Lady Bird Deed St. Augustine — St. Johns County Attorney, $675 Flat Fee

A St. Augustine lady bird deed is Florida’s enhanced life estate deed. You keep your home for life, with the power to live in it, sell it, mortgage it or change your mind, and at your death it passes to the people you name so they can avoid probate on the house. I am Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., Florida Bar No. 107002. As a St. Augustine lady bird deed attorney serving all of St. Johns County, I prepare and record the deed for a $675 flat fee, recording included.

Key takeaways

• The deed keeps your home in your control for life and passes it to the people you name without probate.
• $675 flat fee at Lorenzo Law, with recording at the St. Johns County Clerk included.
• Deeds record at the Public Service Center at 4040 Lewis Speedway, at the Julington Creek or Ponte Vedra annex by appointment, or by mail. The Clerk’s consumer e-recording portal does not accept deeds.
• The St. Johns County homestead exemption deadline is March 1, or the next business day when March 1 falls on a weekend — it was March 2 in 2026 and is back to March 1 in 2027 — and the deed does not cost you the exemption.
• The whole process can be done remotely, and the same attorney handles it from the first call to the recorded copy.

St. Augustine has been continuously occupied since 1565, and St. Johns County was one of the two counties Florida began with in 1821. None of that makes a title search here harder than anywhere else, for a reason set out below that most owners find reassuring. What does complicate matters is what the people inheriting your house will be allowed to do with it.

St. Johns County	Detail
Where a deed records	Public Service Center, 4040 Lewis Speedway; probate is filed at the Judicial Center, 4010 Lewis Speedway
Counter hours	Weekdays, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Branches recording deeds	Public Service Center, Julington Creek, Ponte Vedra
Judicial circuit	Seventh — Flagler, Putnam, St. Johns and Volusia
Owner-occupied homes	82.2%, against 67.6% statewide
Homestead deadline	March 1, or the next business day when it lands on a weekend (March 2 in 2026)
Lorenzo Law flat fee	$675, recording included
Call	(305) 224-6811

Looking for a lady bird deed attorney near St. Augustine, FL? Lorenzo Law is a statewide practice with offices in Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale. St. Johns County deeds are handled without a trip to either one. We talk by phone or video. The deed is signed by remote online notarization, with the two witnesses appearing by audio-video, and the notarization is included in the flat fee. Then it goes to the St. Johns County Clerk for recording. Lorenzo Law is a solo practice, so the same attorney handles your deed from the first call to the recorded copy. Consultations are also available in Spanish (hablo español).

How much does it cost to get a lady bird deed done in Florida?

How much does a lady bird deed cost? At Lorenzo Law, $675 flat for a standard St. Johns County matter, recording included. Online form services and other Florida firms quote a range. The difference is whether anyone reads your recorded deed before the new one is drafted.

What does Lorenzo Law charge in St. Johns County?

$675 flat, with the $18.50 recording charge and any minimum documentary stamp included in it. Any documentary stamp tax above that minimum is separate from the $675 and is worked out from the facts of the transaction. Reading your current recorded deed and the ownership and family facts you give me, a conversation with me about them, drafting, the remote online notarization with two witnesses, and recording with the St. Johns County Clerk. What it is not: a full title search, title insurance, or curative work on a defective chain of title — that is title work I do not take on at any price. Probate and any further tax that turns out to apply are separate from the flat fee.

How much does a lawyer charge for a deed transfer?

It varies, and the number on its own does not tell you what you are getting. My $675 is one price for a standard matter. If you are comparing St. Augustine estate attorneys or Ponte Vedra estate attorneys, ask each one for the fee in writing, what sits inside it, and what happens if the legal description on the old deed turns out to be wrong.

What if the owner has already died?

After a death, a review of the lady bird deed with a 30-minute consultation is $475. I read the recorded deed and the records around it, then we spend thirty minutes together on what passes outside probate and what does not, what has to be recorded, who has to sign, and the deadlines. That review and that half hour are the whole of the $475. It is not a retainer, and it does not cover anything beyond the review and the consultation. If a probate, an ancillary administration or a new or corrective deed turns out to be needed, that is separate work, scoped and quoted before it begins. A title search, a title examination, title insurance and curative work are not included in the $475 review. Keep it apart from the free introductory call, which is for people deciding whether to sign a deed in the first place, and from the $675, which is preparation. See what a family does after the owner dies.

Can you recommend a lady bird deed attorney in Florida?

Look for three things. A Florida attorney who quotes a flat fee up front, reads your current deed and family facts before drafting, and handles recording in your county. That is how I work: $675 flat, your recorded deed read first, recording with the St. Johns County Clerk included, and the same attorney from the first call to the recorded copy. Call (305) 224-6811.

Is the first consultation free?

Yes. The initial call is a free consultation. Bring the current deed, the parcel number and any mortgage statement, and the title question can usually be answered on that first call. If a lady bird deed is the wrong tool for your situation, I will say so.

How do I obtain, set up and file a lady bird deed in Florida?

Five steps, and the first one is the one templates skip. Here is how to set up a lady bird deed, how to create the paperwork and how to file it in St. Johns County.

1. Pull the current deed. How you hold title today decides whether a new deed accomplishes anything. Property held as tenants by the entireties or with a survivorship clause may already pass without probate.
2. Test the family facts. Is the house homestead? Are you married? Is there a minor child? Is there a mortgage? Does anyone you want to name receive SSI or Medicaid?
3. Draft the deed. The enhanced life estate language, the beneficiaries, alternates if one dies first, and how multiple beneficiaries hold, all using the exact legal description from your current deed.
4. Sign it. By remote online notarization, with two subscribing witnesses appearing by audio-video. The notarization is included in the fee.
5. Record it with the St. Johns County Clerk, then confirm the homestead exemption is still showing on the Property Appraiser’s roll.

How do I find my current deed in the St. Johns County official records?

Search the Clerk’s official records online. A deed search by name will usually find it. Search your own name as grantee and look for the deed that put the property in your name. That recorded deed, not the tax bill, is the starting point for everything that follows. While you are searching, you will see how common these deeds are here: recorded examples in the county’s records are often titled “Enhanced Life Estate Deed (Lady Bird Deed).” In St. Johns, as in most Florida counties, the Clerk of Court is the recorder of deeds; there is no separate recorder’s office. If you only know the street address, the Property Appraiser’s property search by address gives you the owner name and parcel number to search with.

How do I get the legal description for my St. Augustine property?

Copy it from your current recorded deed, word for word. A legal description taken from a tax bill or the appraiser’s summary screen is the classic defect: the new deed records, but it does not convey the parcel.

How long does a lady bird deed take?

Most of the time goes to two things: reading your recorded deed and scheduling the signing. Recording itself depends on the route, covered below. A matter involving a mortgage, a spouse or a title problem takes longer, because those questions get answered before anything is drafted.

Who can prepare a lady bird deed?

Florida does not require a lawyer, and online form services sell them. A Florida attorney reads the recorded deed and adds the advice about your spouse, your children and your mortgage. Those are the parts a form cannot supply.

Can I e-record the deed myself?

Not through the Clerk’s consumer portal, which does not accept deeds. The Clerk states that deeds, easements, mortgages and documents requiring clerk action are not eligible for submission through it.

This is a genuine, practical, county-specific limitation and it catches people out. The consumer e-recording route exists in St. Johns and works for other instruments, so a homeowner reasonably assumes it will take a deed. It will not.

That leaves three routes to the Clerk’s recording department: in person, by post, or through a paid vendor account of the sort title companies hold. Approved vendors include CSC, Edoc Solutions, eRecording Partners, File and Go, Indecomm and Simplifile.

When I prepare the deed, submitting it for recording is part of the engagement, so you do not need to visit a counter at all.

Where do I record a lady bird deed in St. Johns County?

Three counters take a deed in person, and the Clerk also records by mail. The Clerk’s recording page says so expressly, and it is the page to check before you travel.

Location	Address	Access
By mail	Attn: Recording, 4010 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine	The Clerk’s published mailing address for recording
Public Service Center	4040 Lewis Speedway	8:00–5:00 weekdays, walk in, no appointment
Julington Creek Annex	725 Flora Branch Boulevard, St. Johns	9:00–4:00, appointment required
Ponte Vedra Annex	151 Sawgrass Corners Drive, Ponte Vedra Beach	Monday and Wednesday only, appointment required

Read the last row carefully. Ponte Vedra opens for this purpose two days a week and by appointment, which in the wealthiest corner of the county is where a good deal of the relevant property sits.

The main counter answers on (904) 819-3600. Probate is filed at the same Judicial Center. In St. Johns, deeds record at the Public Service Center at 4040 Lewis Speedway and probate is filed next door at the Judicial Center at 4010, so both errands are on the same stretch of road.

How long does recording take in St. Johns County?

It depends on the route: at the counter, by mail, or through an e-recording vendor. What matters more than the day it records is that it records while you are alive. Once it does, the recorded copy shows the book and page or instrument number, and you should keep it with your will.

Can the whole process be done online, without coming to an office?

Yes. The consultation is by phone or video. Signing is by remote online notarization, with the witnesses appearing by audio-video and the notarization included in the fee, and recording is handled with the Clerk. Owners in Ponte Vedra Beach, Nocatee or out of state for the summer do not need to travel to Lewis Speedway. You can do the whole thing from home.

Does a lady bird deed have to be notarized?

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.

What is a lady bird deed (enhanced life estate deed), and how does it work in St. Johns County?

It is a deed in which you keep a life estate plus the power to sell, mortgage or convey the whole property without the beneficiaries signing, and name who takes it when you die. That retained power is the whole mechanism. It is also what separates it from an ordinary life estate deed.

What does a lady bird deed do day to day? Its purpose is to move one property at death without probate while taking nothing away from you during life. You sign a new deed to your own home. It reserves everything to you for your lifetime and names one or more remainder beneficiaries. The deed is recorded with the St. Johns County Clerk. While you are alive, nothing changes: you live there, pay the taxes, keep the homestead exemption, and can sell or refinance without asking anyone. At your death the house passes to the people you named, and no probate is needed for that asset, provided the deed is effective and the remainder holds up. Other assets, and any dispute about the deed itself, can still require a court.

Is an enhanced life estate deed the same as a lady bird deed?

Yes. “Enhanced life estate deed” is the formal name; “lady bird deed” and the one-word “ladybird” spelling are the common ones. All of these names describe one instrument. No Florida statute creates it. It rests on Florida common law and title practice, and two Florida appellate courts have now recognized it. The statewide hub page sets out that authority.

Is a lady bird deed a trust?

No. It is a deed. What people search for as a “lady bird trust” or “ladybird trust” is this same deed under the wrong name; signing it does not create a trust. You can, however, name your revocable trust as the beneficiary, which is covered further down.

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 a legal entity and does hold title in its own name; what it needs is the right person signing 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 the deed has to identify the trust. Under section 689.07, a deed naming someone as trustee without naming the trust or its date, naming a beneficiary, or stating the trust’s purpose can hand that trustee the property in fee simple, with full power to sell and encumber it. It is not automatic. 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. It is still a trap worth closing in the drafting, because nobody notices until the property is being sold.

Why is it called a lady bird deed?

Not because Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson used one. Florida’s Title Insurance Company traces the name to Florida attorney Jerome Ira Solkoff. He drafted the form around 1982, and his teaching materials used a fictional family named Lyndon and Lady Bird as the example parties. The nickname stuck, and it gets garbled too: a “ladybug deed” means the same instrument. The formal name is still enhanced life estate deed.

When does a lady bird deed take effect?

In two stages. Once it is signed and recorded, your life estate and powers are reserved and the beneficiaries are on the public record. Their ownership begins only at your death, when title vests in them automatically. Until then they have no say over the house.

Does a lady bird deed avoid probate?

Yes, for the house, if the deed is valid and the remainder is drafted correctly. Probate avoidance is the reason most St. Johns County owners sign one. At death the beneficiaries record a death certificate and an affidavit, and the property is theirs without letters of administration. The deed does not reach bank accounts, vehicles or anything else, which is covered below.

Does a lady bird deed override my will?

For that property, effectively yes. The deed operates outside your estate, so the house never becomes an asset your will can leave to anyone. A will leaving “my home to my daughter” does nothing if a recorded lady bird deed names your son. The two documents need to be drafted with each other in view. There is also no such thing as a “lady bird will.” The deed and the will are separate documents, and the deed is the one that moves the house.

Does a lady bird deed have to be recorded, and can it be filed after death?

Yes — record it now, not later. Section 695.01 makes an unrecorded conveyance ineffective against creditors and later purchasers without notice. A deed signed and left in a drawer is the version families find after the funeral. They then ask whether it can still be filed after the owner’s death. Whether a deed like that still works turns on the facts. Recording before death creates a presumption of delivery. Without recording, the question is whether the owner gave up control of the deed during life. A deed that stayed in the owner’s hands, or with someone holding it until the owner said otherwise, likely fails. A deed the owner placed beyond recall may survive even if it reached the beneficiary only after the death. No Florida appellate court has applied these rules to a lady bird deed specifically. That is exactly the kind of dispute the deed was meant to prevent. Record it while you are alive.

Does a town founded in 1565 mean a difficult chain of title?

No — and the reason is a statute worth knowing. Florida’s Marketable Record Title Act gives a title a root that is generally thirty years back, not four hundred and sixty. That is a rule about which old claims survive, not a promise that thirty years of searching is all any title needs.

Section 712.01(6) defines the root of title as the last title transaction recorded at least thirty years before marketability is being determined. Section 712.02 then vests marketable record title in the holder, free of claims predating that root, subject to the exceptions the Act itself preserves.

That is how conveyancing functions in the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European and African-American origin in the United States, to use the City’s own careful phrasing. Colonial-era history is genuinely remarkable and almost entirely irrelevant to whether your deed records cleanly.

The qualification is in the exceptions. The Act preserves certain interests regardless of age, and it is those, not the antiquity of the town, that occasionally surface. A title company’s examination looks for them. It does not read four centuries of documents.

What will my children be allowed to do with the house?

That is the question this county actually raises, and it is not answered by the deed. St. Augustine regulates alterations, demolition and even digging on private property.

Three overlapping regimes apply inside the city:

• Historic districts. Five local districts, designated HP-1 through HP-5, sit alongside seven National Register districts. The two are not the same: National Register listing is recognition, while the city’s local designation is what carries regulation. Exterior changes in the local districts require a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic Architectural Review Board before work begins.
• Demolition review. The same board reviews demolition of buildings fifty years old or older, or recorded on the Florida Master Site File, or designated as a local landmark. That is a low threshold in a city of this age.
• Archaeological zones. The City operates an Archaeological Preservation Ordinance covering eighteen zones across three tiers, graded by the density of cultural deposits beneath them. Review is triggered where a project sits in a zone, spans a hundred square feet, and goes three inches deep. Three inches. A pool, a footing, a serious replanting.

Does signing the deed need approval from the Historic Architectural Review Board?

No. A lady bird deed triggers none of this. There is no ground disturbance and no exterior alteration in recording a conveyance, so no Certificate of Appropriateness and no archaeological review arises from signing one.

What the deed does is decide who inherits the obligations. The people you name will be the ones dealing with the review board, and a remainderman who assumed they could knock through the back of a 1920s house is a remainderman who will discover otherwise at the least convenient moment. Planning and Building takes those questions on 904-825-1065, and the time to ask is now.

What has to be on the deed before the counter takes it?

Two witnesses, a notary, and the Clerk’s reserved space. Section 689.01(1) makes two subscribing witnesses a condition of creating the interest. These are the St. Johns County requirements every recorded lady bird deed has to meet.

The Clerk’s published requirements call for a three-inch by three-inch blank at the top right of the first page and a one-inch by three-inch space at the top of each page after, with grantor and witness names and addresses printed legibly beneath the signatures, the preparer identified by name and address, and the notary’s signature, stamp and expiry date shown. Section 695.26 is the source of those rules.

St. Johns County recording fees are $10.00 for the first page and $8.50 for each page after, with an extra dollar for each name indexed beyond the first four. A typical two-page deed records for $18.50.

Do you pay documentary stamp tax on a lady bird deed in St. Johns County?

On a house with no mortgage, nothing where the deed recites no consideration, and seventy cents where it recites a nominal sum such as ten dollars. The rate under section 201.02 is seventy cents per hundred dollars of consideration. The Department of Revenue’s published advisement on this instrument, TAA 20B4-004, concluded that an enhanced life estate deed transfers no present beneficial interest and is not subject to the tax. That advisement binds the Department only as to the taxpayer who asked for it, and only for the transaction described, under section 213.22. What the deed recites decides the rest. A deed on unencumbered property that recites no consideration owes nothing. A deed that recites nominal consideration, such as ten dollars, carries the seventy-cent minimum under Rule 12B-4.012(5). So on an unencumbered house whose deed recites either nothing or a nominal sum, the figure is between nothing and seventy cents, whatever the property is worth, and my fee covers the minimum either way. A deed reciting real consideration is a different calculation, and so is a mortgaged house.

A mortgage changes the question. Section 201.02(1)(a) counts the amount of any mortgage as consideration, whether or not anyone assumes it. No Florida statute, rule or appellate decision has settled whether that rule reaches an enhanced life estate deed, which passes no present vested interest when it is signed. If your St. Johns County house carries a mortgage, answer that question before the deed is recorded, not after.

How do I sign up for the St. Johns County property fraud alert?

Enroll in the Clerk’s free Property Fraud Alerts service. It emails you when a document, including a deed transfer, records against your name. The Property Appraiser runs its own alert service as well. An alert is a notification: it does not block a fraudulent filing and it is not insurance. Enroll the same week you record anything, and act quickly if one arrives.

Can I do my own lady bird deed in Florida?

You can, but a free form cannot see your title, your family, or your zoning. In this county that last one is not a throwaway.

The facts that decide these matters are never on a template: whether a lender must be consulted before an interest is conveyed, whether an old conveyance left a defect in the legal description, whether someone you intend to name receives means-tested benefits an inherited interest would interrupt, or whether a surviving minor child makes homestead descent compulsory under section 732.401 whatever the deed says.

Then add the St. Augustine layer. A form has no view on whether the property sits inside HP-1 through HP-5, whether it falls in one of the eighteen archaeological zones, or whether the house is old enough to bring demolition under review. Those facts do not stop the deed. They shape who it should sensibly name.

What does a lady bird deed look like?

Like any other one- or two-page Florida deed, and that is the problem with do-it-yourself versions. Recorded ones are usually titled as a warranty deed or quitclaim deed reserving an enhanced life estate. What makes it a lady bird deed is a short reserved-powers clause, sometimes called the “lady bird clause,” and that clause is where downloaded forms most often go wrong. Drafted too narrowly, it leaves the owner unable to sell or refinance without the beneficiaries signing. The other common mistakes are a legal description copied from a tax bill, a missing spouse’s signature, and no alternate beneficiary. A sample on a screen cannot tell you whether any of those apply to your house.

Do you need a lawyer to do a lady bird deed in Florida?

No law requires one. Any competent adult can sign a deed. The document is cheap. You pay for the judgment about whether it fits your title, your spouse, your children and your mortgage. That is why people look for a lady bird deed lawyer rather than a template, and why the defects templates create usually surface only after the owner has died.

Do I need a St. Augustine lawyer, or can a Florida attorney elsewhere prepare my deed?

Any Florida attorney can prepare it. The deed is governed by Florida law, not county law. What is local is where it records and what the counter requires, and this page covers that. The title company or closing agent your family meets later will look at the deed itself, not at where the lawyer’s office was. Elder law, estate planning and real estate lawyers all prepare these deeds. The work is the same: read the recorded deed, draft the new one, record it.

What is the downside of a lady bird deed in Florida?

It covers one parcel, does nothing for incapacity, is public, and fails badly in the family situations it is most often used for. It is an excellent tool for the right house and the wrong one for others. Its drawbacks and the problems it causes are real, and so are its advantages. Here are the pros and cons.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Avoids probate on the house	Covers only that one property
You keep full control — sell, refinance, revoke	Does nothing if you lose capacity
Homestead exemption kept during life; Save Our Homes cap designed to be kept	Save Our Homes cap is usually lost at your death, unless a statutory exception applies
Beneficiaries get a stepped-up basis	Beneficiaries and terms are public record
Low cost compared with a trust	Blended families and a spouse or minor child are where these deeds are litigated

Is a lady bird deed a good idea, and is it worth it?

For an adult-beneficiary family with one Florida home and a clean title, usually yes. For a blended family, a minor child, a beneficiary on benefits, or an estate that needs incapacity planning, the deed is at most one piece of a plan, and sometimes the wrong piece.

Can I do a lady bird deed if I have a minor child?

Not safely, and this is the one place on this page where I have to contradict what almost every other page says. Article X, Section 4(c) of the Florida Constitution restricts the devise of homestead when the owner is survived by a minor child. The usual answer is that Fla. Stat. § 732.4017 makes a lifetime transfer something other than a devise, so the restriction never reaches a lady bird deed. That reading does not hold.

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.

Section 732.4017 withholds its shelter where the transferor retains a power to revoke the transfer or revest title in himself — and the enhanced power is exactly that, because selling without your remainderman’s joinder revests the whole fee in you. Section 732.4017(3)(a) expressly permits a grantor to keep a life estate, a possibility of reverter, or a fractional fee interest without losing the shelter. It does not permit a retained power to unilaterally extinguish the remainder, which is the defining feature of this instrument. So on the text of the statute the shelter is unavailable from the day the deed is signed, although no Florida court has yet said so about this deed. Stone v. Stone, 157 So. 3d 295 (Fla. 4th DCA 2014), is the nearest authority, and the contrast is the point: that grantor retained no such power and the statute still failed to protect the transfer.

Separate what is established from what is not. The constitutional rule that homestead cannot be left away from a surviving minor child is established, and Clemons v. Thornton, 993 So. 2d 1054 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008), holds that when a remainder in homestead fails the life estate already granted survives it — that case turned on a missing spouse’s signature rather than on a minor child, but the severance principle is the same, so your life estate and your powers to sell, mortgage or revoke survive. What no Florida appellate court has decided is whether section 732.4017 treats the retained power in a lady bird deed as a disqualifying power to revoke or revest, or what becomes of a remainder signed while a child is a minor once the grantor outlives that minority. The constitutional text asks only whether a minor child survives you, which is a question answered at your death and not at signing — Jones v. Jones, 412 So. 2d 387 (Fla. 2d DCA 1982), holds that the provision in force at the death controls — so a deed signed while your child is a minor should come clear once you outlive that child’s eighteenth birthday, and a child born later puts you back inside the rule. Both of those follow from the constitutional text rather than from any decision on these facts. And the statute offers no cure for a remainder that has failed this test: the § 732.7025 waiver reaches only a spouse, there is no equivalent for a minor child, and no Florida appellate decision supplies a repair. Where a spouse is the one being planned around, that waiver does real work: a spouse may waive the devise restriction by including the language section 732.7025 requires in the deed itself. It stops there, though — it does not remove the requirement that both spouses join a deed conveying homestead, and it does not touch the homestead’s protection from the owner’s creditors. The void-from-the-day-you-signed language you will read elsewhere comes from the joinder cases, where a married owner conveyed homestead without the spouse signing; the minor-child rule is the other half of that constitutional sentence and does not work that way. So the practical position splits in two. If you live past your youngest child’s eighteenth birthday, no minor child survives you and the restriction does not reach the deed at your death, and no fresh deed is needed to make that so. Two conditions ride with that. If the deed names anyone other than your spouse, you must also not be survived by a spouse who has not waived homestead rights — a deed to your spouse is a permitted devise where no minor child survives, Art. X, § 4(c). And you should know that no Florida appellate court has decided this exact point on a lady bird deed, so a cautious title underwriter may still ask for paperwork. If you do not, the remainder fails and § 732.401 decides where the house goes instead. Nobody can guarantee which of those happens, which is why I will not build a plan on this deed alone while there is a minor child. Re-executing once your youngest reaches majority is worth doing to take the question off a title examiner’s desk. So the plain statement is this: if you have a minor child and want a lady bird deed on your Florida homestead, the remainder will not hold if you die while that child is still a minor. If the restriction does apply, title descends under Fla. Stat. § 732.401 to a surviving spouse for life with a per stirpes remainder in the descendants, and the house lands in probate anyway. Raise it with me before anything is drafted.

Can Medicaid take your house if you have a lady bird deed?

On the better reading, signing one is not treated as a transfer, so it does not start the five-year (60-month) Medicaid look-back, sometimes called the 5-year rule. Estate recovery runs through probate, which the house avoids. That is why the deed comes up so often in nursing home planning. Both points turn on how the general rules apply rather than on any rule written for this deed, and on a statutory choice a future Legislature could change. Where a parent is already in a nursing home or an application is pending, the deed should not be signed in isolation. Where protecting the house from long-term care costs is the real objective, a Medicaid asset protection trust (an irrevocable trust) may be the right instrument instead. Buying time with a lady bird deed can cost that plan. Medicaid is the program this section is about. Medicare is a different program, and if your question is really whether Medicare can take your house, this is not the page that answers it. The hub sets out the authority.

Do my children get a step-up in basis, and who pays capital gains?

Yes to the step-up, which is the strongest tax argument for the deed. Because you keep the life estate and the power to defeat the remainder, the house stays in your taxable estate, and the beneficiaries’ basis is generally adjusted to the property’s value at your death. Sold soon after, there is usually little or no gain left to tax. A quit claim to a child during life carries your old basis forward instead.

Who pays capital gains on a lady bird deed? The beneficiaries, if they sell. The gain is the sale proceeds less their adjusted basis, and that basis is generally the date-of-death value, raised by later improvements and lowered by any depreciation they claim. So the gain that built up during your lifetime is generally not taxed to them.

The same inclusion means the house counts toward your estate for federal estate tax; whether that matters depends on the size of the estate. Florida has no inheritance tax, so the deed neither triggers nor avoids one. See does Florida have an inheritance tax. The detail is in the tax consequences guide.

Lady bird deed vs. living trust in Florida

A revocable living trust covers the assets you actually put into it, and plans for incapacity. The deed covers one parcel and does neither. The trust costs several times more. Is a lady bird deed better than a trust? For one house and adult beneficiaries it is simpler and cheaper; for everything else, no. Many families should have both. See the deed-versus-trust comparison.

Lady bird deed vs. irrevocable trust or land trust

Different tools for different jobs. An irrevocable Medicaid asset protection trust gives up control in exchange for protection the deed does not provide. A Florida land trust is a title-holding arrangement: a trustee holds title and you keep the beneficial interest under a private agreement. See the Florida land trust guide.

Do I need a lady bird deed if I have a will or a trust?

With only a will, probably yes, if you want the house kept out of probate. A will has to go through probate to move the property. With a trust, often no. If the house is already titled in your revocable trust, a lady bird deed may add nothing. The only way to tell is to read the deed and the trust.

Lady bird deed vs. quit claim deed or warranty deed

An outright deed to a child, with no rights reserved, gives away whatever it conveys, and cannot be undone. The label on the form is not what decides this: an enhanced life estate can be written into a quit claim or a warranty deed. What matters is what the deed reserves. Deed the whole parcel and you no longer own your home. Deed a share, which is the more common version, and you have a co-owner whose consent you need for any sale. Either way it is a gift for tax purposes, it costs the family the step-up on whatever you gave away, and it exposes the house to that child’s divorce and creditors while you still live there. See lady bird deed vs. quit claim deed.

Lady bird deed vs. traditional life estate

Under a traditional life estate, every beneficiary must sign before you can sell or refinance. The enhanced version reserves all of that to you. You get the same probate avoidance without losing control.

Does Florida have a transfer on death deed?

No. Florida has no transfer on death (TOD) deed statute for real property. That is why the enhanced life estate deed became standard here. A national “transfer on death deed” or “beneficiary deed” form has no statutory footing in Florida.

Lady bird deed vs. joint tenancy with right of survivorship

Adding a child as a joint owner gives them a present interest now. It exposes the house to their creditors and divorce, and it needs their signature to sell. If you already hold title with a survivorship clause, the survivorship may already control, and a new deed signed by one owner may accomplish nothing.

Who in St. Johns County should consider a lady bird deed?

Any owner of Florida real estate held in their own name qualifies to sign one. Who needs one is the better question, and St. Johns is not particularly a retirement county, which changes the answer. Age is not what decides it. What decides it is how you hold title, who you want the house to go to, and whether a spouse or a minor child is in the picture.

What is unusual here, on the Census Bureau’s QuickFacts estimates, is how much of the county’s wealth sits in owner-occupied housing.

	St. Johns	Florida
Owner-occupied	82.2%	67.6%
Median home value	$489,200	$359,000
Median household income	$109,839	$74,568
Growth 2020–2025	+26.7%	+8.9%

So the question is not your age. It is whether you own a Florida home in your own name, know who should inherit it, and have beneficiaries who are adults able to hold title, with no spouse or minor child complicating the homestead position. Where one of those is not true, the deed is one piece of a plan rather than the plan.

Which parts of St. Johns County does this cover?

The same Clerk records deeds for the whole county. That covers downtown and the historic districts, the beaches, Ponte Vedra Beach and Palm Valley, the master-planned communities in the northwest of the county, Fruit Cove, Julington Creek and St. Johns, and the farm country to the west. The sections below name the neighborhoods where a particular issue comes up most. One caution for owners near the county line: Nocatee and the Julington Creek area sit close to Duval County. Check the parcel’s county on the Property Appraiser’s record before assuming St. Johns is the recording office. If your house turns out to be in Duval, the Jacksonville lady bird deed page covers that counter. Palm Coast and the rest of Flagler County are in the same judicial circuit as St. Johns but record deeds with the Flagler County Clerk.

Do you handle lady bird deeds in the counties next to St. Johns?

Yes. I handle them statewide, and each county records its own deeds. A house in Clay County, whether in Green Cove Springs, Orange Park or Fleming Island, records with the Clay County Clerk. Volusia County deeds, from Ormond Beach and Daytona Beach to DeLand, record in Volusia. Palatka and the rest of Putnam County record in Putnam, and Fernandina Beach records in Nassau. Duval, including Jacksonville Beach and Mandarin, is covered by the Jacksonville page linked above. The flat fee and the process are the same. Only the counter changes.

I just moved to St. Johns County with an out-of-state will or trust. Do I need a lady bird deed?

Possibly not, but check before assuming either way. If your St. Johns County house is already titled in the name of your revocable trust, a further deed may add nothing. If the house is in your own name and your plan is an out-of-state will, that will has to go through Florida probate to move the house. A lady bird deed can take the house out of that process. It does nothing for property you still own in another state, which needs its own solution under that state’s law. For snowbirds and non-resident owners who live elsewhere, the deed keeps the St. Johns County house out of a Florida ancillary probate. A form written for another state is not written around Florida’s homestead rules. If the plan already names an executor who lives elsewhere, the out-of-state executor guide explains what Florida requires of them.

Military families near NAS Jacksonville and Mayport

A deployment or a PCS move is a common reason the deed never gets signed. It can be signed remotely, and it does not need to be redone when you are stationed elsewhere, as long as the house stays in your name. Senior, veteran, disability and widow’s or widower’s exemptions attach to the person occupying the home as a permanent resident, and a lady bird deed does not displace you as that person. Confirm current exemption amounts directly with the St. Johns County Property Appraiser.

What happens to the house if I do nothing?

It passes under your will, or under Florida’s intestacy rules if there is none. Either route goes through the courts. The deed exists to make that unnecessary for the residence.

Homestead occupies a peculiar position in Florida law. It is protected from most creditors, it descends under constraints the deceased cannot always override, and it is treated differently from every other asset in an estate. Those protections are valuable and they are also the reason the process around it is slower and more technical than families expect.

The practical picture while an estate is open is what people underestimate. The house cannot be sold without the court’s involvement. Insurance and taxes continue to fall due and somebody has to fund them. A property standing empty through a northeast Florida summer deteriorates. Where heirs disagree about whether to keep or sell, that disagreement is now happening inside a court file rather than across a kitchen table.

A lady bird deed removes the residence from that process entirely. On the day of death it belongs to the people named, who can insure it, maintain it, live in it or sell it immediately, without waiting for letters of administration or anyone’s permission.

Two limits are worth stating plainly. The deed governs the house and nothing else — accounts, vehicles and personal property are untouched and may still require administration. And it does not replace a will. It sits alongside one, dealing with the single asset that would otherwise dominate the proceeding.

Where a family already holds property through a revocable trust, much of this may be handled and a further deed may add nothing. Establishing which of those situations applies means reading the existing documents rather than describing them from memory.

Homestead, property taxes and the lady bird deed

Will recording it cost me the homestead exemption?

No. A life tenant holds equitable title as a matter of statute. Section 196.041(2) declares a beneficial interest for life to be “equitable title to real estate.”

The county’s Property Appraiser at 4030 Lewis Speedway publishes the constitutional formula — legal title or beneficial title in equity — but says nothing anywhere about life estates, life tenants or remaindermen. As in most Florida counties, the reassurance has to come from the statute rather than from the county.

Two St. Johns specifics are published and both are worth having:

• The filing deadline is March 1, or the next business day when March 1 falls on a weekend. That made it March 2 in 2026; for 2027 it is back to March 1. The appraiser states the rule expressly. It is the kind of one-day difference that costs somebody an exemption every year.
• The additional homestead exemption is now inflation-adjusted. Following the 2024 constitutional amendment, the appraiser reported the 2025 total at $50,722, above the $50,000 floor.

Portability moves up to $500,000 of accumulated Save Our Homes benefit to a new homestead, where a homestead exemption was received on the old home as of January 1 in any of the three years immediately preceding January 1 of the year the new homestead is established, and the cap itself limits assessment growth to three percent or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower. In a county growing at 26.7%, the gap between assessed and market value on a long-held house is widening quickly, and that accumulated benefit is worth protecting deliberately.

The homestead exemption application, its status and the forms are all handled by the Property Appraiser, not the Clerk. A lady bird deed does not require a new application from you.

What do I need to apply for the St. Johns County homestead exemption?

The requirements for a homestead exemption start with residence: the home must be your primary residence on January 1, and you need a Florida driver’s license or ID showing that address, plus the Social Security numbers of you and your spouse. The Property Appraiser also asks for a permanent resident card for non-citizens and a copy of the trust if the property is held in one. It also asks for your prior Florida homestead address if you had one. Neither spouse may receive a residency-based exemption in another state. Applications can be filed online, and the Appraiser publishes its key dates for each year. The deadline is March 1, or the next business day when March 1 falls on a weekend — March 2 in 2026, March 1 in 2027 — and late filing is accepted only for good cause.

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 St. Johns 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.

Will my property taxes go up after a lady bird deed?

Recording a deed that lists you as both grantor and grantee is designed not to cause a reassessment while you are alive. After your death, very possibly — unless a statutory exception fits your beneficiary. A deed in that form is designed not to reset your Save Our Homes cap: 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, and you remain the owner 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, and no Florida appellate court has yet applied the exception to a lady bird deed. Your bill can still move with the millage rate and the market; what the deed does not do is restart the assessment. The cap is yours, though, not the property’s. When the beneficiaries take title at your death, that is a change of ownership, and the parcel is reassessed at just value the following January 1. In a county where values have climbed this fast, a child inheriting a house bought in the 1990s should expect a very different tax bill. The hub sets out the statute and the narrow portability exception. The Property Appraiser’s online tax estimator gives a rough idea of what a new owner would pay.

What happens to the homestead exemption after the owner dies?

It comes off, and the homestead taxes do not continue at your rate. The exemption was yours. After your death the Property Appraiser must be notified so it is removed from the roll. If nobody does this, the county can later claw the exemption back with penalties and interest. A beneficiary who makes the house a permanent residence can apply for an exemption of their own.

Do my children keep my Save Our Homes cap after I die?

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 about the senior and veteran exemptions?

They stay with you. The senior, veteran, disability and widow’s or widower’s exemptions attach to the person occupying the home as a permanent resident. The deed leaves you in that position.

Selling, refinancing and changing the deed

Can I sell my house with a lady bird deed, or refinance it?

Yes, without asking the beneficiaries. That is the defining feature of the enhanced version. You can list and close, take a new mortgage or home equity line, or rent the house out. If you sell, the deed simply stops mattering, and no beneficiary has a claim on the proceeds. Some lenders and title companies still ask the beneficiaries to sign out of caution. Properly drafted retained powers make that unnecessary, and that drafting is one of the things I check.

Can I do a lady bird deed if I have a mortgage?

Yes. You can do one with a mortgage in place; a lady bird deed on mortgaged property is common, and the loan does not have to be paid off first. Most mortgages contain a due-on-sale clause. The usual argument that recording the deed does not trigger it is that you keep full ownership and every incident of control. No court has decided the point either way, so read the note and consider telling the lender rather than assuming.

What about a reverse mortgage?

Usually, but the loan gets read first. The power to grant a mortgage and the terms of a loan you already have are two separate questions. The reserved powers are what keep the power to mortgage in your hands without the beneficiaries signing. Whether an existing reverse mortgage permits the transfer depends on that loan’s documents and servicing rules, so those get read before the deed is signed.

Can I change or revoke a lady bird deed?

Is a lady bird deed revocable? Yes, at any time, by you alone. The beneficiaries do not have to agree and do not have to be told. That also answers the question from the other side: can a beneficiary lose their inheritance? Yes. You can take the remainder away at any time before your death. You revoke or change it by recording a new deed, either a fresh lady bird deed naming different beneficiaries or a deed back to yourself. The original stays in the official records; the change is added to the chain.

Can I name more than one beneficiary?

Yes, in any shares, with alternates. Multiple beneficiaries take as tenants in common unless the deed says otherwise. That means any one of them can later force a sale by partition. If two siblings want to keep the house and the third wants to sell, the third can force the issue. One line in the deed decides whether survivorship applies among them instead.

What happens if my beneficiary dies before me?

It depends entirely on how the deed is written, and the answer is not automatic. Florida’s antilapse statute applies to wills, not deeds. A remainder drafted as contingent on surviving you can fall back into your estate, which means probate for that share after all. Naming contingent beneficiaries costs nothing and removes the question.

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.

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

Only if the power of attorney specifically authorizes it. General “do anything I could do” language is not enough under Florida’s power of attorney statute. Certain acts require the principal’s signature or initials next to that specific power. See the power of attorney guide.

Can a lady bird deed be contested?

Yes, on the same grounds as any deed: capacity, undue influence, forgery, defective execution, and the homestead restrictions. A properly witnessed and notarized deed puts the burden on the challenger. The grounds and burdens are set out in the deed contest guide.

Can a married couple do a joint lady bird deed?

Yes. Spouses who own the home together usually sign one deed as joint grantors, reserving the life estate to both. How you hold title today matters first. A home deeded to “husband and wife” is typically held as tenants by the entirety, so the surviving spouse already takes the whole house at the first death. The lady bird deed decides what happens after the second death. If the house is homestead and only one spouse is on title, the other spouse must still join in any deed that gives the remainder to someone else, such as your children. A deed signed by the titled spouse alone is void as to that remainder. The exception is a deed that simply puts the house in both spouses’ names as tenants by the entirety, which the titled spouse can sign alone.

Does a spouse automatically inherit a house in Florida?

It depends on how title is held and whether the house is homestead. If you own it with your spouse as tenants by the entirety, the survivor takes it automatically. Suppose instead it is your homestead, in your name alone, and you leave a spouse or a minor child. Florida’s homestead rules then restrict who can receive it. Where a restricted transfer fails, section 732.401 gives the surviving spouse a life estate with the remainder to your descendants, or an election to take a one-half interest. That is also the situation where a lady bird deed is least reliable.

What if I am married, divorcing, or a parent has dementia?

• Spouse. If the house is homestead, a married owner’s spouse must join in a deed that gives the remainder to anyone else, even if the spouse is not on the title. A spouse who cannot sign can join through a power of attorney under section 689.111.
• Divorce. A beneficiary’s divorce, bankruptcy or judgment is a reason to re-deed. It is the cleanest fix when a beneficiary’s circumstances change. While you are alive, a beneficiary’s creditors reach only an interest you can defeat at will. That protection ends at your death.
• Blended families and second marriages. A spouse from a second marriage alongside children or stepchildren from a first is where these deeds generate litigation instead of avoiding it. That family needs a plan, not just a deed.
• Incapacity and dementia. A lady bird deed does nothing for incapacity. It does not let anyone manage the house if you cannot. A durable power of attorney or a trust does. Where a parent is already showing signs of dementia, capacity at the signing is the question a later challenge will focus on. The execution should be handled with that in mind.

Lady bird deed St. Johns County property: flood, condos, rentals and second homes

What happens to my flood and hurricane insurance after I die?

Ask your insurer or agent what the policy needs before it matters. The city’s downtown has flooded repeatedly in recent storms, and so have the coastal and riverfront neighborhoods: St. Augustine Beach and Anastasia Island, Vilano Beach, Crescent Beach, Butler Beach and St. Augustine Shores. After a death, the people you named become the owners dealing with the insurer and, after a declared disaster, FEMA. A beneficiary who is not a named insured can find a homeowners insurance claim disputed on the ground that the insurable interest ended with the named insured. The low-cost step is to ask your agent to look at the policy against the deed while you are alive and say what the carrier will want after a death. The deed does not change a flood zone and does not guarantee coverage. How a particular flood policy treats the change after death is a question for the policy and the agent.

Can I use one on a condo in Ponte Vedra Beach or an HOA home in Nocatee?

Yes. The deed works on a condominium or a home in an HOA or CDD community. That covers the condominiums along Ponte Vedra Beach and the golf communities around Sawgrass and Marsh Landing. It also covers the master-planned communities in the northwest of the county: Nocatee, World Golf Village, Palencia, RiverTown, SilverLeaf, Durbin Park, Shearwater, Beachwalk, Julington Creek Plantation and Murabella. Read the association documents and any deed restrictions before you sign, though. Some declarations include notice or approval provisions for transfers. Community development district assessments follow the property to whoever owns it. Whether a particular declaration reaches this kind of deed is a question of that document’s wording.

Who pays the condominium or HOA assessments after the owner dies?

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.

What about a mobile home or vacant land?

Yes, if the land is yours. A mobile home or manufactured home on land you own and vacant land are both properties the deed works well for. That includes the farm and riverfront parcels around Hastings, Elkton and Switzerland. A mobile home on a rented lot is a different question. So is the home itself: a manufactured home usually has its own title, and deeding the land does not move that title. Whether the home has been retired onto the real property, and whose name is on its certificate of title, both need checking before the deed is drafted.

What about a rental or second home in St. Augustine Beach?

Yes, if it is held in your individual name. A vacation rental, investment property or second home can pass the same way. Remember, though, that the homestead exemption and Save Our Homes discussion on this page is about homestead property. For non-homestead property the property-tax picture is different, and it turns on the parcel.

St. Augustine lady bird deed attorney FAQ

Do I need a lawyer near Ponte Vedra Beach?

No. You do not need a lawyer with an office near you. I handle St. Johns County deeds from Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale, for Saint Augustine, St Augustine Beach and Ponte Vedra Beach alike. The consultation is by phone or video, and signing is by remote online notarization, included in the fee.

Do I need an appointment at the Ponte Vedra or Julington Creek annex?

Yes, at both. The Ponte Vedra Annex records only on Mondays and Wednesdays, by appointment. Julington Creek is 9:00 to 4:00, by appointment. The Lewis Speedway counters take walk-ins.

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

$10.00 for the first page and $8.50 for each page after, plus a dollar for each name indexed beyond the first four, so a typical two-page deed is $18.50.

Is a ladybird deed legal in Florida?

Yes. There is no “lady bird law” in the Florida Statutes and no statute creates the deed, but Florida common law recognizes it, title underwriters insure it routinely, and Florida appellate courts have addressed it directly.

When is the St Johns County homestead exemption deadline?

March 1, or the next business day when March 1 falls on a weekend — which made it March 2 in 2026 and puts it back at March 1 for 2027. The St. Johns County Property Appraiser publishes the date each year.

Can I name my revocable trust as the beneficiary?

Yes. It is often the right answer where the beneficiaries are minors or need staged distributions, and it keeps the final terms out of the public records. Naming a trust does not by itself protect a beneficiary who receives means-tested benefits: that depends on the trust’s terms and on the rules of the particular program, which is why a special needs trust is drafted as one.

Can a minor be a beneficiary?

Yes, and grandchildren are common beneficiaries, but a minor usually should not take outright. A minor can own an interest in land. What a minor cannot do is manage or convey it, so selling a minor’s share means a court-supervised guardianship of the property. Naming a trust, with terms written for that child, avoids that.

What if a beneficiary receives SSI or Medicaid?

An outright remainder can cost them eligibility the day it vests. A special needs trust named as the beneficiary can preserve both the inheritance and the benefits.

Does a lady bird deed trigger gift tax?

No. Because you keep the power to take the property back, signing one is not a completed gift. There is no federal gift tax and no gift tax return.

Does a lady bird deed protect against creditors?

Not your own creditors. You still own the house. The deed is not an asset protection device. If the home is your Florida homestead, it already has constitutional creditor protection, and the deed does not change that. After your death, that protection passes to your surviving spouse or to family members within Florida’s intestate-heir categories. If the remainder goes to someone outside that group, such as a friend or a charity, the protection does not pass with it. Whether the homestead restrictions reach this deed at all is the harder question, and the minor-child discussion above is where it is answered. A spouse must still join. A beneficiary’s creditors are a different matter, also covered above.

What if the owner dies days after signing the deed?

The tax result does not turn on how long you live after signing. The reserved powers keep the house in your estate, and that inclusion is what produces the step-up. The real risk with a deed signed days before death is a challenge to capacity or undue influence. That is why the signing needs care when an owner is seriously ill.

How does a lady bird deed work if I move out of the house?

The deed keeps working. It does not depend on where you live. You still own the house, you can still sell it, and it still passes to your beneficiaries at death. What changes is the homestead exemption, which requires the home to be your permanent residence. If you move out for good, check with the Property Appraiser. If the move is to a nursing home, read the Medicaid section above first.

Are lady bird deeds public record?

Yes. Once recorded, the deed and the names of your beneficiaries sit in the St. Johns County official records, where anyone can search them. A trust keeps those terms private; a lady bird deed does not.

Do I need title insurance or a title company?

Not to sign one, and you do not need a separate St. Augustine real estate attorney either. I read your recorded deed before I draft. I do not do title searches, title examinations or title insurance, and that work is referred out. Title insurance matters later, when your beneficiaries sell. The title company will review the deed before it insures the sale, and that is when a defective instrument surfaces.

What happens after I die?

The house passes to your beneficiaries without probate, if the deed is effective. They record a certified death certificate and an affidavit of death identifying you as the life tenant, then notify the Property Appraiser. Recording those documents is how the change shows in the public records; it does not repair a defect in the deed. See what a family does after the owner dies.

Can you explain the lady bird deed en español?

Yes. Consultations are available in Spanish. Sí, atiendo consultas en español. ¿Qué es un lady bird deed? Es una escritura que le permite conservar su casa en vida y dejarla a quien usted elija sin pasar por probate. ¿Cuánto cuesta en Florida? En mi oficina, $675, con el registro incluido.

Related guides and county pages

The hub if the question is whether this deed fits your situation at all.

The Florida lady bird deed hub covers the statewide position, Medicaid treatment and the cases pointing to a different instrument. What a lady bird deed actually is introduces the mechanics gently, and the Florida form discussion addresses the document itself.

Also useful: tax consequences, the deed versus a living trust, whether the deed can be contested, and what happens after the owner dies. If the rest of the estate will need a St. Johns County probate attorney, see the Jacksonville probate lawyer page, which covers St. Johns County probate at the same Judicial Center.

Across the state, Pensacola covers the other of Florida’s two original counties, Jacksonville covers the Duval County counter next door, and Sarasota is the one county whose appraiser confirms the exemption question in writing.

A lady bird deed St. Augustine owners record keeps the house out of probate and lets the harder local questions — the review board, the archaeological zone, the fifty-year rule — be answered by you rather than by whoever inherits. For a free consultation, call (305) 224-6811. Our preparation checklist lists what to bring.

Written and reviewed by Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., attorney, Florida Bar No. 107002.

Last updated: 19 September 2026.

This page is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Lorenzo Law is a solo practice — Jose M. Lorenzo, Jr., assisted by staff. Florida Bar No. 107002.