Information on Homestead information for Florida

HOMESTEAD ALERT


If you have purchased a home this past year in Florida and plan to make Florida your homestead, it is essential that you become Florida residents by December 31, 2011 to reap the benefits in 2012. This means by this Friday they will need to apply for a driver’s license, vehicle registration (if applicable) as well as a voter’s registration.


Many people labor under the mistaken impression that as long as an application for homestead is made by the March 1st deadline, they will be granted homestead status for that year. That may be true for existing residents, however, the second requirement, which is often overlooked is that these property owners would have had to become residents as of December 31st of the preceding year. As a result, the property must be owner occupied (or simply not rented) January 1st by a Florida resident. Having met this requirement the property owner has up until March 1st to apply for the homestead exemption if they had not done so in previous years.


Why is this important? Property values are presently assessed at extremely favorably low rates and homeowners can benefit by the homestead cap placing a limit on how high taxes can go up in subsequent years. However, the cap does not take effect as a baseline until the year following (the second year) of the Homestead exemption. Assessed values will not remain low forever so it is advisable to act now.