Florida Appeals Court: Renting Out Rooms Does Not Destroy Florida’s Constitutional Homestead Protections

In the May 2020 opinion of Anderson v. Pets, the Florida Second District Court of Appeals held that a decedent’s constitutionally protects homestead protections were not lost by renting out rooms in his Florida homestead property. The creditors of decedent’s estate could not satisfy their leans from decedent’s homestead property.

Richard Anderson II (Anderson) filed a petition seeking a determination from the Florida probate court that his deceased father’s residence was constitutionally protected homestead. The petition asked the probate court to an order “determining that the Property constituted the exempt homestead of the decedent, title to which, upon decedent’s death, descended and the constitutional exemption from claims inured” pursuant to the Florida Constitution. 

Creditor’s of the decedent estate filed a statement of claim in the probate case for judgment liens totaling almost $40,000. 

The probate court entered an order finding that the home was occupied as decedent’s homestead and that the decedent rented out three rooms of the home. The probate court found that the rented portion of the home lost its constitutional homestead protection, ruling that 75% of the decedent’s property was not homestead at the time of his death and thus was subject to lien. The remaining 25% passed to decedent’s heirs and was protected homestead beyond the reach of creditor’s. 

Contrary to the probate court, The Court of Appeals reasoned that when rooms of a Florida homestead single family resident are rented out, the property maintains its homestead status. The court also stated that a single-family residence that constitutes Florida homestead is not subject to dividing. Therefore, the rented rooms could not be severed from the residence by an imaginary line. The court noted public policy of the Florida homestead exemption to promote stability and welfare of the state by securing the home from an owner’s financial misfortune and demands of creditors. 

See Florida Appeals Court: Renting Out Rooms Does Not Destroy Florida’s Constitutional Homestead Protections, Probate Stars, May 28, 2020.