Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed Attorney

Serving Broward County Homeowners From Las Olas to Coral Ridge

Broward homeowners use a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed
to keep a house, condo or waterfront property out of probate.

SCHEDULE A CONSULTATION CALL: 305-299-7496
Yanitza Schoonover, Florida probate and estate planning attorney
Written and reviewed by Yanitza Schoonover, Florida probate and estate planning attorney The Schoonover Law Firm, P.A. · Updated August 2026

Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed Attorney

A Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed, known formally as a Florida enhanced life estate deed, allows your Broward County home, condominium or waterfront property to transfer directly to the beneficiaries you name at your death, without a Broward probate case. During your lifetime nothing changes. You stay on title, you keep your homestead exemption, and you can live in the property, rent it, refinance it, sell it, or change your mind entirely.

Fort Lauderdale has an unusually high owner-occupancy rate for a South Florida coastal city, and a lot of that ownership is long-tenured. When a home has been in the family since before the boom, the equity in it is frequently the largest single thing the family will inherit, and the difference between a recorded deed and a Broward probate case is measured in months and thousands of dollars.

Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed: the short version

  • What it does: names beneficiaries who receive your Broward property automatically at death, outside of probate.
  • What you keep: full control for life, including the right to sell, mortgage, lease, or revoke the deed without anyone's permission.
  • Where it is recorded: Broward is unusual. Deeds go to the county Records, Taxes & Treasury Division, not the Clerk of Courts.
  • Documentary stamp tax: Broward uses the standard statewide $0.70 per $100 rate, and the Florida Department of Revenue concluded in TAA 20B4-004 that an enhanced life estate deed is not a taxable transfer at all.
  • Homestead: a correctly drafted deed should not disturb your Broward homestead exemption or Save Our Homes cap while you are living.
  • Best fit: Broward owners whose home or condo is their main asset and who want a clean, direct transfer to family.

What Is a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed?

A Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed is the common name for a Florida enhanced life estate deed recorded on property in Broward County. The deed names the beneficiaries, called remaindermen, who receive the property automatically at your death, while reserving to you an enhanced life estate that leaves you in complete control while you are alive.

The word "enhanced" carries the whole idea. Under a traditional Florida life estate deed, the life tenant cannot sell or mortgage the property without the remaindermen signing, and those remaindermen hold a vested interest that their creditors can reach and their divorces can complicate. An enhanced life estate deed reserves the power to sell, convey, mortgage, lease and revoke without their consent, so the beneficiaries hold nothing more than an expectancy until you die.

That distinction is exactly where do-it-yourself deeds fail. If the reservation of enhanced powers is weak, missing, or lifted from a generic online form, the deed can behave like an ordinary life estate deed, and the owner discovers it at the worst possible moment: when a Fort Lauderdale closing agent refuses to insure the sale because the adult children have to sign.

For a broader comparison of Florida options, see our guide to Lady Bird Deeds versus wills, trusts and quitclaim deeds.

Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed attorney helping Broward County homeowners avoid probate

Fort Lauderdale Estate Planning Snapshot

Fort Lauderdale is a homeowner’s city in a way much of South Florida is not. More than half of its housing units are owner-occupied, well above the Miami figure, and the median household income is meaningfully higher. That combination (people who own, who have owned for a while, and whose property has appreciated sharply) is precisely the profile a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed is built for.

  • 17.3% of Fort Lauderdale residents are age 65+
  • 54.1% of housing units are owner-occupied
  • $486,700 median value of owner-occupied housing
  • $83,130 median household income
  • 27.0% of Fort Lauderdale residents are foreign-born
  • 30.1% speak a language other than English at home

Read those two figures together: an owner-occupancy rate above 54% and a 65-and-over population above 17%. That is a large population of retirement-age homeowners holding their primary asset in a market that has roughly doubled in a decade. For most of them the estate plan question is not complicated, it is singular: how does the house get to the kids without a court case?

Fort Lauderdale also carries a large seasonal and part-year population. An owner whose permanent residence is New York or Ontario still owns Florida real property, and Florida real property owned at death by a non-resident generally requires an ancillary Florida probate case in addition to probate at home. A Lady Bird Deed removes that second case entirely.

Demographic figures: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Fort Lauderdale city, Florida (most recent American Community Survey five-year estimates available at publication).

Chart of the Fort Lauderdale median home price trend over the past decade, used for Broward County estate planning and Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed research
Fort Lauderdale median home price trend (past decade)
Appreciation of this scale is why the step-up in basis matters as much as the probate savings.
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What Broward Probate Actually Involves

Probate in Broward is handled by the Probate Division of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in the West Building of the Central Courthouse at 201 SE Sixth Street in downtown Fort Lauderdale. It is a heavily proceduralized division, and that cuts both ways: it is predictable, but it is unforgiving about form.

  • 10 daysDeadline to deposit an original will with the Clerk after notice of death
  • 3 monthsCreditor claim period after first publication of notice to creditors
  • $150,000Non-exempt asset ceiling for summary administration, doubled July 1, 2026
  • 6–18 mo.Typical range for formal administration in the 17th Circuit

Two Broward specifics are worth knowing in advance. First, the circuit requires case-specific Smart Forms for most probate petitions; a standard PDF that lacks the interactive fields is routinely rejected by the Clerk, which costs the family a filing cycle. Second, an original will must be physically deposited with the Clerk within ten days of learning of the death, and formal administration in Florida ordinarily requires a licensed attorney, so the estate is paying counsel from the first filing.

New for 2026: Florida’s summary administration ceiling doubled

Effective July 1, 2026, CS/SB 1500 raised the non-exempt asset ceiling for Florida summary administration from $75,000 to $150,000 (Fla. Stat. § 735.201). The higher limit applies only to decedents who die on or after that date; earlier deaths remain under the old $75,000 cap. Summary administration also remains available at any value once more than two years have passed since the death.

Good news for smaller Broward estates, but it is not a substitute for a deed. Summary administration is still a court proceeding with filings, notice and a wait, and a Fort Lauderdale homestead typically still needs a separate petition and order determining homestead status before a title company will insure a sale. A Lady Bird Deed skips that for the home altogether.

A Lady Bird Deed does not eliminate probate for every asset. What it does is take the single largest and most emotionally loaded asset off the court’s docket, so the family is not waiting on a Fort Lauderdale calendar to sell, refinance, or simply hold clean title to the house.

Recording a Lady Bird Deed in Broward County

Here is the Broward quirk that surprises people who have recorded deeds elsewhere in Florida: the Clerk of Courts does not record deeds in Broward County. That function belongs to the county’s Records, Taxes & Treasury Division. Sending a deed to the Clerk, as you would in most other Florida counties, sends it to the wrong office.

Where and how to record

The recording counter is at the Broward County Governmental Center, 115 South Andrews Avenue, Room 114, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301, generally open 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays. Deeds can also be submitted by mail or, as most attorneys and title companies do, through an approved e-recording provider, which returns the recorded instrument in a day or two rather than weeks. Recorded documents appear in the Broward County Official Records search shortly afterward.

Execution requirements

Florida requires a deed conveying an interest in real property to be signed by the owner in the presence of two subscribing witnesses and acknowledged before a notary public (Fla. Stat. §§ 689.01 and 695.03). Both witnesses must sign and the notary block must be complete. A missing witness is a routine reason for rejection at the counter, and a defectively witnessed deed discovered years later at the owner’s death is a far more expensive problem.

Recording fees

Recording fees are published by the county recorder and are the same core amounts statewide: $10.00 for the first page, $8.50 for each additional page, plus $1.00 per name indexed beyond four names. A typical Lady Bird Deed is two to three pages, so recording generally costs under $30.00. The drafting is the real cost, and it is small next to what a Broward probate case costs the family later. Our flat-fee pricing is listed here.

Documentary stamp tax in Broward

Broward uses the standard statewide rate: $0.70 per $100 of consideration on taxable deeds. This is worth stating plainly because Broward sits directly against Miami-Dade, which is the one Florida county with its own rate ($0.60 per $100 plus a $0.45 surtax on non-single-family property). Owners who have transferred property on both sides of the county line sometimes carry the wrong assumption across it.

For a Lady Bird Deed the more important question is whether the tax applies at all. In Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004, issued October 16, 2020, the Florida Department of Revenue concluded that an enhanced life estate deed is not subject to documentary stamp tax, reasoning that no present beneficial interest transfers when the deed is signed because the remainder interest stays contingent until the owner’s death. The Department applied that reasoning without regard to consideration or encumbrances.

The honest caveat: a Technical Assistance Advisement binds the Department only as to the taxpayer and facts in that request and is not binding precedent for anyone else. Where a Broward property carries a mortgage, some closing agents and title underwriters still take a conservative position. Better to have that conversation before recording than after.

Sources: Broward County Records, Taxes & Treasury Division, Recording; Florida Department of Revenue Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004 (Oct. 16, 2020); Fla. Stat. ch. 201 (documentary stamp tax); Fla. Stat. § 28.24(13) (statutory service charges); Miami-Dade and Broward county recorder published fee schedules.

Waterfront, Canal and Dock Property in Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale has roughly 165 miles of navigable inland waterways, and a large share of the city’s most valuable residential property sits on them. A Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed works on a canal-front lot in Las Olas Isles, Rio Vista, Harbor Beach or Coral Ridge exactly the way it works on an inland home. The deed transfers whatever the legal description covers.

That last sentence is the whole point. Waterfront parcels here frequently involve more than a platted lot: submerged land, riparian rights, dock and seawall obligations, and occasionally a separate dockage parcel or easement recorded years apart from the house. If the Lady Bird Deed carries a retyped or abbreviated legal description, the beneficiaries can end up with the house and an argument about the dock.

The fix is unglamorous and effective: pull the last recorded deed from the Broward County Official Records, carry the legal description forward exactly, and confirm any separately recorded easements or riparian grants are accounted for. It is the same discipline any competent Fort Lauderdale closing would apply, done in advance instead of after a death.

Owners of older waterfront homes should also keep the stepped-up basis in view. A Las Olas or Rio Vista property bought in the 1990s may carry an enormous unrealized gain. Because a Lady Bird Deed leaves the property in your estate at death, beneficiaries generally receive a basis equal to date-of-death value, which can eliminate most of that gain if they sell. Handing the same house over by quitclaim during your lifetime typically forfeits that.

Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed lawyer helping Broward waterfront homeowners plan a probate-free transfer

Docks, Slips and Submerged Land: What Actually Passes

The section above says the deed transfers whatever the legal description covers. This section is about the things waterfront owners assume are covered and sometimes are not. On a Fort Lauderdale canal lot there can be three different kinds of water-related interest attached to one house, and they pass in three different ways.

1. Riparian rights: they travel with the land automatically

Riparian rights, the rights that come with owning land fronting navigable water, are dealt with by Fla. Stat. § 253.141(1), which provides that they “are appurtenant to and are inseparable from the riparian land.” They cannot be sold off separately, and they pass with a conveyance of the upland whether or not the deed mentions them.

That is good news and it is the easy case. A Lady Bird Deed conveying the lot carries the riparian rights with it, without special language.

2. A dock over sovereign submerged land: authorization, not ownership

Much of the submerged bottom under Florida’s navigable waters is sovereign land held by the state. A dock or a mooring extending over it is generally there under some form of authorization from the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, such as a lease or a consent of use, rather than because the upland owner owns the bottom.

What follows matters for planning. Your beneficiaries inherit the land and the riparian rights, but the authorization has its own terms, its own renewal dates and its own transfer requirements. A deed does not renew a lease. If there is a submerged land lease in the file, the beneficiaries need to know it exists and when it comes up.

3. A separate slip or dockominium parcel: a different piece of real estate

This is the one that surprises people. Where dockage is held as a separately platted parcel, a marina condominium unit or a “dockominium”, it is a distinct piece of real property with its own legal description, and frequently its own folio number and its own association.

A Lady Bird Deed on the house does not convey it. The slip needs its own deed, or its own paragraph in the same instrument, describing it correctly. Otherwise the house passes outside probate exactly as intended and the boat slip goes through a Broward probate case on its own, which is a genuinely absurd outcome that is entirely preventable.

Three water-related interests, three different answers.
InterestPasses with a deed on the house?What to do
Riparian rightsYes, automaticallyNothing. They are inseparable from the land by statute.
Dock on your own upland or private bottomYes, as an improvementCarry the legal description forward exactly.
Dock over sovereign submerged landThe land passes; the authorization has its own termsLocate the lease or consent of use and diary its renewal.
Separate slip or dockominium parcelNo. It is separate real property.Give it its own legal description in the deed, or its own deed.
Dockage held by easementDepends entirely on how the easement was writtenPull the recorded easement and read it before drafting.

Also worth pulling before the deed is drafted

  • Seawall obligations. Maintenance and, in some areas, elevation requirements attach to the property and become your beneficiaries’ problem.
  • Any recorded easement for access, dockage or maintenance, which may sit in the records years apart from the deed to the house.
  • The folio list. If the Property Appraiser shows more than one folio for what you think of as one property, that is the flag.
  • Flood insurance and elevation certificates, which affect what a beneficiary can afford to carry.

Sources: Fla. Stat. § 253.141(1) (riparian rights appurtenant to and inseparable from the riparian land); Fla. Stat. ch. 253 (state lands and sovereignty submerged lands, Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund); Fla. Stat. ch. 718 (condominium, including marina and dockominium parcels). Whether a particular dock is authorized, and on what terms, is a question of the recorded instruments and the state file for that property.

Homestead Exemption, Save Our Homes, and Florida Homestead Law

Two separate ideas travel under the word "homestead" in Florida, and a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed touches both.

The tax homestead: exemption and the 3% cap

The homestead exemption reduces your taxable value, and Save Our Homes caps annual increases in assessed value at 3% or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower. For a Fort Lauderdale owner who bought before the run-up, that cap is frequently worth more each year than the exemption itself. A properly drafted Lady Bird Deed should not disturb either during your lifetime, because you retain the enhanced life estate, you remain in possession, and the Broward County Property Appraiser continues to treat you as the owner of record.

What the deed does not do is carry your Save Our Homes cap forward to your beneficiaries. The cap resets on the change of ownership at death, the same as it would through probate or a trust. Anyone promising you a Lady Bird Deed preserves the cap for your children is describing something Florida law does not provide.

The constitutional homestead: spouses and minor children

Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution restricts what an owner can do with homestead property. A married owner cannot convey homestead without the spouse joining in the deed, and homestead cannot be devised away from a surviving spouse or a minor child. These restrictions are generally tested at death rather than at signing, which is why a defective deed can sit quietly for a decade and then fail.

In practice a married Fort Lauderdale couple usually signs the Lady Bird Deed together, naming the remainder beneficiaries who take after the second death. If there is a minor child, a Lady Bird Deed naming anyone else is a genuine problem that needs a different plan, not a different form.

If Fort Lauderdale is your second home

A large number of Broward owners are seasonal. If Florida is not your permanent residence, you likely do not have the homestead exemption or the constitutional homestead protections here. That removes the spousal joinder requirement, but it also removes homestead creditor protection, and it means the property is fully exposed in a Florida ancillary probate if nothing is done. For non-resident owners the probate-avoidance argument for a Lady Bird Deed is usually the strongest one on the table.

Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed for condominiums on Galt Ocean Mile and Las Olas

Broward Condos and Assessments

From Galt Ocean Mile to downtown Las Olas, Broward has a deep condominium market and a lot of buildings over 30 years old. The deed works the same on a unit, but the declaration of condominium governs what surrounds it: approval and transfer provisions, assessment liens, and the milestone inspection and structural integrity reserve assessments many coastal buildings are now funding. Those obligations follow the unit to your beneficiaries, so they should know what is coming.

Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed attorney explaining Florida Medicaid estate recovery

Medicaid and Estate Recovery

Florida limits Medicaid estate recovery to assets passing through the probate estate, and has not adopted the expanded definition some states use. Because a Lady Bird Deed moves the home outside probate, it is one of the standard tools for reducing estate recovery exposure on a Florida homestead. It does not qualify anyone for Medicaid, and the five-year look-back still applies to other transfers. Read our full guide to Lady Bird Deeds and Florida Medicaid.

Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed compared with a Florida revocable living trust

Lady Bird Deed vs. Revocable Trust

A Lady Bird Deed is usually the right answer when a Fort Lauderdale home or condo is the main asset and the plan is straightforward. A revocable trust tends to win when there are multiple properties, out-of-state real estate, sizable financial accounts, blended-family concerns, or beneficiaries who should not receive a lump sum outright. Plenty of Broward estate plans use both: the trust for everything else, the deed for the house.

After a Death: What Your Family Actually Does

  1. Order certified death certificates

    From the Florida Department of Health. Order several: the Property Appraiser, the insurer, any association, the marina and any lender will each want one.

  2. Record one against the property

    Recorded in the Broward County Official Records, this publicly establishes that the life estate has ended and the named beneficiaries hold title.

  3. Record one against every parcel

    If there is a separate slip or dockominium parcel, it needs the same treatment. One property in your mind can be two folios in the records.

  4. Provide an affidavit if a title company asks

    On a sale or refinance, a title underwriter commonly wants an affidavit confirming identity, continuous marital status, and that the deed was never revoked.

  5. Notify the insurer and any association

    Waterfront and flood coverage in particular needs to reflect who owns and occupies the property.

  6. Check any submerged land lease

    Terms, renewal dates and transfer requirements do not pause because an owner died.

What is not on that list: a petition, a filing fee, a personal representative, publication of notice to creditors, or a creditor claim period for that property.

What a Lady Bird Deed Does Not Do

Common misconceptions, several of them specific to waterfront property.
People assume it…Reality
Carries a separately owned boat slipNo. A dockominium or separately platted slip is its own real property and needs its own legal description.
Renews a submerged land leaseNo. The authorization has its own terms and its own renewal dates.
Covers the whole estateNo. It conveys the parcels described in it. Accounts, vessels, vehicles and belongings are untouched.
Transfers a boatNo. A vessel is titled personal property and passes its own way.
Replaces a willNo. You still want a will for everything the deed does not reach.
Overrides HOA or condominium documentsNo. Transfer approval, leasing limits and recorded assessments all still apply.
Passes your Save Our Homes cap to the kidsNo. It resets on the change of ownership at death, which on an appreciated waterfront home is a large number.
Works if you have a minor childNo, not on the homestead. Florida does not permit the homestead to be devised while a minor child survives you.
Fixes seawall or elevation obligationsNo. Those attach to the property and become the beneficiaries’ responsibility.
Stops your children arguingNo. It hands them undivided shares. Any one of them can generally seek partition.

How a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed Compares to the Alternatives

Broward homeowners generally arrive with one of five ideas in mind. Here is how they line up for a Fort Lauderdale homestead.

General comparison for a Florida homestead. Individual results depend on how the property is titled and on your family circumstances.
Option Avoids probate? Keep full control while living? Typical Broward drawback
Lady Bird Deed Yes, for that property Yes Covers only the real property described in the deed, not the rest of the estate.
Will only No Yes The will is the instruction manual for probate; it guarantees a 17th Circuit case, not an escape from one.
Revocable living trust Yes, if funded Yes Higher cost, and the deed into the trust still has to be drafted and recorded correctly in Broward.
Quitclaim deed to children now Yes No You lose control, likely lose the homestead exemption, expose the home to your children's creditors and divorces, and forfeit the stepped-up basis, brutal on an appreciated waterfront property.
Adding a child to the deed Partially No Creates a present co-owner with veto power, gift tax reporting, and creditor exposure. Very common and very often regretted.

The last two rows are the most common self-help mistakes we see on Broward property. Both feel like shortcuts, and both give away control of the home during the owner’s lifetime. Our detailed breakdown is on the Florida Lady Bird Deed comparison page.

How to Get a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed

  1. Confirm the deed actually fits

    We look at how the property is titled, who you want to receive it, whether you are married, whether there is a minor child, and whether Florida is your permanent residence. Florida homestead rules decide this question, not preference.

  2. Pull the current vesting deed and folio

    The new deed must carry the exact legal description from the last recorded deed in the Broward County Official Records, together with the folio number from the Broward County Property Appraiser. On waterfront parcels we also check for separately recorded dock easements and riparian grants.

  3. Draft the enhanced life estate reservation

    The deed must clearly reserve your power to sell, convey, mortgage, lease and revoke without the consent of the remainder beneficiaries. This is the language that separates a Lady Bird Deed from an ordinary life estate deed.

  4. Sign with two witnesses and a notary

    Florida requires two subscribing witnesses and a notary acknowledgment. A married owner’s spouse joins the deed on homestead property.

  5. Record with Broward Records, Taxes & Treasury

    Not the Clerk of Courts. The deed is recorded at 115 South Andrews Avenue, Room 114, or submitted by e-recording, for $10.00 for the first page and $8.50 per additional page.

  6. Store it and tell your beneficiaries

    Keep the recorded deed with the rest of your estate plan and make sure the people named in it know it exists. At your death they generally record a certified death certificate to establish clear title.

START WITH A CONSULTATION

Plain-English Glossary

Enhanced life estate deedThe formal name for a Lady Bird Deed. You keep a life estate plus the power to sell, mortgage or revoke without anyone’s consent.
Riparian rightsThe rights that come with owning land fronting navigable water. By statute they are appurtenant to and inseparable from the land.
Sovereignty submerged landsThe bottom under navigable waters, held by the state. A dock over it is generally there by lease or consent of use.
DockominiumA boat slip owned as a condominium unit. Separate real property with its own legal description, and it does not pass with a deed on the house.
Folio numberThe Property Appraiser’s identifier for a parcel. Two folios means two parcels, however you think of the property.
RemaindermanA person named in the deed to receive the property at your death. No present interest while you are alive.
Protected homesteadHomestead property under Article X, Section 4. Exempt from creditors and not counted toward the summary administration ceiling.
Order determining homesteadThe court order confirming that property was the decedent’s homestead. Frequently what a title company wants before insuring a sale.
Summary administrationA shortened probate for smaller estates. Still a court proceeding, and a homestead usually needs its own order.
Tenants in commonCo-ownership in undivided shares, with no right of survivorship. What multiple beneficiaries receive under a deed.
Partition actionA lawsuit any co-owner can generally file to force the division or sale of jointly owned property.
Stepped-up basisThe reset of cost basis to date-of-death value, which can eliminate accumulated capital gain on a later sale.
Save Our HomesThe constitutional cap limiting annual increases in assessed value of homestead property to 3% or CPI, whichever is lower.

Who Commonly Uses a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed?

Broward’s housing market and demographics produce a recurring set of situations where an enhanced life estate deed is a strong fit:

  • Long-tenured owners in Victoria Park, Rio Vista and Coral Ridge sitting on decades of appreciation
  • Waterfront and canal-front owners who want the dock and the house to travel together
  • Galt Ocean Mile and Las Olas condo owners passing a single unit to a beneficiary
  • Seasonal and out-of-state owners who want to avoid an ancillary Florida probate case
  • Widowed Broward homeowners whose homestead is most of the estate
  • Owners planning around long-term care who want the homestead outside the probate estate

A Lady Bird Deed is not right for everyone. If the property is held in an LLC, if there is a minor child, if the family situation is contested, or if the estate is large and spread across several assets, we will say so and point you toward the structure that actually works.

Fort Lauderdale Neighborhoods and Communities We Serve

We prepare Lady Bird Deeds for property throughout Fort Lauderdale and Broward County, including:

  • Las Olas Isles
  • Victoria Park
  • Rio Vista
  • Coral Ridge
  • Harbor Beach
  • Colee Hammock
  • Sailboat Bend
  • Poinsettia Heights
  • Wilton Manors
  • Lauderdale Beach
  • Galt Ocean Mile
  • Imperial Point
  • Bay Colony
  • Seven Isles
  • Sunrise Key
  • Downtown / Flagler Village
  • Riverside Park
  • Croissant Park
  • Melrose Park
  • Edgewood

Work With a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed Attorney

Yanitza Schoonover focuses her practice on probate administration and estate planning for Florida families. She helps Fort Lauderdale and Broward County homeowners with:

  • Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed drafting, execution and recording
  • Formal probate administration
  • Summary administration
  • Estate planning coordination for Florida homesteads


A Lady Bird Deed is a short document that has to be exactly right. If you are considering a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed to keep your Broward home, condo or waterfront property out of probate, schedule a consultation and we will tell you plainly whether it fits.

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Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed attorney Yanitza Schoonover

Yanitza Schoonover

Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed Frequently Asked Questions

Where is a Lady Bird Deed recorded in Broward County?

Broward is different from most Florida counties. Deeds are recorded by the Broward County Records, Taxes & Treasury Division, not the Clerk of Courts. The recording counter is at the Broward County Governmental Center, 115 South Andrews Avenue, Room 114, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301, generally open 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays. Deeds may also be submitted by mail or through an approved e-recording provider.

Does a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed work on waterfront and canal property?

Yes. A canal-front lot on Las Olas Isles or a Rio Vista property passes to your beneficiaries the same way an inland home does. What deserves attention is the legal description. Waterfront parcels here often involve submerged land, riparian rights, dock easements and seawall obligations, and the deed should carry those forward exactly as they appear in the last recorded deed rather than in a retyped summary.

How long does Broward County probate take without a Lady Bird Deed?

Formal administration in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit commonly runs from roughly six months to well over a year, driven by the three-month creditor claim period and court scheduling. The Probate Division sits in the West Building of the Central Courthouse at 201 SE Sixth Street. Broward also requires case-specific Smart Forms for most probate petitions; filing a standard PDF instead usually results in rejection by the Clerk and costs the family a cycle.

Did Florida change the summary administration limit in 2026?

Yes. Effective July 1, 2026, CS/SB 1500 raised the non-exempt asset ceiling for Florida summary administration from $75,000 to $150,000 under Fla. Stat. § 735.201. The new limit applies only to decedents who die on or after that date, and summary administration remains available at any estate value once more than two years have passed since the death. Even in summary administration, a homestead usually still requires a separate petition and order determining homestead status before title is marketable.

Does a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed work for a condominium?

Yes, and Broward has a large condominium market from Galt Ocean Mile to downtown Las Olas. The deed works the same way, but the declaration of condominium controls the surroundings: transfer and approval provisions, assessment liens, and the milestone inspection and structural integrity reserve assessments many older coastal buildings are now funding. Those obligations follow the unit, so your beneficiaries should know what they are inheriting.

Will a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed affect my homestead exemption or Save Our Homes cap?

A properly drafted deed should not affect either one during your lifetime. You retain an enhanced life estate, you stay in possession, and the Broward County Property Appraiser continues to treat you as the owner of record for homestead purposes. The Save Our Homes cap generally resets at your death on the change of ownership, which happens with or without the deed.

Does a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed trigger Florida documentary stamp tax?

In Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004, issued October 16, 2020, the Florida Department of Revenue concluded that an enhanced life estate deed is not subject to documentary stamp tax, because no present beneficial interest transfers when the deed is signed. Broward applies the standard statewide rate of $0.70 per $100 of consideration on taxable deeds, unlike neighboring Miami-Dade. A Technical Assistance Advisement binds the Department only as to the taxpayer and facts presented, so your deed and any mortgage should still be reviewed before recording.

Can I use a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed if I am married?

Usually yes, with your spouse joining the deed. Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution prevents a married owner from conveying homestead property without the spouse joining, and homestead cannot be devised away from a surviving spouse or a minor child. The common structure for a married Broward couple is a deed signed by both spouses naming the beneficiaries who take after the second death.

I live in Fort Lauderdale part of the year. Does that change anything?

It can. The deed avoids probate on the Florida property regardless of where you live, and for an out-of-state owner it specifically avoids an ancillary Florida probate case running alongside probate in your home state. What changes is homestead: if Florida is not your permanent residence you likely do not have the exemption or the constitutional protections, which removes the spousal joinder requirement but also removes homestead creditor protection.

Does a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed protect the home from Florida Medicaid estate recovery?

Florida limits Medicaid estate recovery to assets that pass through the probate estate, so moving the home outside probate is the standard way to reduce exposure. The deed does not qualify anyone for Medicaid, and other transfers can still create a penalty period under the five-year look-back. See our Florida Lady Bird Deed and Medicaid guide.

Can I use a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed on a rental or investment property?

Yes, if you own it individually. A Lady Bird Deed is not limited to homestead property and will keep a Broward rental out of probate the same way. Two differences matter: non-homestead property does not carry Florida homestead creditor protection, and it is not shielded from Medicaid estate recovery by homestead status, only by staying out of the probate estate. If the property is titled to an LLC, a Lady Bird Deed is not the right instrument.

Do my beneficiaries get a stepped-up basis?

Generally yes. Because you keep the enhanced powers, the transfer is treated as incomplete for federal tax purposes and the property is included in your gross estate at death, which normally produces a stepped-up cost basis. On a Fort Lauderdale waterfront home held since the 1990s, that step-up can be worth many times the cost of the deed. Confirm the tax treatment for your situation with a tax advisor.

Can a Fort Lauderdale Lady Bird Deed be changed or revoked later?

Yes, and that is the point of it. You can sell the property, refinance it, lease it, add or remove beneficiaries, or revoke the deed outright without the consent of the people named to receive it. A new deed is prepared and recorded to make the change effective.

Does my boat slip pass with the house under a Lady Bird Deed?

It depends on how the slip is owned, and this is the question waterfront owners most often get wrong. Riparian rights pass automatically: Fla. Stat. § 253.141(1) provides that they are “appurtenant to and are inseparable from the riparian land,” so a deed on the lot carries them without special wording. But where dockage is held as a separately platted parcel, a marina condominium unit or a dockominium, it is distinct real property with its own legal description and often its own folio number, and a Lady Bird Deed on the house does not convey it. The slip needs its own deed or its own paragraph. Otherwise the house passes outside probate as intended and the boat slip goes through a Broward probate case on its own.

What about a dock over state submerged land?

Much of the bottom under Florida’s navigable waters is sovereign land held by the state, and a dock extending over it is generally there under an authorization from the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, such as a lease or a consent of use, rather than because the upland owner owns the bottom. Your beneficiaries inherit the land and the riparian rights, but that authorization has its own terms, renewal dates and transfer requirements. A deed does not renew a lease. If there is a submerged land lease in the file, the beneficiaries need to know it exists and when it comes up.

More general questions are answered on our Florida Lady Bird Deed FAQ page.

We also assist homeowners in nearby Broward and Miami-Dade markets including Hollywood, Pompano Beach, Plantation, Davie, Sunrise, Hallandale Beach, and Miami. Browse every market on our areas we serve page.

Florida Lady Bird Deed Attorney Serves Homeowners Across Florida

We help homeowners throughout Florida with Lady Bird Deeds and probate avoidance planning. Below are many of the primary Florida markets we serve, but we're not limited to these locations. You can also browse the full Florida Lady Bird Deed city and county directory.

• Boca Raton • Boynton Beach • Cape Coral • Clearwater • Coral Springs • Davie • Daytona Beach • Deerfield Beach • Doral • Fort Lauderdale • Hallandale Beach • Hialeah • Hollywood • Homestead • Jacksonville • Kendall • Lauderdale Lakes • Miami • Miami Beach • Miramar • Orlando • Parkland • Pembroke Pines • Pine Hills • Plantation • Pompano Beach • Port Saint Lucie • Saint Petersburg • Sunrise • Tallahassee • Tampa • West Palm Beach • Weston

Legal disclaimer. This page is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Florida homestead, probate, tax and Medicaid rules change and apply differently to different families. Recording locations, fees, tax rates and court procedures described here were accurate as of August 2026 and should be confirmed with Broward County Records, Taxes & Treasury and the Florida Department of Revenue before you rely on them.

The Schoonover Law Firm, P.A. · Yanitza Schoonover, Attorney at Law · Licensed in Florida. Attorney advertising.