Here is a situation we see constantly in Miami-Dade. Two people, often family members or long-time partners, are both on the deed as joint tenants with right of survivorship. They have lived in the house for years, and the property carries a Save Our Homes assessment that is far below what the house is now worth. Then one of them decides to move to a new home in another part of Florida. The other stays.
Everyone involved asks the same three questions. Does the house get reassessed? Does the owner who stays lose the exemption? Can the owner who leaves take the tax savings along? Florida law answers all three, and the answers are not intuitive.
Every answer below rests on one fact: the deed actually says “with right of survivorship.” Florida never assumes those words. Section 689.15, Florida Statutes, says the right of survivorship “shall not prevail” unless the instrument expressly provides for it. A deed that merely lists two unmarried people creates a tenancy in common, and with a tenancy in common, nearly every answer in this article flips.
1. Moving out is not a change of ownership, so the house is not reassessed
Florida reassesses a homestead at full just value in the year after a change of ownership. Section 193.155(3), Florida Statutes, defines that as a sale, a foreclosure, or a transfer of legal or beneficial title.
One owner relocating to another county is none of those. No deed is recorded. The person who leaves is still an owner. The person who stays is still an owner. Nothing about title changes when someone packs a truck.
The assessment does not reset. The accumulated Save Our Homes benefit stays attached to the house. There is also no separate reassessment of the departing owner’s “half.” Florida caps the assessment at the parcel level; it does not split a homestead into a capped half and a market-value half.
2. The homestead is not abandoned, because a survivorship owner still lives there
This is the provision that decides the whole case, and it is unusually explicit.Florida Administrative Code Rule 12D-8.0065(6)(b) states:
“In the case of joint tenants with right of survivorship, if only one owner moved and the other stayed in the original homestead, the homestead would not be abandoned. The person who moved could not transfer any assessment difference.”
Two consequences fall out of that single sentence: the house keeps its homestead status and its cap, and the departing owner ports nothing.
The rule is also written narrowly. It covers joint tenants with right of survivorship and stops there. Co-owners who hold as tenants in common get no such protection.
3. The owner who stays gets the entire exemption, not half of it
Families assume that with two names on the deed, a resident owner is entitled to half an exemption. That is wrong when the deed says joint tenants with right of survivorship.
Rule 12D-7.012(4)(a)1. says it plainly: where property is held by the entireties or jointly with a right of survivorship, and no other co-owner resides on the property, a resident co-owner “may receive the entire exemption.” The rule even works the example in subsection (6): owners A and B, where B lives elsewhere. With survivorship (or entireties) language, A “would be eligible for the entire” exemption. As tenants in common, A is capped at A’s own interest. The owner who stays gets the whole exemption, not half of it.
The deed language also controls the amount, and the rule shows the outcomes side by side:
| Deed language | Resident owner’s exemption |
|---|---|
| Joint tenants with right of survivorship | The entire homestead exemption |
| Tenants by the entirety | The entire homestead exemption |
| Tenants in common | Limited to that owner’s proportionate interest |
Rule 12D-7.012 says no tenant in common may claim an exemption exceeding the assessed value of their own interest. Same house, same people, same facts: a deed that reads “tenants in common” instead of “joint tenants with right of survivorship” cuts the exemption roughly in half.
This is why the first thing we ask for is the recorded deed, not the tax bill or anyone’s memory. Two names on a deed do not create survivorship. Under section 689.15, a conveyance to two people who are not married creates a tenancy in common unless the deed expressly provides for the right of survivorship.
4. The owner who moves out cannot port the Save Our Homes benefit
Section 193.155(8) creates what property appraisers call portability: an owner who abandons a Florida homestead can transfer up to $500,000 of accumulated Save Our Homes savings to a new Florida homestead, by filing Form DR-501 and Form DR-501T with the new county’s property appraiser, generally by March 1, within three tax years.
Abandonment is the trigger, and it never happens while one owner stays.
Because one owner stays, the original homestead continues. The accumulated benefit stays with that house. Florida does not let the same savings sit on the old property and travel to a new one at the same time.
Run the numbers on a typical scenario:
| Scenario | Amount |
|---|---|
| Original home’s just (market) value | $600,000 |
| Original home’s capped assessed value | $300,000 |
| Accumulated Save Our Homes benefit | $300,000 |
| New home’s just value | $400,000 |
| Amount the departing owner can port | $0 |
The owner who moves can still claim a new homestead exemption in the new county if they own and permanently reside in the new home on January 1. But that house enters the tax roll at roughly its current just value, less their new exemptions, and starts building a fresh Save Our Homes cap from there. The $300,000 stays with the original house and with the owner who stayed in it. To run your own numbers, try our Save Our Homes calculator.
Splitting the benefit works only when both owners abandon the property. Rule 12D-8.0065(5)(b)2 divides the assessment difference among the owners who actually received the exemption. Since one owner remained, there is nothing to divide.
5. The exemption cannot skip a year
Section 193.155(6) is one sentence long and easy to overlook: “Only property that receives a homestead exemption is subject to this section.”
The Save Our Homes cap protects the property only while the property is receiving homestead. If a tax year passes with no qualified owner claiming the exemption on that parcel, the protection can be lost and the property reassessed at market value. After years of accumulated savings, that is a five-figure mistake made by missing a form.
The transition has to be clean. Say the move happens during 2026:
- Homestead for the 2026 tax year was already fixed as of January 1, 2026. The departing owner qualified then, so 2026 is covered.
- The departing owner notifies the property appraiser that the house is no longer their permanent residence, and applies in the new county.
- The remaining owner owns and permanently resides in the house on January 1, 2027.
- The remaining owner files their own Form DR-501 by March 1, 2027.
The parcel stays continuously homesteaded: the departing owner qualified for 2026, the remaining owner qualifies for 2027, and nothing lapses.
If instead the remaining owner first obtains homestead for 2028, the house may be treated as non-homestead for 2027, and the cap that took a decade to build can disappear.
6. When the owner who stays never applied for the exemption themselves
In many of these households, only one owner ever filed the homestead application, years ago, and it has renewed automatically ever since. The other owner lived in the house the whole time but never filed anything. When the applicant is the one who moves out, the exemption on the books walks out the door with them.
Florida gives the remaining owner no credit for simply having lived there. Rule 12D-8.0065(2)(b) draws the line sharply: spouses are each treated as having received the exemption even if only one of them applied, but for joint tenants with right of survivorship, only the owners who actually “qualified for and received” the exemption count. Living there for years without applying counts for nothing on paper.
The owner who stays must act on a strict calendar:
- The departing owner notifies the property appraiser that the house is no longer their permanent residence.
- The remaining owner owns and permanently resides in the house on January 1 of the following tax year, with the paper trail to prove permanent residency (Florida driver’s license or ID card, voter registration, vehicle registration at the address).
- They file their own Form DR-501 with the property appraiser by March 1 of that year. The old application does not transfer or convert; a new one must be filed in the remaining owner’s name.
Filing is safe in the ordinary case. The application is not a sale or a transfer of title, so it is not a change of ownership under section 193.155(3), provided the remaining owner was on the deed before the current cap accumulated. If they were added later, the next section is the one that matters.
Doing nothing is expensive in either direction. If the old exemption keeps riding after the departing owner makes a new permanent home, section 196.161 lets the county record a lien against the property and collect the improperly exempted taxes for up to ten years back, plus a 50 percent penalty for each year and 15 percent annual interest. This is how homestead-fraud investigations start.
If the exemption lapses instead, section 193.155(6) pulls the Save Our Homes protection and the parcel is reassessed at just value. On the numbers above, the assessed value jumps from $300,000 to $600,000, and the accumulated savings never come back. A new cap starts from zero after homestead is re-established.
7. The trap: when the second owner was added to the deed later
Everything above assumes both owners were on the deed from the start, or at least before the current Save Our Homes assessment began.
The analysis changes if one owner originally owned and homesteaded the house alone and later deeded an interest to themselves and the other person. Adding someone to a deed is often protected from immediate reassessment while the original owner keeps the exemption. But when that added owner later applies for homestead in their own right, section 193.155(3)(a)1.c. can treat it as a change of ownership, and the property is reassessed at just value.
| Deed history | Likely result when the remaining owner applies |
|---|---|
| Bought together; both on the deed from the beginning | Existing cap continues |
| Both on the deed before the current Save Our Homes assessment began | Existing cap continues |
| Second owner added to the deed after the savings accumulated | Their application may trigger reassessment at just value |
Everything turns on when the second owner was added to the deed and what the deed says, not on where anyone lives.
8. One more thing the remaining owner does not inherit
The owner who stays keeps the parcel’s Save Our Homes cap, the regular homestead exemption, and the future annual cap on assessment increases.
They do not automatically receive the departing owner’s personal exemptions: senior/low-income, widow’s, disability, or veteran-related. Those belonged to the person who left, and they end with the move unless the remaining owner qualifies on their own. Anyone budgeting off last year’s tax bill should re-run the numbers.
The property-tax homestead exemption is also not the same thing as Florida’s constitutional homestead protections: creditor protection and the restrictions on how a homestead can be devised when there is a spouse or a minor child. Those follow different rules and reach a different answer. A family can get the tax question right and still create a serious estate-planning problem in the same transaction. That conversation is where a Lady Bird deed or a properly funded trust comes in. See our estate planning page.
The lessons
- The deed decides, not the address. Survivorship language versus tenancy in common changes the exemption, the reassessment risk, and who keeps the tax savings.
- The Save Our Homes benefit belongs to the property while a qualified owner remains in it. The person who leaves carries nothing away.
- Portability requires abandonment, and filing a DR-501T without it produces a denial.
- The sequence has to hold: a qualified owner on January 1, an application by March 1, and no gap year.
- Adding someone to a deed looks free the day it is recorded. The bill can arrive the year that person applies for their own homestead.
- All of this is fixable while people are still planning, and none of it is fixable in March, after the deadline.
Frequently asked questions
If my co-owner moves out, is their half of the house reassessed at market value?
Can I claim the full homestead exemption if my co-owner lives somewhere else?
Can the owner who moves out take part of the Save Our Homes savings?
What if only one of us ever applied for the exemption?
What if nobody claims homestead for a year?
Can two people claim homestead on the same house?
Can I claim homestead in two Florida counties at the same time?
When are the Florida homestead deadlines?
This article is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Property tax outcomes depend on your recorded deed, your county property appraiser’s determination, and facts specific to your situation.
Authorities cited: Fla. Stat. §193.155(1), (3), (6), (8); Fla. Stat. §196.031; Fla. Stat. §196.161; Fla. Stat. §689.15; Fla. Admin. Code R. 12D-7.012(4)(a), (6); Fla. Admin. Code R. 12D-8.0065(2)(b)2., (5)(b)2., (6)(b).