Highlands County Enhanced Life Estate Deed Without Warranties (Two Married Co-Owners Holding by the Entirety) Form

Two Florida spouses holding property as tenants by the entirety can name, in one recorded deed, who takes it after both have died, while keeping every power of ownership for as long as either lives. This form prepares that enhanced life estate deed, the lady bird deed of Florida practice, for exactly two married co-owners holding by the entirety, conveying the remainder to one or two grantees without any warranty of title.

A life estate the couple holds by the entirety

The reservation is written for the marital unit. Section 5 reserves to the grantors, as tenants by the entirety, a life estate for their joint lives and for the life of the survivor of them, coupled with the full and unrestricted power to sell, convey, mortgage, lease, gift, encumber, or otherwise dispose of the property and to keep the proceeds, without the grantee's joinder, consent, or notice and without liability for waste. When the first spouse dies, nothing passes under the deed: the surviving spouse holds the whole life estate by survivorship, with the same reserved powers.

Two signatures while both live, one afterward

Because the title belongs to the marriage, the reserved power is exercised by both grantors together during their joint lives and by the survivor alone after the first death. Revocation follows the same rule: a later recorded instrument signed by both spouses while both live, or by the survivor afterward. Where the property is the couple's homestead, Article X, Section 4(c) of the Florida Constitution calls for the owner, joined by the spouse, to alienate it; on this deed both spouses are grantors, so that joinder is on the face of the instrument.

The remainder waits for the second death

The vesting rule is keyed to the survivor of the grantors. At that death, the property not previously divested under the reserved power vests in fee simple in the grantee then living, subject to any encumbrance then of record, without probate. Florida Statutes Section 732.401, which governs descent of protected homestead, excludes property held as tenants by the entirety, so the first death raises no homestead descent question; the guide describes how the constitutional restriction on devise of homestead and Uniform Title Standard 6.12 bear on the second death where the surviving grantor leaves a minor child or has remarried.

No covenant of title

Section 6 disclaims every covenant of title, express or implied: the grantors do not warrant the title or undertake to defend it, and the deed is not in the Section 689.02 statutory form, so the Section 689.03 warranty effect never attaches.

The configuration this deed recites

Section 1 is fixed text: the two grantors named in it are married to each other and hold title as tenants by the entirety. The form carries FIRST GRANTOR and SECOND GRANTOR signature blocks, two subscribing witness blocks for each signature, and a separate acknowledgment certificate for each grantor, so the spouses may sign together or on different days. Spouses who took title together as husband and wife, or who placed a home in both names under Section 689.11, present the ownership pattern this deed recites. A sole owner, co-owners not married to each other, spouses holding as tenants in common, trustee or entity grantors, and three or more persons on either side follow patterns this form is not set up as.

Florida execution and recording

No Florida statute creates the enhanced life estate deed; the instrument rests on common law, the Florida Bar's Uniform Title Standards 6.10 through 6.12, and appellate treatment such as Hirschenson v. Compu-Link Corp. of MI (Fla. 3d DCA 2023). Each grantor signs before two subscribing witnesses under Section 689.01, each witness's printed name and post-office address are recording data under Section 695.26, and each acknowledgment uses the Section 695.25(1) short form with a reserved seal area. The Department of Revenue's Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004 treats an enhanced life estate deed of unencumbered property as transferring no present beneficial interest for documentary stamp tax.

The package includes the fillable Florida Enhanced Life Estate Deed Without Warranties (Two Married Co-Owners Holding by the Entirety), a completed example for a Brevard County couple conveying the remainder to their two children, and the guide that walks through every section, the signing requirements, the homestead and entireties rules, and recording. Each of the three describes this deed and the Florida law around it in general terms; none of them is legal advice.