Lady Bird Deed Pinellas County: The Oldest, Densest County in Florida
A lady bird deed Pinellas County residents record is filed in a county where more than one person in four is already 65 or over — the highest concentration in Florida, in the most densely populated county in the state. At Lorenzo Law I draft and record these enhanced life estate deeds throughout Pinellas. Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., Florida Bar No. 107002.
| Pinellas County | Where |
|---|---|
| Deeds | Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller, 315 Court St., Room 150, Clearwater |
| Probate | Same building, Room 106 · (727) 464-3321 |
| Second full counter | 545 First Avenue North, Room 153, St. Petersburg |
| Homestead and parcel data | Property Appraiser, 315 Court St., 2nd floor, Clearwater |
| Judicial circuit | Sixth — shared with Pasco County |
| 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 |
Why does this county need its own page?
Because of who lives here. Pinellas is the oldest county in the oldest large state, and it is the most crowded piece of land in Florida.
| Measure | Pinellas | Florida |
|---|---|---|
| Residents aged 65 and over | 28.7% | 21.8% |
| People per square mile | 3,504.2 | 401.4 |
| Land area | 273.71 sq mi | 53,652 sq mi |
| Owner-occupied housing | 69.5% | 67.6% |
| Median owner-occupied home value | $355,100 | $359,000 |
| Population change, 2020 to 2025 | −1.1% | rising |
Read the first row against the second. Nearly three in ten residents are of an age where passing the house on is an active question, and they are packed onto 274 square miles — more than double the density of Broward, and roughly nine times the state average. The county also lost about 10,500 people between 2020 and 2025 while Florida grew, which is what a built-out peninsula looks like in the numbers.
Owner-occupancy runs above the state average and values run slightly below it. That combination — older, denser, high home ownership, moderate values — is the exact profile these deeds were designed for. There is no county in Florida where an enhanced life estate deed is a more ordinary piece of family business.
Where do I record a lady bird deed Pinellas County owners sign?
Room 150 at 315 Court Street in Clearwater, or Room 153 at 545 First Avenue North in St. Petersburg. Both are full recording counters, open weekdays 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m., on (727) 464-7000.
Two things follow from that. First, nobody in this county has to cross it to record a deed — the peninsula runs north to south and the Clerk has put a counter at each end. Second, note the closing time. Half past four is earlier than the five o’clock most Florida counters keep, and a deed signed over a long lunch will not make it in.
There is a third location, the North County Customer Information and Service Center at 3165 McMullen Booth Road in Clearwater, but it is a drop-off that couriers documents to the main office rather than a recording counter — and the Clerk’s own website gives two different opening schedules for it. Telephone before relying on it.
Recording and probate share the Clearwater courthouse: deeds in Room 150, probate in Room 106, on the same level. Probate petitions are also taken in St. Petersburg. A Pinellas family can handle a deed and a probate intake in one trip, which is not true in Hillsborough, where the two sit in different courthouses with different post office boxes.
What does it cost to record here?
Ten dollars for the first page, $8.50 for each page after. Names past the first four index at a dollar each, so a typical two-page deed costs $18.50 before tax.
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| First page | $10.00 |
| Each additional page | $8.50 |
| Each name indexed beyond the first four | $1.00 |
| Record search, initial | $7.00 |
| Record search, each year found | $2.00 |
| Certified copy | $2.00 |
| Copy, per page | $1.00 |
| Documentary stamps on the deed | $0.70 per $100 |
One line there is unusual. Pinellas charges seven dollars to begin a records search and two dollars for each year found, where most counties charge only the per-year figure. It is a small sum and it tells you something about how the office is run: the search is treated as work rather than as a courtesy.
There is no per-legal-description charge in Pinellas, whatever a competing page may say. The recording figures come straight from § 28.24 at the statutory maximum, which is why they match Hillsborough, Broward and Duval exactly.
Does the mortgage change the cost?
Yes, and it is the one number here that reaches four figures. § 201.02 treats an outstanding mortgage as consideration whether or not anyone assumes the debt.
Pinellas pays the ordinary seventy cents per $100 and levies no discretionary surtax; § 125.0167 makes that available only to a class of county that Pinellas does not belong to, and Miami-Dade is the only member.
On a Clearwater house still carrying $200,000, the documentary stamp tax on a gift deed is $1,400. On one that is paid off it is nominal. In a county this old, a high proportion of homes are mortgage-free, which is precisely why the question is worth asking rather than assuming — the answer here is more often favourable than it is anywhere else in this series.
What about a condominium?
Then two extra questions arrive with the deed. Pinellas has 103,447 condominium units on a roll of 437,570 parcels, and coastal condominium stock brings its own rules.
The first question is assessments. Under § 718.116 a unit owner is liable for assessments falling due while they own, and jointly liable with the previous owner for arrears. When the remainder vests at death, the beneficiary takes the unit and the unpaid assessments with it — regular and special. Ask the association for an estoppel certificate before the deed is drafted, not after; the association is bound by the figure it certifies.
The second is inspection. § 553.899 requires a milestone inspection of condominium and co-operative buildings three or more habitable storeys tall by the end of the year the building turns thirty, and every ten years after. The statute lets a local enforcement agency bring that forward to twenty-five years where salt air justifies it. Pinellas County has not taken that option, and neither has St. Petersburg — both apply the thirty-year trigger, measured from the certificate of occupancy. Pinellas County acts as building official for unincorporated areas and for seven municipalities including Belleair Beach, Indian Rocks Beach, Oldsmar and Safety Harbor; other cities run their own programmes, so confirm which applies to your building.
None of that stops a deed. It changes what the person inheriting is actually inheriting, which is a conversation worth having while the owner is alive to have it.
Does the deed affect my homestead exemption?
Not if it is drafted properly — and Pinellas is strict about one thing in particular. The Property Appraiser runs four offices and requires proof that any out-of-state exemption has been given up.
| Pinellas County Property Appraiser | Detail |
|---|---|
| Main office | 315 Court St., 2nd floor, Clearwater · (727) 464-3207 |
| North County | 29269 US Hwy 19 N., Clearwater |
| Mid County | 13025 Starkey Rd., Largo |
| South County | 2500 34th St. N., St. Petersburg |
| Hours | Weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Filing deadline | 1 March, under § 196.011 |
| Tested as of | 1 January |
Four offices for a county of 274 square miles is a lot, and it reflects the same north-south geography that gave the Clerk two recording counters.
The strict part: an applicant who holds a residency-based exemption on another property, in Florida or another state, must provide proof of its removal within thirty days or the application is denied. That is an affirmative, deadline-backed obligation, and it catches people who have moved down from the north and left a homestead-equivalent benefit running behind them. Sequence it before the deed rather than after.
A correctly drafted instrument leaves the owner with a life estate plus the unrestricted power to sell, mortgage or revoke, so the exemption and the Save Our Homes cap continue untouched. One without those retained powers becomes a completed gift of a remainder interest and puts both at risk, and the difference is a paragraph of language that a free form has no way of supplying.
Can I record electronically?
Only through an approved vendor. The Clerk accepts electronic submissions through four volume vendors and three that handle lower volumes, but takes nothing directly from the public.
Corporation Service Company, eRecording Partners Network, Hopdox and Simplifile handle volume. E-Recording USA, File and Go and Record-Nation are listed for smaller submitters, and the Clerk notes those tend to focus on particular document types. Access terms are set by the vendor rather than by the county.
The Clerk is also candid about timing: it will not promise same or next-day recording even for electronic submissions. Where a grantor is unwell and the recording date could matter, that candour is worth taking seriously.
Is there anything the Clerk offers that I should use?
Yes — a free property fraud alert, and it is worth ten minutes. The office notifies subscribers by telephone or email whenever any document is recorded against their name in the official records.
Set it up after the deed is recorded. An older owner who has just placed a remainder interest on their home is exactly the person a fraudulent deed targets, and the alert is the least costly early warning available. It is free.
The office itself is unusually broad. Ken Burke’s title is Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, and the office also serves as county auditor and runs a Division of Inspector General. Few Florida counties concentrate court records, county finance and internal audit in one elected officer.
Which court hears the estate if the deed fails?
The Sixth Judicial Circuit, which Pinellas shares with Pasco County. § 26.021 composes the Sixth of Pasco and Pinellas, and it has not changed — the section’s most recent amendment dates from 2014.
That is worth stating plainly because the circuits have been discussed and reorganised in the abstract for years, and pages written on speculation get it wrong. Pinellas and Pasco remain together. Compare Hillsborough, just across the bay, which has the Thirteenth Circuit entirely to itself.
Probate is filed in Room 106 at 315 Court Street, or in St. Petersburg. It is a straightforward process in a well-run county, and it is still a process: a personal representative, an inventory, a creditor period, and a public file. A working deed avoids all of it.
How do I reach an attorney for Pinellas County?
Call (305) 224-6811. A standard matter is $675 with recording included, quoted once the title has been read and before drafting starts, with the documentary stamp tax stated separately because it follows your mortgage.
That covers Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Largo, Pinellas Park, Dunedin, Palm Harbor, Seminole, Tarpon Springs and the beach communities.
Bring the recorded deed, the parcel number, the mortgage statement, and — if the property is a condominium — the most recent assessment notice and anything the association has sent about a special assessment or a milestone inspection. Our preparation checklist covers what else to gather.
Related reading: the statewide lady bird deed attorney page sets out the fee and what it buys, the Tampa page covers the county across the bay, the Miami page covers the only county paying a different stamp tax, and lady bird deed versus a trust weighs this instrument against the alternative.
Last updated: 7 August 2026.
What changed: new page. Addresses, hours and fees taken from those offices’ own schedules; the Sixth Circuit checked against § 26.021, whose most recent amendment dates from 2014, rather than assumed; demographics from Census QuickFacts; the milestone trigger given as thirty years, which the county and St. Petersburg both apply; statutes cited to the 2025 edition. No condominium percentage is given, because the two agencies use different denominators.
A lady bird deed Pinellas County families can rely on is drafted from the recorded title, priced against the mortgage, and checked against the association before anybody signs.
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.