Question 1

How Can I Help My Parent Arrange a Florida Lady Bird Deed?

Accepted Answer

You can handle the first call, the documents, the calendar and the signing setup. Your parent makes three decisions and signs. Keeping those two roles separate makes it clear, later, that the deed reflects your parent’s own wishes.

Question 2

Is my parent the client, or am I?

Accepted Answer

Your parent. The deed conveys your parent’s house, so your parent is the person I represent, even when you found me, made the call and arranged the signing. The instructions I act on are your parent’s, and arranging or paying for the deed does not decide who is named in it.

Question 3

Can I pay for my parent’s lady bird deed?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A family member can pay, by a payment link I send or by wire transfer where that is possible. Paying does not make that person the client: your parent is the client, and I confirm the instructions with your parent directly.

Question 4

Can I, or my brothers and sisters, join the call?

Accepted Answer

That is for your parent to decide. I speak with your parent and confirm everything with them, including who may join the call and who may receive information about the deed.

Question 5

What Does the $675 Lady Bird Deed Include?

Accepted Answer

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. The $675 is for one lady bird deed on one property. The only tax item outside it is documentary stamp tax above the minimum. Title work is not part of it. What the $675 covers (on a phone, swipe the table sideways to see all three columns) Included in the $675Separate, and scoped before it startsNot taken on; referred to a title company or real estate attorney Speaking directly with attorney Jose LorenzoReading your recorded deedDeed preparationOnline notarizationWitnessesCounty recording feesThe minimum documentary stamp chargeDocumentary stamp tax above the minimumA deed for a second property, or a corrective deed for an earlier instrumentA probate or an ancillary administrationThe correction charge if an old legal description turns out to be wrong, which cannot be quoted in advanceTitle searchTitle examinationTitle insuranceCurative work Whoever makes the first call, I always confirm the work with your parent, who is the client.

Question 6

How much should a lady bird deed cost in Florida?

Accepted Answer

Mine is $675 flat, including the county recording charges and the minimum documentary stamp charge; documentary stamp tax above the minimum is separate. Non-attorney form services advertise less and cannot advise you. When you compare prices, compare what each one includes, because some services add recording and documentary stamps on top.

Question 7

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

Accepted Answer

No law requires one. Whether your parent needs one depends on facts you may not know are facts: a marriage, a mortgage, a rental, a minor child anywhere in the picture, a district that levies assessments, or an earlier deed nobody is sure about. Those are the situations where a mistake surfaces years later, when your parent is no longer alive to sign a correction.

Question 8

Will you search or clear the title?

Accepted Answer

No. I pull the recorded deed from the county’s official records and read it: the legal description, how title is held on its face, and the marital recitals. That is one instrument, not a title search. I do not do title work: a title search, a title examination, title insurance and curative work are referred to a title company or a real estate attorney.

Question 9

Should My Parents Put Their House in My Name?

Accepted Answer

Usually not. Putting the house in a child’s name, or adding the child to the deed, is a gift made now. It gives the child your parent’s old tax basis instead of the stepped-up basis an inheritance would carry, exposes the house to the child’s creditors and divorce, places the transfer inside the Medicaid five-year look-back, and cannot be undone without the child’s signature. A lady bird deed passes the house at your parent’s death instead, and your parent keeps the power to change the plan. The full analysis is on my page about adding or removing a name on a Florida deed.

Question 10

Is it better to inherit a house or receive it as a gift?

Accepted Answer

For capital gains, inheriting is usually better. Inherited property takes a basis equal to its fair market value at the date of death under IRC § 1014, the stepped-up basis. Property received as a lifetime gift keeps the giver’s basis under IRC § 1015, carryover basis. The IRS explains both in Publication 551. An example, before selling costs or any exclusion you might qualify for. Your parent bought the house in 1994 for $80,000 and made no improvements, so $80,000 is the adjusted basis. The house is worth $500,000 today. You inherit the house and sell it soon after for $500,000. Your basis is $500,000, so there is no taxable gain. Your parent adds you to the deed now, and you sell your half for $250,000 while your parent is still alive. Your half carries a $40,000 carryover basis, so about $210,000 of that sale is taxable gain. The tax on that gain depends on your income and the rates that apply to you; it is tax on a gain the inheritance would not have produced. If you still own the house with your parent when your parent dies, different rules apply to your parent’s share. A lady bird deed passes the house at death, so the step-up is preserved. More detail: lady bird deed tax consequences.

Question 11

Do I have to pay taxes if my parents gift me a house?

Accepted Answer

Usually there is a federal gift tax return to file and no gift tax to pay, and the return is your parent’s. Florida has no state gift tax and no inheritance tax. A lady bird deed is not a completed gift, so it does not require a gift tax return.

Question 12

Should my parents put their house in a trust instead?

Accepted Answer

One house and a straightforward family generally favors the deed. Multiple properties, minor or vulnerable beneficiaries, a blended family, or a concern about incapacity generally favors the trust. My comparison of the Florida lady bird deed versus a living trust works through the trade-offs.

Question 13

What If My Parent Can’t Travel, Is in the Hospital, or Has Memory Problems?

Accepted Answer

Travel is rarely the obstacle; understanding is. A parent who cannot leave home can sign online. A parent who can no longer understand what a deed does cannot sign one, and nobody can sign it for them without authority that already exists.

Question 14

Can my parent sign from home, assisted living or a hospital?

Accepted Answer

From home, yes. Florida permits remote online notarization, and the witnesses can appear in the same session. Your parent needs a device with a camera, a connection and a valid photo ID, and you can set those up. From assisted living or a hospital, the signing is still online; I do not come to the bedside. Before any signing, I speak with your parent by phone.

Question 15

What if my parent’s ID has expired?

Accepted Answer

Then it has to be dealt with before the signing. A valid photo ID is required, so tell me on the first call and book the signing once your parent has one.

Question 16

Can someone with dementia sign a deed?

Accepted Answer

A diagnosis is not a legal disqualification. Capacity is measured at the moment of signing and against the specific transaction: whether the signer understood the nature and effect of what they were doing. A lady bird deed with dementia in the picture is not automatically void, and it is not automatically valid either. Where a parent still has lucid intervals, the better course is almost always to have them sign for themselves, with a contemporaneous note from the treating physician, the deed read aloud and explained, and disinterested witnesses who can later say what they observed.

Question 17

Can I sign the deed for my parent with a power of attorney?

Accepted Answer

Only with specifically enumerated, separately signed authority, and a different, older test applies to a power of attorney signed before October 2011. The owner can sign while the owner understands the deed; an agent can sign only with that authority; a guardian only on a court order. Being the owner’s child is not a source of authority. Where the parent can no longer understand the transaction and no such power of attorney exists, the window for a lady bird deed has usually closed, and guardianship is the route if a transaction is genuinely necessary. My page on whether a power of attorney can sign a lady bird deed has the full test.

Question 18

Does a lady bird deed protect my parent’s house from Medicaid?

Accepted Answer

It can help, but it is not a guarantee. It has to be signed by your parent while your parent understands it, or by an agent whose power of attorney expressly grants that authority. On the better reading, because your parent keeps the power to sell, mortgage or revoke, nothing has been disposed of, so there is no uncompensated transfer to produce a penalty when Medicaid looks back over the 60 months before an application under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c). No Florida rule reaches this kind of deed at all, and no Florida court has decided it. If your parent is already in a nursing home or an application is pending, the deed is one piece of a larger plan and should not be signed in isolation. The detail is on my lady bird deed attorney page.

Question 19

Who Should the Deed Name?

Accepted Answer

That is your parent’s decision. Your parent can name several people, in any shares, and each choice has a consequence worth knowing before the deed is drafted.

Question 20

Does my parent have to name me?

Accepted Answer

No. Arranging the deed, driving to the signing or paying for it does not change who is named. I take those instructions from your parent.

Question 21

Can a lady bird deed name more than one child?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and people routinely name two or three children. That makes them co-owners of the house after your parent’s death, and co-owners have to agree about it. If they cannot, the Florida remedy is a partition action, which my page on siblings who disagree about the family home explains. It is worth talking through before the deed is signed, not after.

Question 22

What if one of us lives in the house, or was the caregiver?

Accepted Answer

Then how the children take title matters. Several remaindermen take as tenants in common unless the deed says otherwise, and any one of them can ask a court to partition the property. If your parent wants the child who lives there to be able to stay, tell me on the first call. A deed may not be able to carry that wish on its own, and that is where a trust comes in.

Question 23

What if a child named in the deed dies before my parent?

Accepted Answer

It depends on how the deed is drafted. A deed that names a beneficiary and stops may let that share lapse; a deed with substitution language sends it to that person’s descendants. Naming alternates lets your parent decide that contingency now, in the deed itself.

Question 24

My parent remarried. Does the spouse have to sign?

Accepted Answer

On homestead property, treat it as required. Florida’s Constitution requires spousal joinder to transfer homestead, and a waiver of devise rights does not waive that. Where the house goes to anyone other than the spouse alone, including the children of an earlier marriage, the spouse has to join in the deed.

Question 25

What if my parent has a minor child?

Accepted Answer

Then talk to me before anything is drafted. Florida’s Constitution restricts what can be done with a homestead when the owner is survived by a minor child, and in that situation a lady bird deed should not be the plan for the homestead. The detail is on my lady bird deed attorney page.

Question 26

When is a deed alone not enough?

Accepted Answer

A lady bird deed deals only with the property it describes. It does nothing if your parent becomes incapacitated, and it hands the house outright to the people named, with no protection against their creditors, their divorce or their inability to manage it. Where a beneficiary receives needs-based benefits, an outright inheritance can cost them eligibility. It also does not deal with bank accounts or other assets, and it does not replace a will. In those families a trust, sometimes named in the deed as the beneficiary, or a broader estate plan is the better fit, and I will say on the first call which one your parent needs. Hypothetical: siblings who disagree. Three siblings call separately. Two want the house left to all three equally; the third, who lives with their father and cares for him, says he has been told he will keep it. Their father owns the house alone and is unmarried. What I do: take the instructions from the father, in a conversation he controls, and ask him the questions the siblings cannot answer for him: who is named, in what shares, whether the son living there should be able to stay, and what happens if one of the three dies first. If his wishes need more than one deed can carry, I tell him so before anything is drafted. The siblings’ disagreement is background. It does not decide the instructions.

Question 27

What Happens From Consultation Through Recording?

Accepted Answer

Free introductory call. You or your parent call. I hear about the property, the family and the timing, and say whether a deed is the right answer at all. Conversation with your parent; recorded deed read; fee confirmed. I speak with your parent by phone and confirm the instructions by email, pull and read the recorded deed, and confirm the fee before drafting starts. Drafting. I draft the retained powers, the beneficiaries, any alternates and the homestead language to your parent’s facts. Online signing. Your parent signs on a computer or tablet with a camera, before an online notary, with two witnesses in the same session. Recording. We submit the signed deed to the Clerk of the county where the house sits, and the recorded copy comes back with its book and page or instrument number. It goes to your parent, and to anyone your parent authorizes me to send it to.

Question 28

How long does it take?

Accepted Answer

Usually 24 to 48 hours from the time I have spoken with your parent, been hired to prepare the deed, and had your parent confirm the instructions, to the deed being ready for your parent to sign. After that, scheduling the signing and recording set the pace.

Question 29

What will I need to do when my parent dies?

Accepted Answer

In the ordinary case, the house passes at that moment to the people named in the deed, with no probate and no court order. What remains is recording paperwork so the public record shows what has already happened, and my page on what to do with a lady bird deed after death sets it out in order. If you want the recorded deed reviewed at that point: After a death, a review of the Lady Bird deed with a 30-minute consultation is $475. That is separate from the free introductory call, and any further work is scoped and quoted before it begins.

Question 30

What if my parent already signed a deed years ago?

Accepted Answer

Send me the recorded copy first. A lady bird deed can be changed or revoked, but only by another recorded instrument, and I need to read what is on record before anything else is drafted. Replacing or correcting an earlier deed is its own piece of work, scoped and quoted separately before it begins. Curative work on an old defective conveyance is referred to a title company or a real estate attorney. Hypothetical: a daughter in another state. A daughter in Georgia calls about her mother’s house in Orlando. Her mother is widowed, speaks mainly Spanish, and has told the daughter she wants the house to go to her and her brother. What I do: the daughter gathers the recorded deed and the tax bill online, has a tablet delivered to her mother, and talks her through setting it up by phone; a neighbor who lives nearby is on hand on the signing day. I speak with the mother, in Spanish, about what she wants, including what should happen if either child dies first. The mother signs online with the witnesses in the same session, and we submit the deed to the Orange County Clerk. The daughter handles the logistics from Georgia throughout; none of the legal decisions in that sequence is hers.

Question 31

¿Su padre o su madre prefiere hablar en español?

Accepted Answer

Sí. Si su padre o su madre quiere dejar la casa a sus hijos sin pasar por el proceso de sucesión (probate), un lady bird deed mantiene la propiedad bajo su control mientras vive y la transfiere a las personas que nombra al fallecer. Los hijos pueden organizar la llamada, los documentos y la firma en línea; su padre o su madre habla directamente conmigo, en español, y toma las decisiones. El costo es de $675, que incluye hablar directamente con el abogado Jose Lorenzo, la lectura de su escritura registrada, la preparación de la escritura, la notarización en línea, los testigos, los derechos de registro del condado y el cargo mínimo del impuesto de sellos documentarios. El impuesto de sellos documentarios que exceda ese mínimo es aparte, y se lo explico antes de que su padre o su madre decida seguir adelante. Llame al (305) 224-6811.

Question 32

Can my parent change or revoke the lady bird deed later?

Accepted Answer

Yes, as often as your parent likes, without a signature from anyone named in the deed. Spouse, co-owner and lender requirements are separate and still apply. Changing or undoing the deed takes another recorded instrument; recording nothing and assuming the old deed is dead leaves the record saying otherwise.

Question 33

Does a lady bird deed affect my parent’s homestead exemption?

Accepted Answer

On the home your parent actually lives in, it should not, because your parent has not stopped owning or occupying it. Deeding the house outright to a child and keeping nothing back does end it, because the exemption depends on your parent owning the property.

Question 34

Does Florida have a transfer on death deed?

Accepted Answer

Not for real property. The enhanced life estate deed is the Florida equivalent, and it is a common law instrument rather than a statutory one.

Question 35

Can my parent do a lady bird deed with a mortgage on the house?

Accepted Answer

Yes. An existing mortgage does not have to be paid off first. Whether a lender could call the loan is a separate question, explained on my lady bird deed attorney page. If there is a loan on the house, read the note and consider telling the lender rather than assuming.

Who is the client?	Your parent, the owner of the house. You can coordinate; your parent decides
Does my parent have to come to an office?	No. The deed is signed online, with the witnesses in the same session
What does it cost?	$675 flat, with county recording fees and the minimum documentary stamp charge included; documentary stamp tax above the minimum is separate
Does my parent give up control of the house?	No. Nobody named in the deed has to sign for your parent to sell, mortgage or revoke. A spouse, co-owner or lender may still need to
What if my parent can no longer understand what they are signing?	Then a lady bird deed is usually no longer available. See below

What the adult child can arrange	What I need from your parent
The first call and the family background	Your parent’s own explanation of what should happen to the house
A copy of the last recorded deed, or the county and address so I can pull it	Confirmation of who owns it now, and whether your parent is married
The tax bill and any mortgage statement	The names of the people to be named, and the shares
Copies of any will, trust or power of attorney	What should happen if one of those people dies first
The device, the connection and the time for the signing	A valid, unexpired photo ID, and your parent’s own signature in the online session

Help Your Parent Get a Florida Lady Bird Deed