Does an LLC Get Homestead Protection in Florida?

Can an LLC Get a Homestead Exemption in Florida?

Florida homestead is two separate protections, and an LLC fails both of them for the same reason. The first is the constitutional shield, which stops most judgment creditors from forcing the sale of your home, with no dollar cap. The Florida Constitution grants that shield to a homestead “owned by a natural person.” The second is the property-tax exemption, which takes the first $25,000 off the home’s assessed value, plus a second band of roughly $25,000 for the non-school taxes, and carries the Save Our Homes cap on annual increases. Florida grants the exemption to a person who holds title to the home on January 1 and makes it a permanent residence.

A limited liability company is a separate legal person in the eyes of the law, but it is not a natural person, and it cannot make a house its permanent residence. When the company holds title, the human being living in the house holds a membership interest in a company and no title to the home at all. Florida courts, a federal court in South Florida, the bankruptcy court in Miami and Florida’s Attorney General have each applied that logic to homes held in a company. The question of whether you should put a house in an LLC in the first place, with the transfer traps and the rent-it-to-yourself idea, is covered on our page should I put my house in an LLC. This page is about what the authorities decided once the house was already there.

Why the Constitution Protects Only a Home Owned by a Natural Person

The clearest Florida decision involves a Hillsborough County homeowner and her own corporation. The corporation owned a house in Hillsborough County, and she was its president and its only shareholder. In 2012 a woman was injured on the property and sued the corporation. While that suit was pending, in 2014, someone prepared and recorded a quitclaim deed from the corporation to the owner, and in 2015 she moved into the house with her children. In December 2015 the injured woman won a judgment of $390,649.64 against the corporation and went after the house to collect it.

The deed is where the case turned. Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal described it as a deed that “lacked consideration, a corporate seal, and evidence of proper corporate capacity or authority for the signatures, and the acknowledgment clause signed by the notary was for an individual, not a corporation.” A second deed recorded later had some of the same defects. Neither one moved title, so the corporation still owned the house when the owner moved in. The trial judge protected the home anyway because a person lived there, and in 2018 the appeals court reversed, holding that “the plain language of the Florida Constitution requires that the owner of the property be a natural person to claim the homestead exemption.” The house was exposed to a judgment of nearly $400,000 because the paper said a company owned it.

An LLC gets the same answer. In a 2010 foreclosure in federal court in South Florida, six borrowers had taken a $1,880,000 loan secured by Monroe County property and then deeded the property to an LLC. When the bank sued for $2,004,326.34, the borrowers argued the bank had failed to allege the property’s homestead status. The court disposed of the argument in a paragraph, noting that “Under Florida law, homestead status is only afforded to properties owned by a ‘natural person.’” The LLC held title, so the defense did not apply. A federal court reading Florida law is persuasive rather than binding on Florida courts, and the result matches the Florida decisions.

The most recent example came in 2024 from the bankruptcy court in Miami. A man and two partners bought a Miami Beach condominium in the name of their corporation to renovate and resell. The unit was renovated and listed, never sold, and he moved in. Eight months later he filed bankruptcy and claimed the condominium as his homestead. The court sustained the trustee’s objection in a sentence any reader can follow. “The Corporation owns the Property, not the Debtor.”

Practice pointer. The owner in the Hillsborough County case lost because the first deed out of the corporation was notarized for an individual, with nothing showing who had authority to sign for the company, and the second deed repeated some of the same defects. A deed out of a company has to be signed by the company, through someone with authority to sign for it, with an acknowledgment written for a person signing on the company’s behalf.

Can You Homestead a Property Owned by an LLC for Taxes?

A home owned by an LLC cannot be homesteaded for property taxes, and Florida’s Attorney General answered the question directly in 2007 for the Charlotte County Property Appraiser. A resident had applied for the homestead exemption on a home titled in an LLC. He explained that the company was formed to meet the federal tax rules for a reverse 1031 exchange, that he was its sole owner, and that it had never done any business. The opinion puts the reason in one sentence. “While the individual is the sole owner of the limited liability company, it is the company which holds title to the property.” The conclusion followed. “Accordingly, I am of the opinion that property owned by a limited liability company does not qualify for a homestead exemption.” An Attorney General opinion guides property appraisers and is persuasive in court, and it addresses only the tax exemption, not the creditor shield.

The Attorney General leaned on a 2001 Palm Beach County case that reads like a warning label. A homeowner lent money to his own S corporation, of which he was the only shareholder, so the company could buy the house where he and his family lived. The property appraiser denied the exemption. The Value Adjustment Board granted it. The appraiser then sued in circuit court to restore the full assessment and won, and Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal affirmed. The court read the Legislature’s statute as a closed list, holding that “the Florida Legislature has provided an exclusive list of equitably owned properties entitled to a homestead exemption from ad valorem taxation.” The owner won before the local board and still lost the exemption, because a company held the deed.

The closed list is generous, which is what makes the omission telling. It covers buyers living in a home under a recorded purchase contract, a person holding a beneficial interest for life (which is how a home in a trust qualifies), lessees under a lease of 98 years or more, and stockholders in a cooperative apartment corporation. LLC members are not on it, and neither are shareholders of an ordinary corporation.

Practice pointer. The exemption is measured on January 1, so a house that sits in a company on that date loses the whole year. If a house went into a company for a tax exchange or a renovation and a person now lives there, move the title before the next January 1, not after the appraiser’s letter arrives.

Does It Matter That You Own 100% of the LLC?

Owning the whole company is the argument every one of these owners made, and it has never worked. The Hillsborough County homeowner was the president and only shareholder of her corporation, and the appeals court said her status “did not give her an interest in the corporation's property.” The Charlotte County applicant was the only member of his LLC. The Palm Beach County owner was the only shareholder of his S corporation and had lent it the purchase money himself. In each case the owner was told the same thing in different words. You own the company, and the company owns the house.

Florida’s LLC act puts the same idea in one sentence, stating that a member’s transferable interest is personal property. Once the deed runs to the company, what you hold is closer to a brokerage account than to a home. That reclassification also breaks deed-based estate planning, because a lady bird deed or a will that leaves “my real property” no longer reaches the house, a point we walk through on the should I put my house in an LLC page and in our post on when your real estate stops being real estate.

Why a Trust Beneficiary Can Claim Homestead and an LLC Member Cannot

Florida courts protect a homestead held in a trust while refusing one held in a company, and the difference is what the resident owns. A trust beneficiary holds a beneficial interest in the home itself. Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal protected the homestead of a woman whose house was titled in a trustee for her benefit, and the First District had earlier allowed the beneficiary of a spendthrift trust to claim homestead in trust property. The Hillsborough County decision above read those cases the same way. Those decisions hold that the owner’s interest need not be full legal title, and they never suggest that a person with no interest in the house at all can claim it.

The tax statute draws the same line. Florida expressly declares a beneficial interest for life to be equitable title for the exemption, which is why a revocable living trust drafted with the right language keeps both protections and the Save Our Homes cap. An LLC member has a stake in a company and no interest in its real estate, so nothing in the constitution or the statute reaches through the company to the person. The full trust story, with both cases told in detail, is on putting your house in a trust in Florida, and the homestead devise trap for married owners is on putting your Florida homestead in a revocable trust.

Does the LLC Protect the House Instead?

The LLC replaces the constitutional shield with an entity wall, and for the house most people put in a company, the wall is thin. A house moved into an LLC by one owner sits in a single-member company. In 2010 the Florida Supreme Court held that the charging-order limit, which keeps a member’s personal creditor from taking over the company, does not protect a single-member LLC. The statute that followed lets a court order the single member’s interest foreclosed and sold when distributions will not pay the judgment within a reasonable time. The buyer becomes the member, and with that the owner of the house.

So a homeowner who deeds the house to a one-member LLC gives up protection the constitution grants with no dollar limit and receives a structure that a personal creditor can foreclose. The full analysis of charging orders, the multi-member rule and the operating agreement is on our Florida LLC asset protection page, and how the homestead shield itself works, with its exceptions, is on Florida homestead creditor protection.

How to Get Homestead Back on a House in an LLC

The fix is one deed, and the order of steps matters more than the deed itself.

1. Choose where title goes. The house can go back to you individually, to you and your spouse, or to you as trustee of your revocable trust. If it comes back to you, a lady bird deed afterward passes it to your family at death without probate while you keep full control.
2. Have the company sign the deed. The LLC is the grantor, so the member or manager with authority signs for the company, the deed recites that capacity, and the notary acknowledgment is the form for someone signing on an entity’s behalf. The Hillsborough County homeowner’s two deeds failed on exactly these points.
3. Price the transfer before recording. Documentary stamp tax can apply where a mortgage is involved, the lender’s due-on-sale clause and your title insurance both need an answer, and the homeowner’s policy has to name the right owner. Those costs are explained on our page about transferring property to an LLC, and the same questions arise in reverse.
4. Record before January 1. The exemption looks at who holds title on January 1. A deed recorded on January 2 waits a full year.
5. Apply by March 1. File the homestead application with your county property appraiser. In the first qualifying year the home is assessed at full market value, and the Save Our Homes cap limits increases from that base afterward to the lower of 3% or inflation.

One caution applies before any of this. If the company has creditors, or a claim against the company is pending, a deed from the company to its owner is a transfer that a court can undo under Florida’s fraudulent transfer law. The Hillsborough County deeds were recorded while an injury suit against the corporation was pending, which is the fact pattern a creditor’s lawyer looks for first.

What It Costs to Move the House Back Out

Government costs, including recording and any documentary stamp tax, are additional and passed through at cost. Posted fees are honored for 90 days. The full schedule is on our pricing page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The exchange that never unwound. A Lee County couple bought their next home through the LLC their accountant set up for a 1031 exchange, intending to deed it out once the exchange closed. The exchange closed, they moved in, and nobody recorded the second deed. Three tax bills later the appraiser’s office told them the house had never qualified. We prepare a deed from the company signed by its manager, record it in November, and file the homestead application the following February, so the exemption starts on the next January 1.

The flip that became a home. A Broward investor buys a townhouse in his renovation company’s name, finishes the work and decides to keep it for himself. He assumes that owning the company makes it his homestead. We deed it to him as trustee of his revocable trust, coordinate the lender’s consent and the title policy first, and leave the company holding only the properties he still rents.

Sources of Law

• Art. X, §4(a), Fla. Const. (exemption from forced sale of “the following property owned by a natural person,” including a homestead). Art. VII, §6(a), Fla. Const. (homestead tax exemption for every person with legal or equitable title who maintains a permanent residence on the property). Text verified against the in-repo constitutional transcription, 2026-10-15.
• Fla. Stat. §196.031(1)(a) to (b) (exemption for a person who, on January 1, holds legal or beneficial title in equity and makes the property a permanent residence; $25,000 plus an additional exemption on assessed value over $50,000 for non-school levies); §196.041 (the closed list of equitable owners deemed to hold title, including a beneficial interest for life); §196.011 (application on or before March 1); §193.155 (just-value assessment in the first exemption year; annual increases capped at the lower of 3% or the CPI change). Retrieved 2026-10-15.
• DeJesus v. A.M.J.R.K. Corp., 255 So. 3d 879 (Fla. 2d DCA 2018), No. 2D17-2374, opinion filed February 9, 2018 (corporation-owned home not protected though the sole shareholder lived there; both deeds to her ineffective). Quotations taken from the court’s slip opinion text.
• Centennial Bank v. Noah Group, LLC, 755 F. Supp. 2d 1256, 1260 (S.D. Fla. 2010) (homestead affirmative defense inapplicable to property titled in an LLC). Federal court applying Florida law; persuasive, not binding.
• In re Carvajal, No. 23-17124-RAM (Bankr. S.D. Fla. Feb. 26, 2024) (no homestead exemption in a condominium owned by a corporation the debtor partly owned; following DeJesus). A bankruptcy decision is persuasive, not binding.
• Op. Att’y Gen. Fla. 2007-18 (issued March 22, 2007, to the Charlotte County Property Appraiser) (property owned by a limited liability company does not qualify for the homestead tax exemption, though the applicant was its sole owner). Retrieved 2026-10-15. Attorney General opinions are persuasive, not binding.
• Prewitt Management Corp. v. Nikolits, 795 So. 2d 1001 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001) (S corporation wholly owned by the resident not entitled to the homestead tax exemption; the statutory list of equitable owners is exclusive). Reading note: Higgs v. Warrick, 994 So. 2d 492 (Fla. 3d DCA 2008), certified conflict with Prewitt to the extent it bears on a 98-year lease, a category the statute expressly names; the entity-title point is unaffected.
• Contrast authority on trust beneficiaries, Callava v. Feinberg, 864 So. 2d 429 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003); HCA Gulf Coast Hospital v. Estate of Downing, 594 So. 2d 774, 776 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991).
• Pasternack v. Klein, No. 8:16-cv-482-T-33CPT (M.D. Fla. Jan. 25, 2019). Reading note: cited in practice for the rule that a limited liability company may not claim homestead protection. The order’s text was not available to us from an official or CourtListener source as of 2026-10-15, so it is listed here and not quoted or described on this page.
• Olmstead v. FTC, 44 So. 3d 76 (Fla. 2010); Fla. Stat. §605.0503(4) to (5) (foreclosure of a single-member LLC interest); Fla. Stat. §605.0501 (a transferable interest is personal property). Sourced in full on our Florida LLC asset protection page.
• Fla. Stat. §726.105(1) (a transfer by a debtor made with actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud a creditor is fraudulent as to that creditor, whether the claim arose before or after the transfer).
• The decisions discussed are published opinions in other parties’ cases, not matters handled by this firm, and they predict nothing about any reader’s case. No citator pass has been run.

What I Look for When a House Sits in a Company

The two quitclaim deeds in the Hillsborough County case are the detail I keep coming back to. Both tried to move the house from the corporation to its owner. The first carried a notary block written for an individual rather than for a corporation, and the second repeated some of the same defects. An individual acknowledgment is the default on most deed forms (which is how one ends up on a deed signed for a company), so the notary block is the first thing I check. In 14 years of law practice I also litigate deeds after they fail, which enhances the practice of drafting deeds.

A common question I hear is, “I own the whole company, so isn’t the house mine?” The answer is no, and every decision I have read on that argument says so. Having read the Florida decisions on homes titled in a company, I have a few take-home points.

The first is that the answer does not change with the facts people expect to matter. Owning 100% of the company, living in the house with your children, winning before the Value Adjustment Board and paying the purchase money yourself have each been tried, and each lost to the same question of who holds title.

The second is that the deed out of the company is a different document from the deed into it. When I review one, I look first at the signature line and the acknowledgment, because a court reads those to decide whether the company ever conveyed anything.

The third is timing. A house that comes out of a company while the company is being sued invites the argument the creditor made in that case, and I would rather move it while nobody is asking.

Avoid treating the January property-tax letter as the whole problem. The tax bill is the visible cost, and the exposure to a creditor is the cost nobody sends a letter about. My honest limit is that I cannot tell from this page whether your company has creditors or whether your deed needs a lender’s consent, and those two facts decide how the house comes back out.

Updated on October 15, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. General information about Florida law and our posted fees, not legal advice, and no prediction of any outcome. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. No attorney-client relationship is created by reading this page. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.