Property Ownership, Interests, and Restrictions: Estates, Homestead, Communities, and Land Use
Property Ownership, Interests, and Restrictions tests estates, tenancies, easements, liens, homestead, common-interest communities, land use, and environmental and coastal rules.
Estates and tenancies
A fee simple absolute estate is the broadest ownership. A life estate lasts for a named person's life, with a remainder to another. Tenancy in common has separate undivided shares with no survivorship. Joint tenancy requires unity of title, time, interest, and possession and includes survivorship. Florida recognizes tenancy by the entirety for married couples, protecting against one spouse's creditors.
Easements, licenses, liens
An easement is an interest in land; an easement appurtenant benefits a neighboring parcel, while an easement in gross benefits a person or entity. A license is revocable permission, not an interest. Liens may be voluntary or involuntary, general or specific; a construction lien is specific to the improved property.
Homestead
The Florida Constitution protects a homestead from forced sale, generally up to half an acre within a municipality or 160 acres outside, with exceptions for taxes, mortgages, and certain liens. Homestead also provides assessment limitations and exemptions.
Common-interest communities
Condominiums are governed by Chapter 718, cooperatives by Chapter 719, and homeowners associations by Chapter 720. Buyers receive disclosure documents and cancellation rights; associations have budgets, assessments, and rules.
Land use and environment
Local comprehensive plans and zoning control use, density, and setbacks. Nonconforming uses may continue but not expand. The Florida DEP regulates wetlands and the coastal construction control line, adding permit requirements near the beach.
Worked example
A seller owns a 120-acre farm outside city limits and files bankruptcy. The homestead protection may shield the farm from forced sale because it is under the 160-acre rural limit, but it does not defeat the mortgage or tax lien. A judgment for a personal debt generally cannot force a homestead sale.
Traps
Confusing an easement with a license; assuming joint tenants can have unequal shares; treating homestead as protection from all debts; and ignoring condo or HOA disclosure deadlines.