Immigration Status and the Florida Homestead

The immigration status of a property owner is a very important component of whether a property actually is entitled to a Florida homestead status. For example, homestead status was denied to property owned by

• Canadian tourists who were only in the U.S. temporarily  and did not have the legal right to have the requisite intent to reside permanently in Florida.  
• A Hungarian citizen who only held a multiple-entry business visa that barred him from remaining in the U.S. for more than 180 days at a time and was only granted permanent residency status on a conditional basis as his marriage to a U.S. citizen was for less than 2 years. 

In a recent case though, the Third District Court of Appeals in Florida allowed the property homestead status as it found that the property owner did meet the requirements of the homestead provision of the Florida Constitution finding that he intended to make the property his family's permanent residency as his son who was a U.S. citizen resided at the property, the property owner and his were did live at the property and were legally entitled to live temporarily in the U.S., and he and his wife were in the process of applying for permanent residency status.

The Court of reversed the lower court's ruling that denied the property homestead status which would have made the property subject to the claim of a creditor. The Court of Appeal explained that the Florida courts liberally construe the constitutional homestead exemption in the interest of the family home and in favor of "those it was designed to protect."   The Court also noted that the Florida Supreme Court does not even require a property owner to reside at the property for it to have homestead statuts, but that it was sufficient that the property owner's family resides at the property and that the property owner intended to make the property his family's permanent residence.

(305) 891-4055 - Jordan E. Bublick is a Miami Bankruptcy Lawyer with over 25 years of experience in filing Chapter 13 and Chapter 7 Bankrkuptcy Cases and Mortgage Modifications