To fill out a Florida Lady Bird deed, you complete an enhanced life estate deed form that names you as the grantor, names your chosen beneficiary as the remainder grantee, includes the full legal description of the property, and reserves to you a life estate coupled with the unrestricted power to sell, mortgage, lease, or revoke during your lifetime. 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 is located. The specific language of the reservation-of-powers clause is what distinguishes it from an ordinary life estate deed, so that section deserves the most attention.
Gather This Information Before You Open the Form
Every piece of information below has to appear on the finished deed, and missing any of it either gets the document rejected at the clerk’s counter or plants a defect in the title that costs money to clean up later.
- Your full legal name as grantor, spelled exactly the way it appears on the current recorded deed to the property. Consistency in the chain of title matters.
- The beneficiary’s full legal name and mailing address. Florida’s recording statute requires the mailing address of every grantee to appear on any deed conveying an interest in real property.1The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 695.26 – Requirements for Recording Instruments Affecting Real Property
- The complete legal description of the property. A street address is not enough. Copy the metes-and-bounds or lot-and-block description directly from your existing deed or from the county property appraiser’s site.
- The tax parcel identification number, which you can find on a recent tax bill or on the property appraiser’s online record.
- The name and mailing address of the person who prepared the deed. Clerks reject deeds that lack this.
If there is a mortgage on the property, note the lender’s name and loan number as well. You do not have to pay off the loan before recording the deed, but you should understand how the deed interacts with it before you file.
Where to Get the Form
Some county clerks publish Florida-specific enhanced life estate deed forms on their websites. St. Lucie County, for example, offers a fillable PDF version.2St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court. Enhanced Life Estate Deed (Lady Bird Deed) Online legal document providers also sell Florida templates. What matters is not where the template comes from but whether it contains the correct reservation-of-powers language and follows Florida’s recording formatting rules.
Filling In the Parties and Property
Enter your name as the grantor. Enter the beneficiary as the grantee, along with their mailing address. If you are naming more than one beneficiary, list each one and specify how they take title (for example, as joint tenants with rights of survivorship or as tenants in common in stated shares).
Copy the legal description from the existing deed character for character. A transposed lot number or a missing plat book reference can cause the clerk to refuse the filing, and once recorded, a description that does not match the chain of title can force a quiet-title action to correct.
Leave a blank space measuring three inches by three inches at the top-right corner of the first page and a one-inch by three-inch blank on each subsequent page. The clerk uses these areas for recording stamps and will refuse documents that do not include them. Every signer’s name must be legibly printed or typed directly beneath their signature, with a mailing address.1The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 695.26 – Requirements for Recording Instruments Affecting Real Property
Because a Lady Bird deed does not involve a sale, the consideration recital is nominal. A phrase like “for $10 and other good and valuable consideration” is standard and matters for the documentary stamp tax calculation covered below.
Drafting the Reservation-of-Powers Clause
This clause is what makes the deed a Lady Bird deed rather than a standard life estate. Without it, you have handed the beneficiary a vested remainder interest today, and you will need their signature to sell or mortgage the property tomorrow. With it, all authority stays in your hands until you die.
A typical clause states that the grantor reserves a life estate coupled with an unrestricted power to convey during the grantor’s lifetime, including the power to sell, gift, mortgage, lease, and otherwise dispose of the property, and to retain the proceeds of any such transaction.2St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court. Enhanced Life Estate Deed (Lady Bird Deed) Because the grantor keeps full control, the beneficiary receives no legal right to the property, no right to notice of a sale, and no ability to block any transaction while the grantor is alive.3UF Advisor Network. Using Enhanced Life Estate Deeds to Pass Real Property to Charity: Opportunities, Pitfalls, and Best Practices
If you are working from a generic life estate template rather than a pre-printed Lady Bird form, confirm that this language is present before you sign. A deed that grants a life estate without explicitly reserving the power to sell, mortgage, or revoke will be treated as a standard life estate, and that changes what you can do with the property for the rest of your life.
Signing, Witnessing, and Notarizing
Florida requires every deed conveying real property to be signed by the grantor in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, who also sign. The witnesses must be present at the same time you sign, and their names and addresses must be legibly printed beneath their signatures. Florida also permits witnesses to participate remotely through audio-video communication technology so long as the witness hears you acknowledge your signature.4The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 689.01 – How Real Estate Conveyed
A notary public must acknowledge your signature. The notary verifies your identity, watches you sign or confirms you already signed, and affixes an official seal. The notary’s name must also be printed beneath their signature.5Florida Senate. Florida Code 117.05 – Use of Notary Commission Florida caps notary fees at $10 per notarial act.6Florida Senate. Florida Code 117.05 – Use of Notary Commission
Only the grantor signs. The beneficiary does not sign a Lady Bird deed, because they are not conveying anything; they are only being named as the future recipient.
Recording the Deed With the County Clerk
Once the deed is signed, witnessed, and notarized, bring or mail the original to the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where the property is located. Most counties accept documents in person, by mail with a self-addressed stamped envelope for return of the original, or through an electronic recording portal.7Miami-Dade County Clerk of the Court and Comptroller. Official Records The clerk checks the formatting, stamps the deed with a book and page number, and returns the original to you.
Recording is what puts the world on notice. An unrecorded Lady Bird deed may still be valid between you and the beneficiary, but it will not protect the beneficiary against a later buyer or lien holder who records first.
Recording Fees
Florida sets uniform recording fees statewide. For a standard-sized document no larger than 14 by 8.5 inches, expect to pay $10.00 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page.8Clerk and Comptroller, Flagler County, FL. Recording Information and Fees Most Lady Bird deeds run two to three pages, so budget roughly $18.50 to $27.00 for recording.
Documentary Stamp Tax
Florida charges documentary stamp tax on deeds at $0.70 per $100 of consideration.9The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 201.02 – Tax on Deeds and Other Instruments Relating to Real Property or Interests in Real Property Because a Lady Bird deed usually involves no money changing hands, the recited consideration is nominal and the documentary stamp tax owed at recording is $0.70.10Florida Department of Revenue. Documentary Stamp Tax
Changing or Revoking the Deed Later
The reservation-of-powers clause is what gives you the freedom to change your mind. If you want to name a different beneficiary, sign and record a new deed with the updated names, following the same signing, witnessing, notarizing, and recording steps. The new deed supersedes the old one in the chain of title. You do not need the original beneficiary’s consent, and you do not need to notify them. There is no separate revocation form; the new recorded deed is the revocation.
You can also sell the property outright during your lifetime with an ordinary warranty deed. The Lady Bird deed places no restriction on lifetime transfers.
Two Things to Check Before You Record
A Lady Bird deed does not erase a mortgage. The loan stays in place, and if a balance remains at your death, the beneficiary takes the property subject to it. Most mortgages contain a due-on-sale clause, but federal law prohibits lenders from enforcing due-on-sale clauses on residential property of fewer than five units when certain estate planning transfers occur, and a Lady Bird deed generally falls within those protections because you remain the borrower and continue to occupy the property.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 U.S. Code 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions Loan documents vary, so a quick review of your specific mortgage before recording is a reasonable precaution.
If part of your reason for using a Lady Bird deed is Medicaid planning, the drafting itself is the same, but the surrounding analysis is not. Medicaid rules involve other countable assets, timing, and estate recovery mechanics beyond what any deed can address on its own. In that situation, running the deed past an elder law attorney before you sign it is worth the fee.