Estate Planning Attorney for Leesburg, 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 #7435 at 615 North 14th Street lists notary service seven days a week. Call ahead to confirm a notary is in.

The Lake Clerk publishes the checklist a deed must pass before it records, and your deed is drafted to it. The deed carries the grantee’s mailing address, the property description, two witnesses with the address of each, signed names that match the typed names, and a notary acknowledgment that says whether you were personally known or showed identification. It also needs a “prepared by” line naming a natural person and an address.

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

In Lake County, deeds are recorded by the Recording Section of Gary J. Cooney, the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, and none of the Clerk’s recording desks is in Leesburg. The Clerk records in person at two places in Tavares, the Lake County Courthouse at 550 West Main Street, North Wing, third floor, and the Records Storage Facility at 313 South Bloxham Avenue, both open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Recording desk answers at (352) 253-2600, and its email is [email protected]. Mailed deeds go to P.O. Box 7800, Tavares, FL 32778-7800, attention Recording Section.

Leesburg has a Clerk drop box at 1720 North Citrus Boulevard, emptied at 10:30 a.m. on weekdays, and the Clerk says a drop box is only for documents that are not time sensitive. The Clerk records documents in the order received, typically within two business days, whether they arrive by mail, drop box or e-recording.

You will not need to drive to Tavares or trust the drop box. We record your deed electronically through Simplifile, which is on the Lake Clerk’s own list of e-recording vendors, so the original never leaves our hands and the recorded image is ready to retrieve as soon as the Clerk records it. 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, with $1 more for each name past the fourth.

If you ever do need the courthouse, the Clerk points visitors to the free eight-story parking garage at 200 North Sinclair Avenue in Tavares, with accessible parking on the first floor and a seven-foot height clearance.

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 the Lake County Property Appraiser, whose one office is at 320 West Main Street, Suite A, in Tavares, open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., at (352) 253-2150. You can file online, by mail or in person. You must own the home and make it your permanent residence on January 1, and the application is due March 1. The Property Appraiser asks for at least two forms of Florida residency for each resident, such as a Florida driver license and a Lake County voter registration, and the Social Security number of the applicant and the applicant’s spouse.

Once approved, the exemption renews on its own each year, and the Property Appraiser does not mail an approval letter. The office’s own FAQ says there is no need to reapply each year unless the deed or your residency changes. A lady bird deed changes the deed, so we ask the Property Appraiser whether it wants a new application when we record yours. If the home is going into a trust instead, the office says the applicant must hold equitable title or a beneficial interest and may be asked for a copy of the trust agreement.

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 Lake 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. The Department of Health in Lake County issues certified death certificates in Leesburg itself, at the Leesburg Health Center, 2113 West Griffin Road, at 352-771-5500. Vital statistics are served weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except between noon and 1 p.m., and each certificate costs $12. Bring the completed application and a state-issued photo ID, and an in-person request usually takes about 15 minutes. We prepare and record the rest.

We send you the recorded deed as soon as Lake County returns it, and it appears in the Clerk’s official records search, which is free to view. Lake’s online Official Records run from January 1, 1957 to the present, with older deed books back to 1887, and the Clerk says images are typically released within one business day after recording.

For a paper copy, print it at home, or take it to The UPS Store #7435 at 615 North 14th Street, about 20 minutes on foot from City Hall, which lists printing and is locally owned, at (352) 460-4764. If a bank or title company asks for a certified copy, the Clerk sells electronically certified copies online for a $6 service fee, a $2 certification fee and $1 a page, so a two-page deed costs $10. Check first that whoever is asking accepts an electronic certification.

Then take two minutes to sign up for the Clerk’s free Recording Notification Service. It emails you automatically whenever a document is recorded in Lake County under a name you choose to watch, and you can watch several names from one email address. The Clerk says plainly that it does not stop a false deed from being recorded, but an owner who hears about one early can act before the damage is done.

Leesburg City Hall is at 501 West Meadow Street, open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at (352) 728-9700, and most of what you might need downtown is a short walk from its door.

If you bank with United Southern Bank and need a cashier’s check, its Downtown Leesburg branch is at 515 West Main Street, about 2 minutes on foot, with the lobby open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until 6 p.m. on Friday, at 352-669-2121. Veterans Memorial Park is about 2 minutes away on West Meadow Street, and Venetian Gardens, the city park on Lake Harris, is about 20 minutes on foot and open during daylight hours, with a boat ramp. The Leesburg Post Office is a short drive south at 1201 South 14th Street, open weekdays from 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon, at 352-787-6539.

Two stops tell the town’s story. The Leesburg Heritage Society and Historical Museum is at 111 South 6th Street, about 3 minutes on foot, open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with exhibits that run from 1857 to the present in a town incorporated in 1875. About 6 minutes the other way, at 1021 West Main Street, stands the Mote Morris House, built in 1892 for about $9,000 on land Edward H. Mote bought in 1889, and later the retirement home of Bishop Henry Clay Morrison, who bought it in 1908.

The Lake County Property Appraiser lists a $5,000 exemption for an honorably discharged veteran with a service-connected disability of 10 percent or more, and a full exemption on the homestead for a veteran with a service-connected total and permanent disability, which can continue for a surviving spouse. A veteran 65 or older with a combat-related disability may also qualify for a discount. Each is proved with a letter from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the application is due by March 1.

Lake County Veterans Services helps veterans and their families with VA benefits and the paperwork behind them. The office is at 1996 Classique Lane in Tavares, at 352-742-6580 and [email protected].

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 too, because the Property Appraiser counts it as proof of residency. The state requires a license name change to be made in person, after the Social Security Administration has updated your name. In Leesburg the state lists the Lake County Tax Collector’s Leesburg Service Center at 1720 North Citrus Boulevard, the same address as the Clerk’s drop box, open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 352-343-9602. The state notes that many of these offices require an appointment, so call first.