Elder Law Attorney for Bonita Springs, Florida

In Lee County, deeds are recorded by the Official Records office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, Kevin C. Karnes. The Clerk has no office in Bonita Springs. Official Records keeps two counters, the main one on the 2nd floor of the Administration Building at 2115 Second Street in downtown Fort Myers, roughly 29 miles north of the Bonita Springs library by road, and a second on the 2nd floor of the Lee Government Center at 1039 SE 9th Place in Cape Coral. Both have a drop box outside. Official Records answers at 239-533-5007, and the Clerk’s call center runs Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.

For a Bonita Springs owner, that drive is the reason electronic recording matters. We record your deed electronically through Simplifile, which is on the Lee Clerk’s own list of e-recording vendors, so nobody drives to Fort Myers, the deed never travels by mail, and the original never leaves our hands. The Clerk says plainly that it cannot promise same-day recording for anything it receives. The Clerk posts the recording fee as $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each page after, so a two-page deed costs $18.50 to record.

If a deed ever does go by mail, the Clerk’s address for recordings is P.O. Box 2278, Fort Myers, FL 33902, and the Clerk returns a recorded document only in the self-addressed stamped envelope sent with it, holds one that arrives without that envelope, and destroys it after 90 days.

We send you the recorded deed as soon as the Clerk returns it. The deed also appears in the Clerk’s official records search, where you can look it up by your name and print a copy on your own computer. If a bank or title company asks for a certified copy, you can order an e-certified copy online for $8, which saves the trip north.

To print a copy in town, the Bonita Springs Public Library at 10560 Reynolds Street offers document copying, scanning and printing, at 10 cents a page in black and white and $1 a page in color, paid in cash. The library moved into a new two-story building in 2019, near Riverside Park, the Wonder Gardens and Old 41, which the county calls the heart of Bonita Springs. The library is open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday from noon to 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with free parking, and answers at 239-479-4636.

Then take two minutes to sign up for the Clerk’s free Property Fraud Alert. The Clerk emails you within 24 hours when a deed, mortgage or other land record with your registered name or parcel number is recorded, and you can register trusts as well as people. The email comes from Lee Clerk Official Records with the subject line Clerk Recording Activity Notification. For an owner who spends part of the year away from Bonita Springs, that email is the simplest way to know that nothing has been recorded against the house while you are gone. If an alert ever shows a deed you did not sign, the Clerk’s page says to report it to the law enforcement agency where the property sits, and we can take it from there.

A Florida deed needs two witnesses and a notary. We set up the signing for you by video, so you can sign at home in Bonita Springs without a drive to Fort Myers.

The Lee Clerk publishes what a deed needs before it will record. The list includes a prepared-by line with the name and address of the person who drafted it, the mailing addresses of both the owner and the person receiving the home, the names and addresses of both witnesses printed under their signatures, a complete notary block with the seal and commission expiration date, and a blank square three inches by three inches in the top right corner of the first page for the Clerk’s stamp. When we draft your deed, those are handled.

For hot coffee near the library, Wolfmoon, a bakery known for fresh croissants and specialty coffee, is at 27975 Old 41 Road, Suite 107, about 16 minutes on foot or a two-minute drive, open daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

If you print your papers at the library, Riverside Park is about 4 minutes on foot. The city lists the park at 10451 Old 41 Road, with a bandshell, a butterfly garden, the Liles Hotel, artist cottages, a fountain, a 9/11 memorial and a launching dock for canoes and kayaks. For lunch, Stan’s Super Subs at 26880 Old U.S. 41, about 13 minutes on foot from the library, has served Bonita since 1972 and is open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at 239-992-9973.

The Wonder Gardens at 27180 Old 41 Road, about 7 minutes on foot from the library, hold a piece of old Florida. In 1936 the Piper family opened The Reptile Gardens there as a roadside attraction on the newly built Tamiami Trail from Tampa to Miami, later renamed the Everglades Wonder Gardens, and in 2015 the City of Bonita Springs stepped in to save the three-acre property from commercial development. A nonprofit runs it today as a garden and animal park.

The Bonita Springs Post Office at 26150 Old 41 Road is a short drive north of the library and is the place to send certified mail, with window hours weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. If you need a cashier’s check, several banks keep branches along Bonita Beach Road SE, among them BMO at 9000, Bank of America at 9020, Wells Fargo at 9150 and PNC at 9430, so stop at yours if you bank there.

We copy the legal description from your last recorded deed, word for word, because that is what the title record already recognizes. If it does not match the lot, or a fence, dock or addition raises a question, a licensed surveyor can check it. GradyMinor, a civil engineering and land surveying firm serving Southwest Florida since 1981, is in Bonita Springs at 3800 Via Del Rey, (239) 947-1144. Most deeds never need a survey.

Homestead is handled by Matt Caldwell, the Lee County Property Appraiser. The office is in Fort Myers, on the 4th floor of the Melvin Morgan Constitutional Complex at 2480 Thompson Street, open Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the Property Appraiser lists no separate office in Bonita Springs. You do not have to make the drive. You can file online or by email to [email protected], as well as in person or by mail to P.O. Box 1546, Fort Myers, FL 33902, and the deadline is March 1. The main line is 239-533-6100.

Bonita Springs owners 65 and older should know one local number. The City of Bonita Springs has adopted the limited-income senior exemption at $25,000. The senior exemption has its own March 1 deadline, and the Property Appraiser accepts the income paperwork until June 1.

The Property Appraiser also says that when ownership of a homestead changes in any manner, including putting the home into certain kinds of trusts, you need to contact the office. A lady bird deed changes the title too, so we tell you whether yours calls for a call to the exemptions desk, and you can ask them directly at 239-533-6100.

A disabled veteran may qualify for more than the basic homestead exemption, and the proof comes from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Lee County Property Appraiser lists a $5,000 exemption for an honorably discharged veteran with a service-connected disability of 10 percent or more, a full exemption from property taxes on the homestead for an honorably discharged veteran with a service-connected total and permanent disability, and a discount equal to the disability rating when part of the disability is combat-related. Surviving spouses can keep some of these exemptions.

Lee County’s Veteran Services team helps with the VA side of this, including a copy of your DD-214, which the Property Appraiser asks for with the combat-related discount. The team works from Lee County Human and Veteran Services at 2440 Thompson Street in Fort Myers, by phone or by appointment, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the county says visitors without an appointment are not being accepted, so call 239-533-8381 or email [email protected] before you make the drive.

Marriage or divorce often leaves a home titled in a name you no longer use. We write the new deed with both names, the name on your old deed and your name today, so the record connects them and a future title search does not stall on the difference.

Your driver license should match as well. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles requires every name change on a license to be made in person, and only after the Social Security Administration has updated your name, allowing 24 to 48 hours after that. In Lee County the Tax Collector runs the driver license offices, and one is in Bonita Springs, at 25987 S. Tamiami Trail, Suite 112, open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 239-533-6000. Book a Driver License or ID Change or Replacement appointment on the Tax Collector’s website first.

After you die, the house is already your family’s. To show that in the record, they record a certified copy of your death certificate and an affidavit, and then a title company can insure a sale. The Lee Clerk records only a certified Florida death certificate issued without the cause of death, so the family orders that version.

The Department of Health in Lee County issues death certificates at the Pondella Clinic, 83 Pondella Road in North Fort Myers, Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., for $11 each, at 239-461-6100. From Bonita Springs, the office in Naples is closer. The Department of Health in Collier County issues certified death certificates for any Florida death from 2009 on at its main office, 3339 Tamiami Trail East in Naples, about 19 miles south of the library by road, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., for $12 for the first copy and $10 for each additional copy, at 239-252-8205. We prepare and record the rest.