Elder Law Attorney for Bradenton, Florida

In Manatee County, deeds are recorded by the Recording department of Angelina “Angel” M. Colonneso, the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller. The office sits in the Historic Courthouse at 1115 Manatee Avenue West in downtown Bradenton, a reinforced concrete building finished in 1912 whose dome came off in 1925 as a fire hazard. The Recording department answers at 941-741-4045, and the Clerk’s main line is 941-749-1800. Mail goes to Attn Recording, P.O. Box 25400, Bradenton, FL 34206, and overnight packages go to the courthouse address.

You will not need to go downtown. We record your deed electronically through Simplifile, which the Clerk lists by name among its approved e-recording vendors. The Clerk’s own recording FAQ explains why that matters. A mailed deed is recorded the day it arrives, and then the Clerk asks you to allow 3 to 5 business days for the original to come back by mail, while an e-recorded deed comes back as an image as soon as it is recorded. The Clerk posts the recording fee as $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each page after, so a two-page deed records for $18.50.

We send you the recorded deed as soon as the Clerk returns it. The deed also appears in the Clerk’s official records search, and the Clerk says you can print a copy of your deed there for free. Manatee’s records reach back to the 1850s. Anything recorded before 1978 is kept at the Clerk’s Historical Records Library, which is housed in a 1918 Carnegie Library at 1405 4th Avenue West, about 6 minutes on foot from the courthouse, open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 941-741-4070. Until 1921, Sarasota was part of Manatee County, so an old family deed for land south of the line may sit in these books too.

If a bank or title company asks for a certified copy, the Clerk charges $1 a page plus $2 for the certification. The Public Access department on the main floor of the Historic Courthouse handles copies and answers at 941-741-4040.

To print a paper copy in town, the county’s Central Library at 1301 Barcarrota Boulevard West is about 8 minutes on foot from the courthouse. Printing and copying cost 10 cents a page in black and white and 50 cents in color, and scanning and faxing are free. You can send the file from home through the ePRINTit service and pay only when you pick it up. The library is open Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday until 6 p.m., at 941-748-5555.

Then take a few minutes to sign up for the Clerk’s free Property Alerts. You register an account on the Clerk’s Public Records Hub, confirm your email, and add your name, and the Clerk emails you whenever a document with that name is recorded in Manatee County, with a link to the record. The Clerk asks you to enter your name last name first, without punctuation, and to add variations with initials. Watching the records for your name is the simplest guard there is against someone recording a false deed on your house. The Recording department helps with setup at 941-741-4045.

A Florida deed needs two witnesses and a notary. We set up the signing for you by video, so you can sign from home. If you would rather sign in person downtown, the Clerk’s recording FAQ says notary service is available at the Clerk’s office when you bring the completed, unsigned document and a valid ID, at $5 for the first notarization and $2.50 for each one after. The Clerk lists a notary only, so bring your two witnesses with you. Out on the west side of town, The UPS Store #2695 at 4501 Manatee Avenue West, at the corner of 45th Street, lists notary service and printing and answers at 941-741-8969. Call ahead to confirm when a notary is in.

For parking downtown, the Twelfth Judicial Circuit says most streets near the courthouses have free two-hour parking. For a longer stay, the county garage on 10th Street West between Manatee Avenue and 4th Avenue West and the city garage on 12th Street West between 6th and 8th Avenues West both keep their first two levels open to the public, and drivers with a disability placard may park at any meter or on-street space with no time limit.

If you come downtown anyway, the errands sit close together around Old Main Street. Orange Blossom Coffee at 1166 3rd Avenue West is about 7 minutes on foot from the courthouse and serves coffee roasted by Banyan Coffee Co. in Palmetto. The shop opens at 7 a.m., closes at noon on Mondays and at 2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and opens Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Bradenton Post Office at 824 Manatee Avenue West is about 3 minutes away, with the window open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon, at 941-747-0867.

If you bank at either one and need a cashier’s check, the Truist downtown branch at 921 Manatee Avenue West is about 2 minutes on foot, and Cogent Bank has a banking center at 1001 3rd Avenue West, about 5 minutes away. Afterward, the Bradenton Riverwalk runs 2.03 miles along the Manatee River between the Green and DeSoto bridges, with a walking path, fishing, beach volleyball and a skateboard park. The Riverwalk is about 14 minutes on foot from the courthouse.

For lunch on the water, Pier 22 at 1200 1st Avenue West has served diners on the Manatee River for more than 50 years and is about 9 minutes on foot from the courthouse, open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. on Sunday, at 941-748-8087. If your errand falls on a Saturday between October and May, the Bradenton Public Market fills Old Main Street from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. with farmers, artists and music, as it has since 1979.

Homestead is handled by Charles E. Hackney, the Manatee County Property Appraiser, whose office is downtown at 915 4th Avenue West, about 4 minutes on foot from the Clerk. The lobby is open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., the office answers at 941-748-8208, and the exemptions desk takes email at [email protected]. You must own and live in the home as your permanent residence on January 1, and the application is due by March 1. The office accepts applications year round and asks owners to file online and also offers a pre-filing option.

The Property Appraiser’s homestead brochure asks for a deed or tax bill in your name, Social Security numbers, Florida driver’s licenses, Florida vehicle registrations and Manatee County voter registrations for every owner who lives there. If the home is held in a trust, the office asks for a copy of the entire trust agreement. A lady bird deed keeps the home in your name, so ask the office whether recording one calls for anything new on your exemption.

A disabled veteran may qualify for more than the basic homestead exemption, and the proof is a letter or certificate from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Manatee County Property Appraiser’s veterans brochure lists a $5,000 reduction for an honorably discharged Florida resident disabled 10 percent or more, a total exemption from property taxes on the homestead for a veteran with a service-connected total and permanent disability, and a discount for a veteran 65 or older equal to the VA disability percentage. Under certain circumstances a surviving spouse carries the exemption over, and a veteran may apply before the VA paperwork arrives and have the exemption date back to the original application.

The county’s Veterans Services Division is downtown at 1401 3rd Avenue West, about 7 minutes on foot from the courthouse. Call 941-745-3795 for an appointment, or write to [email protected]. The lobby is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and closes for lunch from noon to 1 p.m. The division also handles the county’s Active Combat Duty Grant, which its page describes as reimbursing up to $1,500 of the county’s share of the property tax bill for each year a qualifying service member served in a designated combat zone.

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, because the Property Appraiser asks for a Florida driver’s license from every owner who lives in the home. 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 Manatee County the Tax Collector runs the driver license offices, and the full-service office is at 904 301 Boulevard West, open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 941-741-4800. An appointment is required for every driver license transaction, booked at taxcollector.com, and the office serves Manatee County residents only and asks that you be seated with an associate by 4:30 p.m.

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 Department of Health in Manatee County issues certified death certificates at its main office, 410 6th Avenue East in Bradenton, Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., for $8 a copy, at 941-748-0747. The office issues certificates for Florida deaths from 2009 on, and orders can also go by mail or through VitalChek online. We prepare and record the rest.