To fill out a Florida Lady Bird deed, you draft an enhanced life estate deed that names you as the grantor, reserves a life estate with full power to sell or mortgage the property, names one or more remaindermen to take the property at your death, and includes the legal description and parcel number from your current deed. You then sign it in front of two witnesses and a notary and record it with the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where the property sits. Florida has never adopted a transfer-on-death deed statute, so the enhanced life estate deed is the state’s working substitute.1Florida Law Review. Transfer on Death Deeds: It Is Time to Establish the Rules of the Game
What to Gather Before You Draft
A Lady Bird deed is short, but it has to be exact. Pull the following together before you start filling in a form:
- The full legal description of the property, copied from your current deed. A street address is not enough. If you can’t find the deed, your county property appraiser’s website keeps the legal description on file.
- The parcel identification number. Florida law requires a space for this on the deed, and the clerk uses it to index the recording.2The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 689.02 – Deed Forms
- Your full legal name, written exactly as it appears on the current deed. A missing middle initial or a maiden-name mismatch creates a title problem later.
- The full legal name and mailing address of each remainderman.
- A mailing address for property tax notices during the life estate.
Florida does not publish an official statewide form. Some county clerks post sample templates, and legal document providers sell them. Whichever source you use, the content below is what the document has to contain.
The Retained-Powers Language
The clause that makes this deed a Lady Bird deed, rather than a traditional life estate, is the one that reserves your right to deal with the property without the remainderman’s consent. If you leave it out or write it too narrowly, the deed collapses into a plain life estate, and you will need the remainderman’s signature to sell or mortgage the property for the rest of your life.
A standard version reads: “The Grantor reserves a life estate coupled with an unrestricted power to convey during the Grantor’s lifetime, which includes the power to sell, gift, mortgage, lease, and otherwise dispose of the property, and to retain the proceeds from the conveyance.”3St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court. Enhanced Life Estate Deed (Lady Bird Deed) This is the heart of the document. Nothing else on the form matters as much.
The deed also needs a consideration recital. For an estate-planning transfer where no money changes hands, grantors typically write “$10.00 and other good and valuable consideration” or “love and affection” instead of a purchase price. Leave enough room at the bottom of the signature page for two witness signature lines and a notary acknowledgment block.
Naming More Than One Remainderman
If you want the property to pass to several people, you have to say how they will hold it. Tenants in common each own a separate share, and a deceased remainderman’s share passes through that person’s own estate rather than to the others. Joint tenants with right of survivorship share ownership equally, and a deceased remainderman’s share goes automatically to the surviving remaindermen.
The choice matters most if a remainderman dies before you do. Without survivorship language, that person’s share can end up with someone you never intended, such as a former spouse or a creditor of their estate. If you want the survivors to absorb the share, state that explicitly in the deed.
Signing the Deed
Florida imposes two separate signing formalities. The grantor must sign in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, who also sign. This witness requirement under Section 689.01 is what makes the deed legally effective as a conveyance.4The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 689.01 – How Real Estate Conveyed The remainderman does not sign. Only the grantor is transferring an interest.
For the deed to be recorded, the grantor’s signature also has to be acknowledged in front of a notary public or other authorized officer.5The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 695.03 – Acknowledgment and Proof In practice, you sign once, in front of two witnesses and a notary at the same time.
The notary’s seal must show the notary’s printed name, commission number, and expiration date.6The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 117.05 – Notary Public Duties Both witnesses need their names printed, typed, or stamped legibly beneath their signatures. A Florida notary may charge up to $10 for the acknowledgment.
Recording the Deed
Take the signed deed to the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where the property is located. The clerk will reject it if it does not meet the formatting rules in Florida Statute 695.26:
- A 3-inch by 3-inch blank space in the upper right corner of page one, where the clerk stamps the recording information.
- A 1-inch by 3-inch blank in the upper right of any additional pages.7The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 695.26 – Requirements for Recording Instruments Affecting Real Property
- Text in a font large enough to remain readable after scanning. Handwritten deeds are allowed but must be clearly legible.
- Printed names beneath each witness and notary signature.
Check the margins before you drive to the courthouse. Once the clerk accepts the deed, it is assigned an Official Records book and page number, and the original is mailed back to the grantor or whatever return address you listed.
What It Costs
Recording fees are set statewide by Florida Statute 28.24. Adding the base charge, the Public Records Modernization Trust Fund surcharge, and the per-page service charge, the total comes to $10.00 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page.8Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 28.24 – Service Charges Most Lady Bird deeds run one or two pages, so expect roughly $10 to $18.50.
Florida’s documentary stamp tax, which normally applies to deeds at $0.70 per $100 of consideration, does not apply here.9Florida Department of Revenue. Documentary Stamp Tax The Florida Department of Revenue has ruled that because the grantor retains everything of value during life and the remainder is purely contingent, no doc stamp tax is owed regardless of what consideration is recited.10Florida Department of Revenue. Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004 – Documentary Stamp Tax
Add the notary fee, capped at $10 per notarial act.11Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 117.05 – Notary Public Duties An attorney-drafted deed will add more, but the government-imposed cost of recording a Lady Bird deed in Florida is under $30 in most cases.
What Does Not Change After Recording
Your homestead exemption stays in place. Because you keep the life estate and remain the occupant, you are still the owner for property tax purposes. The remainderman has no property-tax role until the life estate ends, at which point they will need to apply for their own exemption if they move in.
A mortgage stays with the property. Recording the deed does not pay off the loan, and the remainderman inherits both the title and the balance. Most mortgage contracts contain a due-on-sale clause that lets the lender call the loan if the borrower transfers the property. Federal law explicitly protects transfers into a living trust where the borrower stays the beneficiary and occupant.12eCFR. 12 CFR 191.5 – Limitation on Exercise of Due-on-Sale Clauses A Lady Bird deed is not a trust transfer, but the practical effect is similar because the grantor keeps control, occupancy, and the power to revoke. Most lenders treat the two the same way. The protection is less explicit than it is for a trust, so notifying your lender first is a reasonable step if you want to avoid a surprise.
Your control over the property is unchanged. You can live there, rent it out, sell it, mortgage it, or give it away during your lifetime without asking the remainderman. If you sell, the sale itself wipes out the remainder interest, and you keep all the proceeds.
Changing or Revoking the Deed
Because the deed reserves your power to convey, undoing it is simple. Execute and record a new deed. That can be another Lady Bird deed naming a different remainderman, an ordinary warranty deed to someone else, or a deed back to yourself that eliminates the remainder interest entirely. The new recording supersedes the old one. You do not need the current remainderman’s signature or consent for any of it, which is the point of the enhanced designation.