Can Spouses Have Separate Protected Homesteads?
A caller asked me today whether he and his wife can move to Florida and maintain two homesteads, one for each spouse. The answer is that a husband and wife living separately can each protect unlimited amounts of money in their own Florida homestead. The caller said, when asked, that in fact he and his wife would continue to live together in one of the homesteads and also maintain joint financial assets. I explained that a creditor could easily establish that they were in fact living together in just one of the houses. In that event, the second house which neither of them occupied as their principal residence would have no homestead protection. If the second house were owned jointly it would still be protected from individual creditors of either spouse because it would be tenants by entireties property. The purchase of the second home could be challenged as a fraudulent transfer if the purchase money came from the debtor spouse because purchase of tenants by entireties property, unlike homestead, can be undone as a fraudulent transfer or conversion.
The case prsented being "in fact living together in just one of the houses" seems the reason one would not expect to be able to protect 2 homes homestead status. That violates the spirit of the law it would seem. But suppose, due to (1) driving distances to work places, and (2) the husband/wife home ownerships before marrying, that the two actually live apart in original residences owned in each persons name and they don't even so much as transfer after marraige anything more than before, such as an overnighter bag and spare clothes! Can each AFTER marraige maintain their two original homesteads? and SOH exemptions? No property name changes in deeds etc nor joint accounts of any sort are assumed.