Orlando Lady Bird Deed Attorney: Where Orange County Actually Files Your Deed

An Orlando lady bird deed keeps one Florida house out of probate. You keep the house, keep control of it, and keep the right to sell it or change your mind — and when you die it passes to whoever you named, without going through the Orange County probate court at all.

As an Orlando lady bird deed attorney, I draft and record these for property in Orlando and across Orange County at a $675 flat fee. That includes speaking directly with me, deed preparation, online notarization, witnesses, county recording fees, and the minimum documentary stamp charge. Any documentary stamp tax above that minimum is separate, and I work out the figure and explain it before you proceed.

Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., Florida Bar No. 107002. Call (305) 224-6811 to talk about your Orlando property.

Working with me on an Orlando deed without an office visit

Most of my Orange County clients never come to an office, and nothing about the county work requires it. The consultation is by phone or video. The signing happens in front of a notary near you with two witnesses, or by remote online notarization. The deed is then e-recorded with the Orange County Comptroller.

My offices are in Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale. I am a Florida lawyer handling matters statewide, and an Orlando lady bird deed does not require you to visit either one. The full step-by-step process is set out below.

1. Consultation. A call with me, not an intake form. We go through who owns the property, who you want it to pass to, and whether a lady bird deed is the right instrument at all.
2. Ownership, and reading the recorded deed. I read your recorded deed and the parcel record, confirm the legal description against them, and go over the homestead and marital position with you before anything is drafted.
3. Draft for your approval. You see the deed and we go through it together. Nothing is signed until you are satisfied with what it says.
4. Signing. Either online, where the requirements for remote online notarization are met — I check that before we schedule — or in front of a notary near you with two witnesses. Both routes are ordinary; which one fits depends on your circumstances.
5. Recording, and your copy. The deed is e-recorded with the Orange County Comptroller and the recorded copy comes back to you with its book, page and instrument number.

Helping a parent with an Orlando property?

A good share of the calls I take about Orange County property come from an adult child, not the owner. That works, and it is often the only reason the deed gets done at all. It works because everyone is clear about who does what. The full version is on my page about arranging a deed for your parent.

Person	Responsibility
Adult child	Gather the current deed, the parcel and property information, and handle scheduling. Sit in on the call if your parent wants you there.
Property owner	Take part in the consultation and say what they want to happen to the house. Signing arrangements depend on their circumstances.
Jose	Review ownership and title, assess whether the deed is suitable, examine any power of attorney being relied on, and confirm what execution requires.

One thing worth saying plainly, because it is the assumption that causes the most trouble: arranging the appointment does not give a child authority to sign for a parent. That authority comes from a durable power of attorney with the right language in it, and even then it is not automatic — whether a power of attorney can sign a lady bird deed in Florida is its own question, with its own answer.

A hypothetical, to show the shape of it. A daughter in Atlanta calls about her mother’s house near Lake Nona. She confirms from the property records that the parcel really is in Orange County rather than Osceola, sends me the last recorded deed and the parcel number, and sets up a video call that all three of us join. Her mother does the talking about what she wants. The signing is arranged around her mother’s situation, the deed is e-recorded with the Comptroller, and the recorded copy goes to both of them. The daughter organized it; her mother decided it.

What is a lady bird deed, and how does it work in Orlando?

A lady bird deed is how you avoid probate on one Florida house. It is the most common of the Orlando probate alternatives, and people search for it as a lady bird deed Orlando Florida, an Orlando ladybird deed, or simply a way to keep the house out of probate court. You keep the house, keep control of it, and keep the right to sell it or change your mind — and when you die the house passes to whoever you named without going through the Orange County probate court at all. The instrument has three names and they all mean the same document. Lady bird deed is what clients call it. Ladybird deed is how half of them spell it. Enhanced life estate deed is what it is called in the Florida Bar’s Uniform Title Standards and in the deed itself.

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

Yes. One word or two, it is the same instrument — a ladybird deed and a lady bird deed are identical, and so is an enhanced life estate deed. The spelling splits roughly evenly among the people who call me, and neither version is more correct than the other. The document I record says “enhanced life estate deed” at the top, because that is the term the Uniform Title Standards use.

How does a lady bird deed work in Florida?

You sign one deed. It conveys a remainder interest to the people you name, but it reserves to you the full power to sell, mortgage, lease or give the property away during your lifetime without asking any of them. Because you keep that power, nothing has really left your hands — the remainder stays defeasible while you live. When you die, whatever remainder is still standing vests immediately in the people you named, outside probate.

That single structural fact is what produces every other consequence on this page: why there is no gift tax return, why the homestead exemption survives, why Medicaid estate recovery has nothing to attach to, and why your heirs get a stepped-up basis.

Is a lady bird deed even legal in Florida?

Yes — but it is worth being precise about why, because no Florida statute creates the instrument and no appellate decision squarely validates one.

The foundation is Oglesby v. Lee, 73 Fla. 39, 73 So. 840 (1917), which recognized that a life estate coupled with a reserved power of disposition does not merge into a fee and does not defeat the remainder. On top of that sit the Florida Bar’s Uniform Title Standards — 6.10 for non-homestead property, 6.11 for a homestead life tenant, and 6.12 for a homestead remainderman. Standard 6.11 is the one that matters for most Orlando houses, because most Orlando houses are homestead.

So the honest description is that the enhanced life estate deed is long-recognized under Florida common law and endorsed by the Bar’s title standards, and title underwriters insure them routinely. It is not a creature of statute, and anyone telling you Florida law “expressly authorizes” it is overstating.

Why is it called a lady bird deed?

Because of a hypothetical. The Florida elder law attorney Jerome Ira Solkoff used a fictional transfer from Lyndon Johnson to his wife, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, to illustrate the technique in teaching materials, and the nickname stuck. President Johnson never actually used one. The proper name is enhanced life estate deed, which is what appears in the Uniform Title Standards and in the document I record.

Is a “Lady Bird Trust” a real thing?

No. There is no such instrument in Florida or anywhere else. It is a mash-up of two different tools that people search for because they have heard both terms and assume they combine.

What does exist, and is sometimes what the person actually wants, is a lady bird deed that names a revocable living trust as the remainder beneficiary. That works, and it is a sensible structure when the trust already handles the rest of the estate.

If the property is already held by a trust or an LLC, one drafting point decides whether the deed works at all. A trust is not a legal entity in Florida, so the deed names the trustee rather than the trust. An LLC is different: it is a legal entity and holds title in its own name, so what matters there is that the right person signs for it, in the right capacity. If you are considering moving your home into an LLC, know what it costs: the Florida Constitution exempts homestead owned by a natural person, so a residence titled in a company has no protection from forced sale, no homestead exemption and no Save Our Homes cap. And it must identify the trust by name and date: under section 689.07 a deed that adds only the word trustee, without naming the trust or its date, hands the trustee the property in fee simple with full power to sell and encumber it — the opposite of what was intended, and a problem nobody notices until the property is being sold. The fee-simple result is not automatic, though. The presumption gives way where the deed shows in some other way that a trust was intended, or where a declaration of trust by that trustee is already recorded in the county: Raborn v. Menotte, 974 So. 2d 328 (Fla. 2008). Subsection (4) also lets a beneficiary enforce the trust against the trustee whether or not the trust was recorded first. That protection has a limit worth knowing: a buyer or lender who deals with the trustee for value, without notice of the trust, before the declaration of trust is recorded in the county, takes free and clear of the beneficiaries.

How much does a lady bird deed cost in Orlando?

How much does it cost to do a ladybird deed in Florida? In Orange County, with me, $675 — with the county charges included rather than added afterwards. The $675 fee includes speaking directly with attorney Jose Lorenzo, reading your recorded deed, deed preparation, online notarization, witnesses, county recording fees, and the minimum documentary stamp charge. Any documentary stamp tax above that minimum is separate, and it is explained to you before you proceed. The fee covers a standard two-page deed recorded with the Comptroller.

All Orange County recording charges are inside that figure, not added to it, and so is the minimum documentary stamp charge. The one cost that can land outside the fee is documentary stamp tax above that minimum, which in practice means a property carrying a mortgage. Where that applies I work out the figure and tell you before any drafting begins.

For comparison, the published Orlando market runs from about $225 for non-attorney document preparation to $1,150 at the top of one local firm’s three-tier schedule, and the statewide range attorneys quote is roughly $400 to $1,000 before taxes and recording. A revocable living trust, which does more but costs more, runs $2,000 to $5,000. Probate on an Orange County house that the deed would have avoided runs into the thousands and takes months.

There is one other published fee, and it applies after a death rather than before. A review of the recorded lady bird deed with a 30-minute consultation is $475 — the review and that half hour are the whole of it, not a retainer. A probate, an ancillary administration or a corrective deed is separate work, scoped and quoted before it begins. The procedure itself is on my page about what a family does after the owner dies.

What does recording cost at the Orange County Comptroller?

$10.00 for the first page and $8.50 for every page after it. Names beyond the first four cost $1.00 each to index, so a two-page deed with two owners records for $18.50.

Charge	Authority	Page one	Later pages
Base service charge	§ 28.24(13)(a)–(b)	$5.00	$4.00
Public Records Modernization Trust Fund	§ 28.24(13)(d)	$1.00	$0.50
Court technology	§ 28.24(13)(e)	$4.00	$4.00
Total collected		$10.00	$8.50

Those components are statutory and substantially identical across Florida, so the widely repeated claim that a deed records for five dollars describes one line item nobody actually pays alone. What genuinely varies between counties is the stamp tax, and Orange sits at the ordinary rate. None of it arrives as a separate bill — the whole figure sits inside the $675 flat fee rather than on top of it.

Do I need an attorney to file a lady bird deed in Florida?

No law requires one, and no rule stops you filing it yourself. Whether you should is a different question, and the honest answer is that it depends entirely on what your chain of title looks like — which is the one thing a form cannot tell you.

A lady bird deed attorney reads your existing deed. A free form cannot tell whether the house is held by the entireties, whether a former spouse remains in the chain, or whether your tax bill’s description was ever conveyed.

Nor can it apply the homestead restrictions in Article X, section 4(c) and § 732.4015 — the ones that require your spouse to join and that stop the remainder passing where a minor child survives. Or check that the signing satisfies § 689.01, which still demands two subscribing witnesses for a conveyance of land. Or name alternate takers so the deed survives a beneficiary dying first.

A form is a document. What you are buying is the reading of the recorded deed that tells you whether the document will work.

Is a free lady bird deed form, template or PDF worth it?

A downloadable lady bird deed template, a printable sample, or a do it yourself lady bird deed example costs $18 to $39. What it does not include is anyone reading your recorded deed, and every failure mode on this page — the missing spousal joinder, the surviving minor child, the beneficiary who dies first with no alternate named, the reserved power drafted too narrowly to let you sell — is invisible on the face of a correctly formatted form.

The asymmetry is the whole argument. A blank template, a sample deed printed from a legal forms site, or a do-it-yourself PDF will all record without objection at the Comptroller’s counter. None of them will pass title if the underlying transfer was not one you were legally entitled to make. If you want to see what the document itself contains before deciding, the Florida lady bird deed form page walks through it clause by clause.

Where does an Orlando deed actually get recorded?

With the Orange County Comptroller, not the Clerk of Courts. Official Records sit at 109 E. Church Street, Suite 300, open weekdays 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and the department’s own line is (407) 836-5115. Mail reaches the same office at P.O. Box 38, Orlando 32802.

Most Florida counties put recording and probate under one elected Clerk; Orange separates them. Someone who drives downtown to the courthouse on North Orange Avenue holding a signed deed has reached the right city and the wrong building, and gets sent back across town.

Recording matters because § 695.01(1) provides that an unrecorded conveyance is not “good and effectual in law or equity against creditors or subsequent purchasers for a valuable consideration and without notice.” A deed sitting in a drawer protects nobody.

Orange County	Where
Deeds and official records	Comptroller, Official Records, 109 E. Church St., Suite 300, Orlando 32801 · (407) 836-5115 · weekdays 7:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Probate	Clerk of the Circuit Court, 425 N. Orange Ave., Suite 335, Orlando 32801
Homestead and parcel data	Property Appraiser, 200 S. Orange Ave., Suite 1700 — full details below
Judicial circuit	Ninth, shared with Osceola
Lorenzo Law flat fee	$675, recording included
Recording, page one	$10.00, then $8.50 each later page
Documentary stamps	$0.70 per $100 — the standard rate, not the Miami-Dade rate
Spouse must sign?	Yes, if you are married and the property is homestead
Call	(305) 224-6811

The county’s own pages are the authoritative source for all of this:

• Orange County Comptroller — Official Records
• Search Orange County recorded documents
• Official recording fees
• Orange County e-recording

One check before any of it: confirm which county the parcel is actually in from the property records themselves, not from the mailing address. An Orlando mailing city does not mean the land sits in Orange County, and a deed sent to the wrong recorder is a wasted week.

Does a lady bird deed have to be notarized, and does it have to be recorded?

Both. A lady bird deed does have to be notarized, and it does have to be recorded. The signing needs two subscribing witnesses under § 689.01 and a notary, and the executed deed then has to reach the Comptroller’s official records to do the work § 695.01(1) describes. A notarized deed that never gets recorded, and a recorded deed that was never properly witnessed, fail in different ways and both fail.

A notary is not without responsibility in this. Under section 117.107(5) a Florida notary has a duty to refuse to notarize if it appears the signer is not mentally capable of understanding the nature and effect of the document. But that duty is a floor, not a legal assessment. Nobody at the notary’s desk is weighing whether you have the capacity to make this particular disposition, and nobody there is building the record that defends it if someone challenges it years afterwards.

Will Orange County reject my deed for formatting?

It can, and this is the most avoidable way a DIY deed fails. § 695.26 sets the requirements and the Comptroller’s counter applies them:

• A 3-inch by 3-inch blank space at the top right of the first page, and a 1-inch by 3-inch blank space at the top right of each subsequent page, for the recording stamp.
• The printed name and post office address of each person signing, beneath the signature.
• Printed names beneath the witnesses’ signatures and beneath the notary’s.
• The name and post office address of the natural person who prepared the instrument.
• The name and address of the grantee.
• 8½ × 11 white paper, minimum one-inch margins elsewhere, recording-information boxes left blank.

Note the asymmetry, because it is the real argument for using a lawyer. The counter checks formatting. Nobody at the Comptroller checks whether you were legally entitled to make the transfer. A deed that violates the homestead joinder requirement is rejected by no one and recorded like any other instrument.

What happens if the legal description is wrong?

The legal description is the part of the deed that identifies which piece of land you are conveying, and it is not the same thing as your street address or the description printed on your tax bill. A deed carrying a description that was never actually conveyed into your name, or that describes a different parcel, records exactly as cleanly as a correct one and creates a defect nobody finds until a buyer’s underwriter looks.

Pulling the description from the recorded deed rather than copying it off the tax bill is a substantial part of what that reading is for.

Can a lady bird deed be e-recorded in Orange County?

Yes. Orange County participates in the CSC e-recording network, and the Comptroller publishes its own e-recording business rules for submitters. Paper still works — recording in person during counter hours, or by post, remains available, and for a single deed the difference is a day or two rather than anything structural.

What e-recording does not do is check the instrument. Submission software validates margins, page size and fee arithmetic; it has no view on whether the grantor could lawfully make the transfer. An electronically submitted deed that violates the homestead restriction is rejected by nobody and recorded like any other, which is the same failure as the paper version arriving faster.

How do I search Orange County deed records to confirm mine recorded?

The Comptroller’s official records are online and searchable by name and by instrument number, so an Orange County deed search will show you your own recorded instrument, its book and page, and the date it was accepted. The county attaches its own caution to that index: it is a guide to the documents, not a substitute for reading them. The Property Appraiser’s property records at ocpafl.org are the companion lookup — it carries the parcel number, the assessed value and the homestead status.

Checking both after recording is worth the five minutes. A deed that was accepted but indexed against a misspelled name is a real and recurring problem, and it is far easier to correct in the same month than in the same decade.

How long does the whole thing take in Orange County?

Days, not months. Drafting follows the reading of the recorded deed, signing needs two witnesses and a notary in one room or one video session, and recording is usually same-day at the counter, and the Comptroller’s own guidance is that e-recorded documents are typically recorded the same day when they go in during business hours. Treat both as typical turnarounds rather than guarantees — submissions are worked through a queue, and a busy day or an outage moves them.

The delay, when there is one, is almost always reading the recorded deed rather than the paperwork. A house bought once, held by one couple, with a mortgage from a bank that still exists, reviews in an afternoon. A parcel that has passed through a divorce, a deceased co-owner and a quit claim signed at a kitchen table in 2009 takes longer, and that history is exactly what nobody discovers until somebody looks.

Which Orlando and Orange County communities I file for

The Comptroller answer above is the same wherever the parcel sits inside Orange County, so a lady bird deed in Orlando proper, in Winter Park, Maitland, Apopka, Ocoee, Winter Garden, Windermere, Belle Isle, Edgewood, Eatonville or Oakland all record at the same counter on East Church Street, at the same $10.00 and $8.50, under the same § 695.26 formatting rules.

The same holds for the unincorporated and master-planned areas people name instead of a city — Dr. Phillips and Bay Hill, Horizon West, Baldwin Park, College Park, MetroWest, Millenia, Hunter’s Creek, Meadow Woods, Avalon Park, Waterford Lakes, Conway and Lake Nona. What changes between them is not the filing. It is the size of the accumulated Save Our Homes cap, which is a function of how long the house has been held, and that is discussed below.

Lake Nona is the one exception worth its own treatment, because a large share of its housing stock carries community development district assessments that the rest of Orange County does not. The Lake Nona ladybird deed page covers that.

What if the property is in Seminole, Osceola, Lake or Polk County?

Then the county mechanics change, sometimes substantially. I file statewide, and these are the neighbors that come up most often in Greater Orlando:

• Seminole County — Altamonte Springs, Lake Mary, Sanford, Longwood, Oviedo, Winter Springs and Casselberry. See the Altamonte Springs lady bird deed page.
• Osceola County — Kissimmee, St. Cloud, Celebration, Poinciana and Harmony. See the Kissimmee lady bird deed page.
• Lake and Polk Counties — Clermont and the western commuter corridor. Same instrument, different recording office.
• Brevard County — Melbourne, Palm Bay, Titusville and the beachside towns to the east. See the Brevard County deed preparation page.

Is Osceola County handled the same way as Orange?

No, and the contrast is stark. Osceola combines both functions in a single elected office, the Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller, at 2 Courthouse Square in Kissimmee. That office also takes recordings later in the day than the Orange counter.

	Orange	Osceola
Records deeds	Comptroller	Clerk and Comptroller, same office
Opens probate	Clerk of Courts	the same office again
Addresses involved	two	one
Judicial circuit	Ninth	Ninth

Osceola has its own wrinkle that Orange does not — a large share of its housing stock carries CDD assessments and is not homestead. The Kissimmee lady bird deed page deals with that.

Homestead: the rules that stop the deed working

Most Orlando houses are homestead, and homestead is where lady bird deeds fail. These three questions account for nearly every failure I see.

Does my spouse have to sign the deed?

Yes, if you are married and the property is your homestead — and this is true whether or not you have children. It is the single most common way a do-it-yourself lady bird deed fails in Florida, and it is not obvious from reading the deed forms.

Article X, section 4(c) of the Florida Constitution says the owner of homestead real estate, “joined by the spouse if married,” may alienate the homestead by mortgage, sale or gift. There is no minor-child condition in that clause. It applies to every married homestead owner in Orange County, full stop.

A lady bird deed is an inter vivos conveyance — it presently conveys a remainder interest — so the joinder requirement applies to it. Uniform Title Standard 6.11 confirms this; its illustrative problem has the married life tenant’s spouse joining in the conveyance. A homestead lady bird deed signed by a married grantor alone is void or voidable, and the family usually discovers it years later when a title underwriter refuses to close.

Where the spouse is willing but does not want an ownership interest, § 732.7025 supplies a simplified waiver form for a deed of homestead. That is the cure, and it goes in the same signing.

Can a power of attorney sign a lady bird deed for me?

It is a question worth asking before the signing rather than at it, because the answer turns on what the power of attorney document itself says rather than on the deed. I have written it up separately at can a power of attorney sign a lady bird deed in Florida.

What if I have a minor child?

Then a lady bird deed is very likely the wrong instrument, and this is the one section on this page written to talk somebody out of hiring me.

Article X, section 4(c) also provides that homestead “shall not be subject to devise if the owner is survived by spouse or minor child.” § 732.4015 carries the restriction into the probate code. Uniform Title Standard 6.12 then states the consequence directly: the remainderman takes fee simple title at the life tenant’s death “only when not in violation of Constitutional restrictions on devise of homestead.”

The failure mode is nasty because it is invisible. The deed is not void when you sign it. It records without objection. It simply fails to pass title when you die, and the remainder falls into the estate you were trying to avoid — so the family believes probate has been avoided right up until the moment it has not. In re Estate of Johnson, 397 So. 2d 970 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981), which struck down an analogous homestead conveyance as an attempted testamentary disposition where a minor child survived, is the cautionary authority.

If you have a minor child, the conversation should be about a trust, not a deed.

Who counts as a “minor child” is narrower than most people assume. It means someone under eighteen who is your child under Florida’s Probate Code — a biological child, a child you adopted, or a child born out of wedlock who meets the paternity requirements. It does not mean a stepchild you never adopted, a foster child, a grandchild, or any remoter descendant: section 731.201(3) expressly excludes a grandchild or a more remote descendant from the word “child,” and the Florida Supreme Court held in In re McGinty’s Estate, 258 So. 2d 450 (Fla. 1971), that “minor child” in the Constitution is a substantially different class from “lineal descendants.” Where the child lives is not part of the test either. In Deem’s Estate v. Shinn, 297 So. 2d 611 (Fla. 4th DCA 1974), a father’s minor daughter lived with her mother in another state and he had never actually supported her — the restriction applied anyway, because he still owed her the legal obligation. One question is genuinely open: whether a minor grandchild whose own parent died before you can trigger the restriction. No Florida court has decided it.

Does a lady bird deed defeat my spouse’s elective share?

No. This is where the intuition runs the wrong way, and it is worth saying plainly because the Medicaid answer below tempts people to assume otherwise.

§ 732.2035(5) pulls into the elective estate any property the decedent transferred to the extent the transfer “was revocable by the decedent alone.” A lady bird deed is revocable by the grantor alone — that is its defining feature. § 732.2035(6) captures it independently through the retained enjoyment. § 732.2075 then governs the order of contribution.

The practical consequence surfaces at closing: title underwriters will not insure without an elective share release or determination. If the plan involves a spouse who is not the intended beneficiary, that is a conversation to have before the deed is drafted, not after.

What if the Orlando property is a rental, short-term rental or second home rather than my homestead?

Then several of the answers on this page change, and it is worth knowing which ones before you assume any of them apply.

This matters more in Orange and Osceola than almost anywhere in Florida. The parks have produced an enormous stock of non-homestead residential property — vacation homes, second homes, short-term rentals, and long-term rental houses owned by people who live somewhere else. A lady bird deed on a rental property is a routine request here.

Every rule set out above in this section is, by its own terms, a homestead rule. Article X, section 4(c) speaks of “the owner of homestead real estate.” The devise restriction that blocks the deed where a minor child survives is a homestead restriction. § 196.031 is the homestead exemption, and the § 193.155 Save Our Homes cap applies to property receiving that exemption — non-homestead residential property sits under a different assessment limitation entirely. And the § 409.9101(7) Medicaid carve-out is keyed to property the state constitution shields from creditors, which is a homestead concept.

So the questions I work through on a non-homestead Orlando parcel are these: whether spousal joinder is required at all; whether the minor-child restriction has any application; which assessment cap the property sits under and what a transfer does to it; whether the documentary stamp reasoning in TAA 20B4-004 reaches an unmortgaged non-homestead parcel; and how Medicaid estate recovery is positioned without the constitutional homestead protection.

Those answers turn on the specific parcel and I will not guess at them on a web page. Tell me at the consultation that the property is a rental, a short-term rental or a second home rather than where you live, because it is the first fact that changes the analysis and the last one people think to mention.

Taxes: doc stamps, homestead exemption, Save Our Homes and basis

Do documentary stamps (doc stamps) apply to an Orange County lady bird deed?

Where the county collects a minimum documentary stamp charge on a deed, that minimum sits inside my $675 flat fee. What can fall outside the fee is documentary stamp tax above the minimum, which is the mortgage case set out below.

On an unmortgaged Orlando home, no. The Department of Revenue addressed the instrument directly in Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004 (16 October 2020), concluding that an enhanced life estate deed “does not transfer any present beneficial interests in real property” and is therefore not subject to documentary stamp tax “regardless of any consideration.”

Read that as guidance rather than law. § 213.22 provides that a technical assistance advisement has “no precedential value except to the taxpayer who requests the advisement and then only for the specific transaction addressed.” It is the best authority available on the question and it is not binding on you.

The reasoning holds up independently. § 201.02 taxes the conveyance of a present interest, and a lady bird deed conveys none — the remainder stays defeasible while the life tenant lives. Crescent Miami Center, LLC v. Department of Revenue, 903 So. 2d 913 (Fla. 2005), and Kuro, Inc. v. Department of Revenue, 713 So. 2d 1021 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998), both confirm that a gratuitous conveyance of unencumbered property with no purchaser and no exchange of value is not taxable.

A mortgage is the fact pattern worth an hour of somebody’s attention beforehand. § 201.02(1)(a) folds “the amount of any mortgage… whether or not the underlying indebtedness is assumed” into consideration, and De Maria v. Department of Revenue, 338 So. 2d 838 (Fla. 1976), is the case that applies it. The counter-argument is that De Maria taxed the transfer because the grantee incurred a commensurate economic burden, which a lady bird deed grantee does not — they take nothing they can presently use, sell, or borrow against. The tax consequences page works through this at length.

Will my Orange County homestead exemption survive?

Yes, on the reasoning that the life tenant never gives up beneficial title. § 196.031 extends the exemption to whoever holds “the legal title or beneficial title in equity” and lives there permanently. Attorney General Opinion 2005-52 confirms a life tenant qualifies — and a lady bird deed grantor has a stronger claim still, since they retain the entire present beneficial interest.

Orange County Property Appraiser	Detail
Office	200 S. Orange Ave., Suite 1700, Orlando 32801 · (407) 836-5044
Exemption filing deadline	1 March
Online filing	exemption.ocpafl.org
2026 homestead exemption	$51,411 total — $25,000 against all levies, plus up to $26,411 against non-school levies on assessed value between $50,000 and $76,411
Portability form	DR-501T, filed alongside the new homestead application
Portability ceiling	$500,000

One practical consequence is worth stating plainly. Because the exemption belongs to the person living there, a remainderman who moves in during the life tenant’s lifetime and files for their own exemption changes the picture, and the transfer stops being invisible to the appraiser. Keep the beneficiaries off the homestead application until the interest actually vests.

What if I miss the March 1 homestead deadline?

Missing the March 1 deadline is not automatically fatal, but the second chance is a procedure you have to ask for rather than a grace period that runs on its own. File a late application directly with the Orange County Property Appraiser before the twenty-fifth day after the county mails its annual assessment notices. The appraiser can still grant the exemption for that year if you show you were unable to file on time or had other extenuating circumstances. If the appraiser says no, you can take it to the Value Adjustment Board by that same deadline, with a $15 nonrefundable filing fee and the same showing to make.

Does a lady bird deed change my property taxes?

It should not, and that is the whole point of the two answers above and below. Your Orange County property tax bill is a function of the assessed value, the Save Our Homes cap on how fast that assessment can rise, and the homestead exemption subtracted from it. A lady bird deed that lists you as both grantor and grantee is designed to leave all three where they were: section 193.155(3)(a)1.c provides that there is no change of ownership where the owner is listed as both grantor and grantee and others are additionally named as grantees, so long as the same person remains entitled to the exemption. A deed in which the owner appears only as grantor and reserves a life estate does not fit that exception on its text.

What changes a tax bill is a transfer that resets the assessment or loses the exemption — which is exactly what an outright deed to your children does, and exactly what this instrument is built to avoid.

Why does the Save Our Homes cap matter more in Orlando?

Because Orlando runs on long tenure. Walt Disney World employs roughly 80,000 people in Orange County and Universal Orlando another 32,084, and single-employer towns produce households that stay in one house for decades.

Decades of staying put is exactly how the cap accumulates. Orange County’s median owner-occupied home is valued at $390,100 in the Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 estimates, while the five-county Orlando board reported a $416,308 median sale price in June 2026. The gap between what a long-held house is assessed at and what it would sell for is the benefit at stake, and a transfer that resets it costs more than every fee on this page combined.

The assessment cap should survive. § 193.155(3)(a) resets an assessment to just value on a change of ownership but carves out shifts between legal and equitable title where the same person remains entitled to the exemption and nobody new applies for one, and separately carves out an instrument listing the owner as both grantor and grantee, which is the exception a lady bird deed in that form is designed to meet.

Be clear that this is a reasoned position and not settled law. No Florida appellate decision, no Attorney General Opinion and no Department of Revenue bulletin has squarely decided whether an enhanced life estate deed triggers reassessment. The statute never mentions life estates. It is the prevailing view among Florida practitioners and among county property appraisers, and I would confirm treatment with the Orange County Property Appraiser before relying on it for a house with a large accumulated cap.

Two points here are where families lose the benefit. The first is that the protection is yours, not your beneficiary’s: your death is the change of ownership, and the assessment resets to just value on the following January 1 unless that person independently fits one of the statute’s own exceptions — a surviving spouse, a permanent resident who was legally or naturally dependent on you, a surviving joint tenant with rights of survivorship who was entitled to and receiving the homestead exemption on the property and continues to qualify for and receive it, or descent by operation of law to a surviving spouse or minor child under section 732.401. The dependency exception is read narrowly: in Willens v. Garcia, 53 So. 3d 1113 (Fla. 3d DCA 2011), an able-bodied adult son who had been his stroke-bound father’s full-time caretaker for twenty years did not qualify. The second is a trap written into the statute itself. If a person named as an additional grantee applies for a homestead exemption on the property while you are still alive, that application is itself treated as a change of ownership and destroys the cap you have accumulated. Nobody named in your deed should apply until after your death.

What if my beneficiary has creditors of their own?

Your beneficiary’s creditors are a different question from your own. Once the house passes to them it is their asset, and their judgment creditors can look to it.

One exception runs the other way. If your beneficiary takes the house and makes it their own Florida homestead, ordinary judgment creditors cannot reach it — the homestead exemption protects against every type of claim and judgment except the three the constitution itself names (Osborne v. Dumoulin, 55 So. 3d 577 (Fla. 2011)) — and a claim for equitable distribution in their divorce does not reach it either, absent fraud (Roth v. Roth, 973 So. 2d 580 (Fla. 2d DCA 2008)). Two things still do. Child support arrears reach it by way of an equitable lien a court imposes. So does a federal tax lien, which Florida homestead does not defeat at all, because the Supremacy Clause lets federal law override a state exemption — Weitzner v. United States, 309 F.2d 45 (5th Cir. 1962); and see United States v. Rodgers, 461 U.S. 677 (1983) and United States v. Craft, 535 U.S. 274 (2002). If your beneficiary does not live there, none of that protection applies.

Will my heirs get a stepped-up basis?

Yes, and in Orange County this is usually worth more than every other benefit on this page.

Because you keep possession and enjoyment for life, the property is included in your gross estate under IRC § 2036(a)(1), and inclusion is what triggers the basis adjustment under IRC § 1014. Your beneficiaries take the house at its fair market value on the date of your death, not at what you paid.

The same inclusion in your gross estate under IRC § 2036(a)(1) that produces the basis adjustment is also where any federal estate tax analysis would begin, so if your estate is large enough for that to be a live question, say so at the consultation.

Put Orange County numbers on it, in cost basis terms. A couple who bought in 1998 for $120,000 and whose house is now worth the county median of $390,100 have $270,100 of unrealized gain. Deed the house outright during life and the children inherit that basis and the tax with it — at a 15% federal capital gains rate, roughly $40,500, before Florida’s absence of an income tax is even considered. Do it by lady bird deed and the basis resets to $390,100, so a sale shortly after death produces close to zero gain.

Does a lady bird deed trigger gift tax?

No, and the contrast that matters is with an ordinary life estate deed: that is a completed gift of the remainder and requires a Form 709 gift tax return. A lady bird deed is an incomplete gift, because under Treas. Reg. § 25.2511-2(b)–(c) a gift is incomplete to the extent the donor keeps the power to revest beneficial title in themselves — which is exactly the power the enhanced life estate reserves. No Form 709.

Condominiums and Homeowner Associations

Can you do a lady bird deed on an Orlando condominium?

If the property is a condominium, there is a point nobody warns about and it costs more than any approval question. Under section 718.116(1)(a) a unit owner is liable for assessments regardless of how title was acquired, and is jointly and severally liable with the previous owner for everything unpaid up to the transfer of title. In Coastal Creek Condominium Association v. FLA Trust Services LLC, 275 So. 3d 836 (Fla. 1st DCA 2019), the First District held that this reaches unpaid assessments going back beyond the immediate prior owner. Your beneficiary inherits that liability with the unit and has thirty days after the transfer of title to pay it. Section 718.116(1)(c) is where that thirty-day clock sits, and it belongs to condominiums alone. In a homeowners’ association, section 720.3085(2) makes the new owner jointly and severally liable for what the previous owner left unpaid, but it sets no thirty-day deadline. Whoever takes the unit should ask for an estoppel certificate straight away.

Does my association have to approve it?

Read the declaration. That is the answer, and there is no reliable general one — approval clauses and rights of first refusal are creatures of the recorded documents and they vary. What does not vary is the money. Under section 718.116(1)(a) for a condominium and section 720.3085(2) for a homeowners’ association, whoever takes title is liable for assessments coming due while they own it and jointly and severally liable with the previous owner for what went unpaid before. Ask the association for an estoppel certificate before anything else.

Medicaid, Medicare and needs-based benefits

Is this a Medicare question or a Medicaid question?

Medicaid. People search for Medicare because it is the more familiar name, but Medicaid is the program this page is about, and every rule in this section — including the estate recovery rules under § 409.9101 below — is a Medicaid rule. If your question is really about Medicare, this is not the page that answers it.

Does the deed shield an Orlando home from Medicaid estate recovery?

Yes, and the reason is structural rather than clever. § 409.9101(2) directs the agency to recover by filing a claim against the estate “as provided in part VII of chapter 733” — the probate estate. Congress offered states an option at 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(b)(4)(B) to reach assets passing outside probate by joint tenancy, living trust or life estate. Florida declined it. A remainder that vests the moment the life tenant dies never enters the probate estate, so the claim has nothing to attach to. § 409.9101(7) separately exempts property the state constitution shields from creditors.

Eligibility is a different question from recovery, and people conflate them constantly. Executing the deed is not a transfer for less than fair market value and triggers no look-back penalty, because the enhanced life estate holder still owns the property outright. The owner of an enhanced life estate has the same rights as complete ownership, including the right to sell without the consent of the remainderman, and on that reasoning the deed is not a completed transfer.

Two cautions. No Florida rule reaches this kind of deed at all, and no Florida court has decided it — the rules are silent rather than permissive. And a later transfer of your retained life estate to the remaindermen is an uncompensated transfer and would be penalized. Clients do this, usually with good intentions, and it undoes the plan.

Your home is not a countable resource for Medicaid purposes as long as it is your principal residence — or, if you have moved to a nursing facility, as long as you intend to return or your spouse or a dependent relative is still living there. Separately, if your equity in the home exceeds the annual federal limit, you will not be eligible for nursing facility, institutional hospice, or home-and-community-based waiver services until that equity is reduced below the cap, unless your spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child of any age is lawfully living in the home. Both rules come from regulations formally adopted under Florida and federal law rather than from any Florida court decision, and buying a life estate in someone else’s property is a different transaction that is not protected this way.

None of which is a license to sign one on the way into a nursing home. The instrument works because it is not a completed gift, and the analysis of any transfer inside the look-back window belongs to whoever is handling the benefits application.

What if a beneficiary receives SSI or disability benefits?

Then say so at the consultation, because it changes the instrument rather than the plan. An interest that vests in a beneficiary at your death can cost them eligibility for needs-based assistance, and that is a reason to build the transfer differently — usually through a trust drafted for the purpose — rather than a reason to abandon it.

Keeping control: sell, refinance, revoke or change your mind

Can I sell my Orlando house after signing one?

Yes, and you do not need your beneficiaries’ permission or signatures. That is the entire point of the “enhanced” in enhanced life estate deed — you keep the power to sell, mortgage, lease and convey the fee simple during your lifetime, and a sale simply extinguishes the remainder.

Uniform Title Standard 6.11 is the authority a Florida closing agent will look to. The deed itself has to reserve the power in the right language, which is one of the several reasons a form downloaded for $18 is a false economy — a reservation that is too narrow leaves you needing the remainderman’s signature at the worst possible moment.

One drafting note that matters in practice: whether the conveyance to your buyer is by warranty or quitclaim affects what the title underwriter will require, and a lady bird deed that anticipates a future sale should be built with that in mind.

Can I refinance the property?

Yes. You can mortgage the fee simple without the remaindermen joining, and the mortgage takes priority over their interest. Existing mortgages are not disturbed by recording the deed — the Garn-St Germain Act protects the transfer from due-on-sale acceleration.

A reverse mortgage or a HELOC on the property is a different conversation and one to have before the deed is drafted rather than after. Those products carry their own occupancy and repayment terms, and the interaction with an enhanced life estate deed is worth checking against the specific loan documents. Bring the statement to the consultation.

Why does my lender want the lady bird deed removed before I refinance?

Because the friction is not legal, it is institutional. Some lenders’ underwriters have never seen an enhanced life estate deed, see a recorded remainder interest in the title search, and ask for it to be removed before closing. It is unnecessary but common — Orlando has a lot of national-lender refinance volume and not a lot of local underwriting familiarity.

The answer is a letter explaining the reserved powers and a copy of Title Standard 6.11, and I provide both to clients who are refinancing. Occasionally the cleanest path is to revoke, close, and re-record afterwards, which costs another $10.00 and $8.50 a page. Either way it is a paperwork problem, not a reason to abandon the deed — and it is much easier to solve before you are three days from a rate lock expiring.

Can I revoke, reverse or change the deed?

Yes, unilaterally, at any time, without telling anyone named in it. A lady bird deed can be reversed, and that is the feature that separates it from every other way of putting a child’s name on a house. You can revoke it, replace it, add a beneficiary, remove a beneficiary, or simply sell the house and moot the whole thing.

The Orange County mechanics: revocation is not a phone call or a note in a drawer. It requires recording a new instrument with the Comptroller — a revocation, or more commonly a fresh lady bird deed that supersedes the first — at the same $10.00 first page and $8.50 each additional page, executed with the same two witnesses and notary, and with the same spousal joinder if you are married and it is homestead. The original stays in the official records permanently; the new instrument sits on top of it.

This is the practical advantage over adding a child to the deed outright, which cannot be undone once done.

Can I name more than one beneficiary?

Yes, and most Orlando deeds I draft name two or three adult children. Two things need saying about it.

First, multiple remaindermen take as tenants in common unless the deed says otherwise. There is no automatic survivorship between them. If one dies after you, their share goes to their estate rather than to their siblings.

Second, and this is the one families do not see coming: co-owners who disagree about selling the house end up in a partition action. The deed avoided probate and delivered the siblings straight into a different lawsuit. Where I can see that risk in the family facts, the better answer is often a trust with a sale directive, and I will say so.

What happens if a beneficiary dies before I do?

If the deed names no alternate, the plan can fail quietly and completely — and Florida gives you no safety net.

Florida has no authority deciding whether a lady bird deed remainder is vested or contingent. The Fund’s working position, and the one title underwriters apply, is that it is a vested remainder subject to divestment. On that view, if your sole named beneficiary dies first, the remainder does not revert cleanly to you — it passes to that person’s heirs or devisees, forcing probate on them and handing your house to people you may never have met.

The antilapse statute does not save you. § 732.603 speaks only of wills, devisees and devises. It does not reach deeds. There is no antilapse protection for a Florida deed, which is precisely the gap a $39 form leaves open.

The cure is drafting, and every deed I prepare carries it: alternate takers by name — “to A, or if A does not survive the Grantor, to A’s descendants per stirpes” — an express reversion to the grantor if no named beneficiary survives, and an express statement that no interest vests until the grantor’s death. Drafting defects of exactly this kind are also what produce litigation later; whether a lady bird deed can be contested is a separate discussion.

Title, creditors and what underwriters require

Can my children’s creditors reach the house?

Your own creditors, no — while you live there it remains your homestead and keeps the creditor protection of Article X, section 4(a). A judgment against you that is not levied before death does not follow the house to your beneficiaries.

Your beneficiaries’ creditors are a different and more honest answer than most pages give. Under Aetna Insurance Co. v. LaGasse, 223 So. 2d 727 (Fla. 1969), a recorded judgment lien does attach to a vested remainder interest, and a remainderman cannot claim homestead in it. The mitigation is real but partial: because you retain the power to convey and defeat the remainder, reconveying generally clears the lien, and title underwriters will insure over such judgments — case by case, not automatically.

The exception with no workaround is a federal tax lien against a beneficiary. Under United States v. Craft, 535 U.S. 274 (2002), it attaches to whatever property right state law creates and is not defeated by Florida homestead. The IRS has to release it before title can be insured. If one of your children has an IRS problem, tell me at the consultation.

Will a title company insure it?

Yes, routinely — Florida underwriters have been insuring enhanced life estate deeds for decades and The Fund publishes its position on them. But there is a short list of things they will require, and knowing it in advance is most of the value of using an attorney:

• Judgments recorded before the deed must be satisfied in full — the deed does not clear them.
• Judgments recorded against you after the deed still have to be dealt with on a lifetime sale.
• A federal tax lien against a remainderman needs an IRS release.
• Where a surviving spouse exists, an elective share release or determination.
• Where a minor child survives, the homestead devise restriction may mean the remainderman cannot take marketable title at all.
• Proof the spousal joinder requirement was satisfied.

Every item on that list is something reading the recorded deed catches before the new one is drafted and nothing catches afterwards.

One framing worth correcting: people sometimes arrive at a lady bird deed looking for asset protection. That is a different question from probate avoidance, and the two sections above are the honest answer to it — your own creditors and your beneficiaries’ creditors are treated very differently, and the deed does less on the second than most pages imply.

Lady bird deed vs. quitclaim deed, trust, will and the alternatives

Worth saying first, because the question comes up constantly: Florida has no transfer on death deed for real property. Some states do. Florida’s functional equivalent is the lady bird deed.

	Lady bird deed	Quitclaim deed to children	Traditional life estate deed	Revocable living trust	Will alone
Avoids probate on the house	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
You keep full control while alive	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Change your mind later, alone	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Sell without beneficiary’s signature	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Medicaid look-back transfer	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Step-up in basis at death	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Homestead exemption preserved	Yes	Often lost	Yes	Yes	Yes
Beneficiary’s creditors reach it now	Limited	Yes	Yes	No	No
Covers assets besides the house	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Typical Orlando cost	$675	~$400	~$600	$2,000–$5,000	varies

Lady bird deed vs transfer on death deed

There is no comparison to draw in Florida, because Florida has no transfer on death deed — also called a TOD deed or a beneficiary deed — for real property. People arriving from another state, or from a national article, routinely ask for one by name. What they want is a lady bird deed, which reaches the same outcome by a different mechanism: a defeasible remainder with retained powers, rather than a statutory beneficiary designation.

Lady bird deed vs quitclaim deed

A quitclaim deed — or quit claim deed, spelled either way — conveys whatever present interest you hold, immediately and irreversibly, with no warranties. Adding a child to your deed by quitclaim gives them a present ownership interest today: you cannot undo it, you cannot sell without their signature, their creditors and their divorce reach the interest now, and the transfer is a Medicaid look-back gift that also costs the stepped-up basis.

A lady bird deed conveys nothing you cannot take back. That single difference is what the whole table above turns on. The full instrument comparison goes deeper.

Lady bird deed vs warranty deed

Different jobs entirely. A warranty deed transfers present ownership now and adds the grantor’s covenants of title — it is the instrument used at a sale closing. A lady bird deed is not a sale instrument; it conveys a future interest that stays defeasible while you live. You may well use both on the same house at different times: the warranty deed when you bought it, the lady bird deed to plan what happens to it.

Lady bird deed vs revocable living trust

The short version: if the house is the main asset and the family is straightforward, the lady bird deed does the job for a fraction of a trust. If there are minor children, blended-family complications, out-of-state property, beneficiaries with needs-based benefits, or assets well beyond the house, a living trust is the better instrument and I will tell you so. The deed versus living trust comparison goes deeper.

An irrevocable trust is a third thing again, and a much bigger step: it gives up control in exchange for protections a lady bird deed does not attempt to provide. It is rarely the answer for a single homestead house.

Does a lady bird deed override a will?

For the house named in it, yes — and this catches people out. The remainder vests the moment you die and never enters the probate estate, so the house is gone before the will has anything to operate on. A will that leaves “my home to my three children equally” does not change a lady bird deed that names one of them.

That is the intended result, not a defect. But it means the deed and the will have to be read together, and a will drafted years earlier by someone else is exactly where the conflict hides.

Do I still need a will?

Yes. A lady bird deed transfers one parcel of real estate. It does not name a guardian for your children, does not dispose of your car or your bank accounts, and does not appoint anyone to wind up your affairs.

Disadvantages of a lady bird deed: when it is the wrong tool

Every page selling these lists the advantages. The downside of a ladybird deed in Florida is real and worth a list of its own, so here are the pros and cons stated plainly. Whether a lady bird deed is a good idea, and whether it is worth it for your house, depends entirely on which of the items below applies to you. The advantages are the ones set out above: probate avoided on the house, control retained, the deed revocable at will, the homestead exemption preserved and, with the owner named as grantor and grantee, the Save Our Homes cap designed to be preserved, a stepped-up basis for your heirs, no Medicaid look-back transfer, and a cost of $675 against $2,000 to $5,000 for a trust.

The disadvantages are these. Do not use a lady bird deed if:

• You have a minor child. The homestead devise restriction means the remainder may not pass at all.
• You are married and your spouse will not join. Without joinder the deed is void or voidable.
• A beneficiary receives SSI or Medicaid. An interest vesting at your death can cost them eligibility. Build it differently — usually a special needs trust.
• You own property in more than one state. The deed fixes Florida and leaves the rest.
• Your estate is mostly not the house. A deed transfers one parcel and nothing else.
• You expect the family to fight. A deed cannot referee. Multiple remaindermen who disagree end up in partition.
• You want conditions. “The house goes to my daughter but only if she keeps it five years” is a trust, not a deed.

Two further drawbacks that are not disqualifying but that people should hear before signing: your beneficiaries’ judgment creditors can reach the remainder interest during your lifetime, as the creditor section above explains; and a refinance may draw an unnecessary objection from a lender’s underwriter. Neither is a reason not to do it. Both are reasons to have it drafted by somebody who will still be reachable when they come up.

Working with an Orlando lady bird deed attorney without coming to an office

Can we do this without my coming to an office?

Yes, and for most Orange County clients that is how it runs. I am a Florida lawyer handling matters statewide; my offices are in Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale, and an Orlando lady bird deed does not require you to visit either one.

How it works in practice. You send the current deed, the parcel number and the mortgage statement by email. I pull your recorded deed from the Comptroller’s official records, which are online and searchable, and the parcel data from the Property Appraiser. We talk by phone or by video call. The deed is signed either in front of a notary near you with two witnesses present, or by remote online notarization under chapter 117, part II of the Florida Statutes, where the witnesses appear by audio-video link as § 689.01(2) permits. It is then e-recorded with the Comptroller through the CSC network.

Nothing about the county work requires physical presence in Orlando. What it requires is somebody who knows that Orange separates recording from probate, what the Comptroller charges, and which of the two buildings the document goes to.

Is there a lady bird deed attorney near me?

If you are looking for a lady bird deed attorney near you, it is worth knowing what proximity actually buys on this particular job — which is very little. Every step is remote by design: the title search runs against online records, the consultation is a phone or video call, the signing happens in front of a notary near you or by remote online notarization, and the deed is e-recorded.

What matters is not whose office is closest to your house but who knows the Orange County filing path and will read your chain of title before drafting. Same attorney from the first call to the recorded deed, and one number to reach: (305) 224-6811.

What should I bring to a consultation?

There is a Florida lady bird deed preparation checklist you can download and work through before we speak. The short version: your current deed, the parcel number from the Property Appraiser, and the mortgage statement if there is one — including a reverse mortgage, HELOC or home equity loan statement if the house carries one. Those three make it possible to answer the title question while you are still on the phone.

Bring the family facts too: whether you are married, who would inherit, their ages, whether any of them receives needs-based assistance, whether any of them has a judgment or an IRS problem, and who else lives at the property. A remainderman on SSI can lose eligibility the moment an interest vests, and that is a reason to build the transfer differently rather than a reason to abandon it.

If the deed you are holding came from a title company at a closing, send the closing package as well. Orange County parcels that changed hands during the building boom often carry an exception or an easement recorded separately from the deed itself, and a lady bird deed passes those along untouched to whoever inherits. Better to read them now than to have a buyer’s underwriter read them to your children later.

What happens if the deed fails and probate opens anyway?

The Ninth Judicial Circuit takes it, covering Orange and Osceola from the courthouse at 425 N. Orange Avenue. That is the outcome the deed exists to prevent.

A failure is rarely dramatic. A remainderman dies first and no alternate was named. A married grantor signed alone. A minor child survived. In each case the interest falls back into the estate and the family discovers it only when a title company refuses to close. § 733.607 keeps protected homestead out of a personal representative’s hands — Florida’s name for what most people call the executor, but everything around it still goes through the court.

How do I reach an Orlando lady bird deed attorney?

Call (305) 224-6811. The first consultation is a free consultation, and it is with me. A standard Orange County matter is $675, covering the call with me, deed preparation, online notarization, witnesses, county recording fees and the minimum documentary stamp charge — confirmed after I have read the recorded deed and before any drafting begins. Documentary stamp tax above that minimum is separate, and explained to you before you proceed.

Related reading: the statewide lady bird deed attorney page covers cost and the hire decision in general, the practice guide explains the instrument itself, the Florida lady bird deed form shows what the document contains, tax consequences goes deeper on basis and stamps, and deed versus living trust weighs the alternative for a household with more than a house. Nearby: the Lake Nona ladybird deed page for the CDD question, the Altamonte Springs page for Seminole County, and the Kissimmee page for Osceola. The Palm Beach County page sets out the opposite arrangement, where one office holds both the deed registry and the probate court.

None of it substitutes for someone opening your chain of title. That is the work, and it is what an Orlando lady bird deed attorney is actually for.

Last updated: 17 September 2026.

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.

Discuss your Orlando property with Jose

Every property is different. A short call tells you whether a lady bird deed fits your Orange County house, what it will cost, and what to send me to get started.

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