Estate Planning Attorney for Daytona Beach, Florida

A Florida trust that leaves your home or savings to someone at your death has to be signed the way a will is signed, with two witnesses who watch you sign and a notary. Florida law voids the parts of a trust that pass property at death when they are signed without those formalities, and Florida courts have thrown out trust amendments that carried one witness instead of two. We run the signing with our own witnesses and notary, by video or in person. If you would rather sign locally, these are the places nearby.

A Florida deed needs two witnesses and a notary. We set up the signing for you by video, so you can sign from your own kitchen table. If you would rather sign in person, The UPS Store has two Daytona Beach locations, at 2665 North Atlantic Avenue on the beachside and at 2662 LPGA Boulevard in Latitude Landings, and the chain lists notarizing among its services. Call ahead to confirm when a notary is in.

Putting your home into the trust means recording a new deed, from you to yourself as trustee, in Volusia County’s official records. The trust deed is recorded at the same office, and in the same way, as any other deed.

Volusia records deeds in one place. Laura E. Roth, the Clerk of the Circuit Court, is also the County Recorder, and the Recording Department is in Room A121 on the first floor of the Volusia County Courthouse, 101 North Alabama Avenue in DeLand. The desk is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and answers at 386-736-5912.

The Steven C. Henderson Judicial Center in Daytona Beach, at 125 East Orange Avenue on City Island in the Halifax River, has no recording counter. The Clerk keeps an outdoor drop box outside its front doors, meant only for documents that are not time sensitive. Staff empty the box at 7 a.m. each business day and carry the documents to DeLand. A deed left there has to be in a sealed envelope with a check or money order for the exact fee (no cash) and a self-addressed stamped envelope for its return.

You will not need to drive to DeLand or use the drop box. We record your deed electronically through Simplifile, which the Clerk lists by name among its approved e-recording services. Volusia posts its recording fee as $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each page after, so a two-page deed records for $18.50.

A home held in your revocable trust keeps its homestead exemption when the trust gives you a lifetime interest in the home, which is how we draft it. The Property Appraiser still asks for proof of the trust, and each county asks for something slightly different, so here is what this one wants.

Homestead is handled by Larry Bartlett, the Volusia County Property Appraiser. The main office is at 123 West Indiana Avenue, Room 102, in DeLand, at 386-736-5901. The second office is in Holly Hill, at 921 North Nova Road, at 386-254-4601. Both are open weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the Exemptions Division also takes email at [email protected].

You can file for homestead online, and the deadline is March 1. The Property Appraiser’s site also carries a 2026 Amendment 3 FAQ and a Homestead Exemption Impact Estimator if you want to see what the exemption is worth on your home.

The Volusia Property Appraiser says any change in ownership means filing a new homestead application by March 1, even for an owner who has always lived there, and lists a deed adding a name, removing a name or placing the home into a trust as examples. A lady bird deed changes the title too, so we tell you whether yours needs a new application, and the Exemptions Division can confirm it before March 1.

Property tax bills go out on or about November 1. The Volusia Tax Collector takes 4 percent off a bill paid in November, 3 percent in December, 2 percent in January and 1 percent in February.

After your death your successor trustee steps in without a court. Within 60 days the trustee must tell the beneficiaries the trust exists, and Florida law requires a notice of trust to be filed with the court in Volusia County. To sell or transfer the house, the trustee signs a deed as trustee and gives the title company a certification of trust instead of the whole trust.

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. Certified death certificates come from the Department of Health’s Vital Statistics office in Daytona Beach itself, at 1845 Holsonback Drive, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., at 386-274-0614. The Volusia health department posts the fee as $8 for a death certificate. The county office issues certificates for Florida deaths from 2009 on, and the Tax Collector’s Daytona Beach branch is next door at 1847 Holsonback Drive. We prepare and record the rest.

We send you the recorded deed as soon as the Clerk returns it. The deed also appears in Volusia’s official records search, which reaches back to April 4, 1988 and lets you print a copy free. If you would rather have it printed downtown, VIP Printing & Promotional Products at 133 West International Speedway Boulevard makes black and white and color copies, Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Friday until 3 p.m., at 386-258-3326.

If a bank or title company asks for a certified copy, the Clerk charges $1 a page plus $2 to certify the document. Requests go through the Clerk’s online contact form, choosing Recording.

Then take two minutes to sign up for the Clerk’s free Property Fraud Alert, or call 800-728-3858. The service emails or calls you within 48 hours whenever a document is recorded in your name, which is the simplest protection there is against someone recording a false deed on your house. If an alert ever looks wrong, the Clerk sends you to the Recording Department at 386-736-5912.

Some families pass through the Henderson Judicial Center for another reason and want to know what is close. Parking is free in the lot at 125 East Orange Avenue. Downtown is across the river by Jackie Robinson Parkway and Magnolia Avenue, and the Riverfront Shops line Beach Street between Orange Avenue and Bay Street, with more than 60 shops, restaurants and services.

For coffee before the day starts, Copperline Coffee + Cafe at 118 South Beach Street opens at 7 a.m. Monday to Saturday and 8 a.m. on Sunday, about 11 minutes on foot. Dancing Avocado Kitchen is on the same street at 110 South Beach Street, about 12 minutes on foot, if the morning runs into lunch.

The errands are close together. VIP Printing at 133 West International Speedway Boulevard is about 13 minutes on foot if you need copies. Truist has its downtown branch at 200 South Palmetto Avenue, about 13 minutes on foot, which helps if you bank there. The downtown post office at 220 North Beach Street is about 17 minutes on foot and is open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon.

Closer still, the Daytona Beach Regional Library shares City Island at 105 Jackie Robinson Parkway, about 8 minutes on foot. Printing there costs 15 cents a page in black and white and 25 cents in color, and the library is open Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 5 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., at (386) 257-6036.

When you are done, City Island Park at 113 Jackie Robinson Parkway is about 6 minutes on foot from the courthouse on the same island, a riverfront field on the Halifax River with fishing docks and picnic tables. The park is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. from April to November and until 5 p.m. from December to March.

Next to it, Jackie Robinson Ballpark at 105 East Orange Avenue, about 8 minutes on foot, opened on June 4, 1914, and is the oldest ballpark still used in Minor League Baseball. Jackie Robinson played his first professional game there, the park was renamed for him in 1989, and his statue stands outside the Orange Avenue Gate.

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 Volusia Property Appraiser lists a $5,000 exemption for a veteran with a service-connected disability of at least 10 percent, a property tax discount for an honorably discharged veteran 65 or older whose permanent disability is partly combat related, equal to the disability percentage, and a full exemption on the homestead for an honorably discharged veteran with a service-connected total and permanent disability. Each application is due by March 1, and some of these exemptions can carry over to a surviving spouse.

Volusia County Veterans Services helps with the paperwork at 1845 Holsonback Drive in Daytona Beach, at 386-254-4646, weekdays from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. You can schedule an appointment online or by calling the office.

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 at a local office, and only after the Social Security Administration has updated your name, allowing 24 to 48 hours after that. The Volusia Tax Collector’s Daytona Beach office at 1847 Holsonback Drive handles driver licenses, at 386-254-4610, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from 8:30 a.m. on Wednesdays, with appointments at vctaxcollector.org/appt. The same stretch of Holsonback Drive has the Veterans Services office and the health department’s Vital Statistics office, so one trip can cover all three.