year | $2.00 |
| Certification | $2.00 |
| Documentary stamps on the deed | $0.70 per $100 |
| Documentary stamps on a note | $0.35 per $100 |
The stamp figure is the one that can turn into a real bill. § 201.02 treats an existing mortgage as consideration for the transfer whether or not the new interest holder assumes the debt, so a gift of a mortgaged house is taxed on the loan balance rather than on the ten dollars the deed recites. A property carrying $300,000 attracts $2,100 at the counter, and the firm’s $675 does not cover it, because it is a state tax rather than a service.
Broward levies no discretionary surtax on top, and structurally it cannot. § 125.0167 permits the surtax only in a county as defined by § 125.011, which describes a county operating under a home rule charter adopted under the 1885 constitution — a definition that fits exactly one place, and it is not this one. Broward pays the ordinary rate, on ordinary terms, and the only county in Florida that does otherwise is the one immediately to the south.
Can I e-record the deed myself?
Almost certainly not. Broward accepts electronic submissions through six approved vendors, and the county’s own guidance notes that those vendors may not offer single-use submission.
| Vendor | Telephone |
|---|---|
| CSC eRecording | 866-652-0111 |
| E-Docs Solutions | 888-973-3627 |
| eRecording Partners Network | 888-325-3365 |
| Hopdox | 385-503-5103 |
| ICE Mortgage Technology | 800-460-5657 |
| Indecomm | 877-272-5250 |
This is a genuinely useful thing to understand before you start. E-recording exists for firms, title companies and lenders that maintain accounts and submit continuously. It is not a consumer channel, and a person at a kitchen table with one deed is not the customer these vendors are built for. Direct submission by the public is not available; the county takes electronic documents only through the vendor layer, with new vendors validated against its land records system before they are allowed to transmit.
So the realistic routes for one deed are counter or post — or through somebody who already has the account. Nothing about that makes the electronic route better as a matter of law. § 695.27 is permissive, not mandatory: a county recorder may accept electronic documents, must continue accepting paper, and must index both in the same series. Paper is not second class. It is merely slower.
Does the deed affect homestead here?
Not if it is drafted correctly, and Broward makes the exemption side easy to check. The Property Appraiser sits three rooms from the recording counter, in the same building on Andrews Avenue.
| Broward County Property Appraiser | Detail |
|---|---|
| Office | 115 S. Andrews Ave., Room 111, Fort Lauderdale · (954) 357-6830 |
| Hours | Weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Tested as of | 1 January — the date permanent residence is determined |
| Filing window, 2027 tax year | 3 March 2026 to 1 March 2027 |
| Late-filing cutoff, 2027 | 18 September 2026 for 2026; 20 September 2027 for 2027 |
| Parcels on the 2025 roll | 757,848 |
| Parcels capped under Save Our Homes | 394,525 |
One convenience specific to this county: the online homestead application detects an applicant who has held homestead anywhere in Florida within the last three tax years and prompts them to complete a portability application. That matters because portability is the benefit people most often forfeit by not knowing it exists, and forfeiting it is permanent.
The deed itself should not disturb any of this. Drafted properly, the owner keeps a life estate together with the unrestricted power to sell, mortgage or revoke, so the exemption and the assessment cap continue undisturbed. Drafted improperly — without those retained powers — the instrument becomes a completed gift of a remainder interest, and the analysis changes on every front at once.
What happens to a condominium after the owner dies?
The remainder beneficiary takes the unit and the unpaid assessments with it. § 718.116 makes an owner liable for assessments falling due during ownership, and jointly liable with the previous owner for arrears.
Broward’s condominium stock is large. The state’s licensing database lists 3,278 condominium projects and 216,395 units in this county, and its own note is that only approved projects with eight or more units are counted, so the real figure is higher. Set that beside 757,848 parcels on the tax roll and the shape of the problem is clear enough without pretending the two agencies are counting the same thing.
Before signing anything on a unit, get the estoppel certificate and read what it says about special assessments. An association is bound by the figure it certifies; a family that never asked is bound by whatever the truth turns out to be.
Does a Broward condominium face two inspection regimes?
It can, and that is unusual. The statewide milestone inspection and the county’s own Building Safety Inspection Program are separate schemes with separate triggers.
§ 553.899 reaches buildings of three or more habitable storeys held in condominium or co-operative form, requiring a milestone inspection by the end of the year the building turns thirty and every ten years after, with local agencies able to move that forward where salt air justifies it. § 718.112 adds the structural integrity reserve study and stops owner-controlled associations voting to underfund what it covers.
Alongside that, Broward County runs its own Building Safety Inspection Program through the Board of Rules and Appeals, under section 110.15 of the county’s administrative provisions to the Florida Building Code and Board Policy 05-05. Its coverage is drawn differently: it is not confined to condominiums, and it is not confined to buildings of three storeys or more. Single-family homes, duplexes and structures under 3,500 square feet are exempt, and the recurrence is every ten years. This page does not state the county’s age trigger, because the county’s own published material and the municipalities applying it do not agree on the figure. Ask the Board of Rules and Appeals what applies to your building rather than taking a number off any website, including this one.
The point for a deed is simply this: a Broward building can sit inside the state scheme, the county scheme, or both, and none of those obligations pauses because the property changed hands at a death. Whoever receives the unit receives the inspection cycle and the reserve funding that goes with it.
Where does the estate go if the deed fails?
The Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which covers Broward and nothing else. § 26.021 composes the Seventeenth of this county alone.
The probate division sits at 201 SE 6th Street, in Room 03150 of the West Building, open weekdays from 8 a.m. until half past three — note the early close, which is earlier than most Florida probate counters. That is about a mile and a half from where the deed was recorded, and under different management entirely.
A single-county circuit is the easier kind to practise in: one set of administrative orders, one bench, no cross-county variation. Seminole County, by contrast, shares the Eighteenth with Brevard, sixty miles east. But an easy probate is still a probate, with an inventory, a creditor period and a file that anyone can read. A deed that works avoids all of it.
What should I bring to a consultation?
The recorded deed, the folio number, and the mortgage statement. Those three answer the questions that determine both the tax and whether the deed can be drafted at all.
If the property is a condominium, add the most recent assessment notice and anything the association has sent about a special assessment or an inspection. If anyone in the family receives needs-based assistance, say so at the outset, because a remainder interest arriving at death can end a benefit and the remedy has to be designed into the instrument rather than bolted on later. Our preparation checklist covers the rest.
How do I reach an attorney for this county?
Call (305) 224-6811. A standard matter is $675 including the recording charges, quoted after the title has been read and before drafting starts, with the stamp tax stated separately because it follows your mortgage.
That covers Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, Coral Springs, Plantation, Davie, Pompano Beach, Sunrise and the rest of the county.
Related reading: the statewide lady bird deed attorney page sets out the fee and when a lawyer is worth paying, the Miami page covers the neighbouring county and its different stamp tax, the Palm Beach County page covers the one immediately north, and the Altamonte Springs page covers Seminole County. Whether this instrument is the right one for your property depends on the mortgage, the family and the building — which is why the first conversation starts with documents rather than with a price.
One last thing worth saying plainly, because it is the question behind most of these enquiries. A free form downloaded from a template site will usually satisfy the mechanical requirements — two witnesses, a notary, the preparer named on the face of it. What it cannot do is check the mortgage balance that sets your tax, read the estoppel certificate on your building, or draft the retained powers that keep this an enhanced life estate rather than an outright gift. The counter records a defective instrument as cheerfully as a good one. Which is the entire argument for a lady bird deed Broward County residents can rely on.
Last updated: 7 August 2026.
What changed: new page. Addresses and fees taken from the county’s own schedules; the recorder arrangement traced to chapter 2020-194, Laws of Florida, and stated as it operates rather than as the act directs; the Building Safety Inspection Program described without an age trigger, because published sources conflict; statutes cited to the 2025 edition. No counter hours are stated, because none are published.
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.