Elder Law Attorney for Miami, Florida

In Miami-Dade, deeds are recorded by the Office of County Recorder, run by the Clerk of the Court and Comptroller, Juan Fernandez-Barquin. The Recorder is on the fifth floor of the Osvaldo N. Soto Miami-Dade Justice Center, 20 NW 1st Avenue, the same building as the probate counter one floor up. The counter is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the Recorder’s phone is 786-463-0566. Recording is no longer at the Stephen P. Clark Center, so older instructions that send you there are out of date.

You will not need to go downtown. We record your deed electronically through Simplifile, which is on the Clerk’s own list of approved e-recording services. The Clerk reviews each e-recorded document before it becomes public, which usually takes 1 to 3 business days. The posted recording fee is $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page, so a two-page deed costs $18.50 to record.

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. Print it at home for the file drawer, or have it printed downtown. Judicial Research is across from the courthouse at 17 NW Miami Court, about 3 minutes on foot, and handles document printing and copies. The UPS Store in the Alfred I. Dupont Building, 153 East Flagler Street, prints too and is about 8 minutes on foot.

If a bank or title company asks for a certified copy, the County Recorder charges $1 a page plus $2 to certify.

Then take two minutes to sign up for the Clerk’s free Property Fraud Alert. You register your folio number, and the Clerk emails you within 24 hours whenever a deed is recorded against it. The alert is the simplest early warning there is against someone recording a false deed on your house. If one ever appears, the Clerk’s property fraud page posts fill-in forms for a quiet title complaint over a forged deed, 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, or you can sign in person downtown. Judicial Research at 17 NW Miami Court, about 3 minutes on foot from the Justice Center, offers real estate notary and signing services weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., by appointment at 305-379-3900. The UPS Store at 153 East Flagler Street has a commissioned notary, lists deeds among the documents it notarizes, and is open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and weekends from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

If you are early, Macondo Coffee Roasters is about 7 minutes on foot at 240 North Miami Avenue and opens at 8 a.m. on weekdays, and the courthouse has its own Break Thyme Cafe on the fourth floor. For lunch after, Tacos El Porky is about 5 minutes on foot at 16 West Flagler Street and opens at 11:30 a.m.

If you are recording a deed yourself, the Clerk posts a checklist. The deed must be the original, with the addresses of the grantor and grantee, two witnesses whose printed names and post office addresses appear under their signatures, a full notary acknowledgment and a “prepared by” statement. The Clerk also asks for a Property Transfer form, encourages the folio number, and wants a self-addressed stamped envelope for the return. When we draft it, those are handled.

City National Bank of Florida has a full-service branch about 3 minutes on foot from the Justice Center at 25 West Flagler Street, if you bank there. The Flagler post office at 500 NW 2nd Avenue is about 11 minutes on foot, with the retail counter open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., which helps when an original has to go out by certified mail.

When you are done, Lummus Park at 404 NW 3rd Street, one of the city’s historic parks, is about 11 minutes on foot and open daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Bayfront Park on Biscayne Bay is about 15 minutes on foot to the east if you want to sit by the water for a while.

If you are going downtown in person, the circuit calls street and off-street parking at the Justice Center limited and recommends taking Metrorail to Government Center station. Metrorail runs from 5 a.m. to midnight every day, and the county posts the fare at $2.25, paid at the fare gate by contactless card or with an EASY Card or the GO Miami-Dade Transit app. Metrorail parking lots charge $4.50 a day.

If you drive, the Clerk lists three county garages for the Justice Center. The Miami-Dade Cultural Parking Garage at 50 NW 2nd Avenue is about 4 minutes on foot and the only one open on weekends, from 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays and 5:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and county holidays. Garage 5, the Hickman garage at 270 NW 2nd Street, is about 6 minutes on foot and takes hourly parking weekdays from 5:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. The West Lot Garage at 220 NW 3rd Street is about 7 minutes on foot and open weekdays from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. The Clerk does not post the hourly rates, so bring a card.

If you have an hour after the courthouse, walk east to the Freedom Tower at 600 Biscayne Boulevard, about 17 minutes on foot. The National Park Service tells its story. The building opened on July 26, 1925 as a newspaper headquarters modeled on the Giralda tower of the Cathedral of Seville, and from 1962 to 1974 it housed the federal Cuban Assistance Center, where refugees who had arrived with nothing received identification cards, medical care and help starting over. Cubans called it “El Refugio.” The tower has been a National Historic Landmark since 2008, and the Park Service notes that admission to the exhibition space on the second floor is free.

Homestead is handled by the Property Appraiser of Miami-Dade County, Tomás Regalado, whose main office is in Suite 710 of the Stephen P. Clark Center, 111 NW 1st Street, a block north of the Justice Center and about 3 minutes on foot. The office is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the residential exemptions line is 305-375-4712. You can apply through the Property Appraiser’s online exemptions portal, and the application and documents are due by March 1.

Questions about a recorded deed or a change of ownership go to the deed line at 305-375-4064 or to [email protected], which is also the address for updating where your tax bill is mailed.

The Property Appraiser does not mail the usual January renewal receipt after an ownership change such as a warranty deed or quitclaim deed. Its homestead page adds that when the previous owner and homestead applicant still owns and lives in the home after the change, the exemptions renew. A lady bird deed leaves you as owner and resident, and renewed exemptions show on the Notice of Proposed Property Taxes mailed by the end of August, so check that notice the first summer after we record your deed.

A disabled veteran may qualify for more than the basic homestead exemption, and the proof is a letter from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Miami-Dade Property Appraiser lists a $5,000 reduction in assessed value for an honorably discharged veteran with a service-connected disability of at least 10 percent, and an exemption from all property taxes on the homestead for an honorably discharged veteran with a service-connected total and permanent disability. Veterans 65 and older with a combat-related disability have a separate application, form DR-501DV. Each exemption carries over to an un-remarried surviving spouse who holds title and homestead, and each application with its VA letter is due by March 1.

Miami-Dade County’s Veteran Services Program helps veterans and their families apply for VA benefits at no cost, and it asks you to bring proof of military service. The office closest to downtown is at the Joseph Caleb Center, 5400 NW 22nd Avenue, on the third floor, open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 305-756-2830. The program also keeps a desk at the South Dade Government Center in Cutler Bay, Suite 205, open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 305-252-5810.

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 Miami-Dade the driver license offices are now run by the Tax Collector, Dariel Fernandez, and one of them is downtown at 200 NW 2nd Avenue, about 8 minutes on foot from the Justice Center. The office is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at 305-375-5448, and the Tax Collector says its offices take both appointments and walk-ins during those hours. Book only through mdctaxcollector.gov, because the Tax Collector has warned that unofficial appointment websites are issuing invalid confirmations.

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 Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade issues death certificates without an appointment, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Health District Center, 1350 NW 14th Street, where the vital records line is 305-575-5030. The office charges $20 for the first certificate and $16 for each additional copy, and asks for a copy of a valid ID with every request. We prepare and record the rest.