Highlands County Enhanced Life Estate Warranty Deed (Two Married Co-Owners Holding by the Entirety) Form

Two Florida spouses who own their home as tenants by the entirety can sign one enhanced life estate warranty deed, the lady bird deed, that names who takes the property after both of them are gone while leaving the survivor of the two in complete command of it in the meantime. This form prepares that deed for exactly two grantors who are married to each other and hold title by the entirety, conveying the remainder with the full warranty of a Florida warranty deed.

A life estate the survivor keeps whole

Section 7 reserves the life estate to the spouses as tenants by the entirety, for their joint lives and for the life of the survivor of them. While both are living they exercise the reserved powers together. When the first spouse dies, nothing is filed and nothing changes hands: the survivor holds the entire life estate and every reserved power alone, and may sell, mortgage, lease, give away, revoke the deed, or name a different grantee without the grantee's joinder. Only at the second death does whatever remains vest in the grantee in fee simple absolute, outside probate. The deed states each of those steps in its own words.

Why the entirety matters on this deed

Section 689.15, Florida Statutes, treats estates by the entirety as the one form of co-ownership that carries survivorship without express words, and the Florida Supreme Court's Beal Bank decision presumes that real property titled in both spouses' names is held that way when the unities of marriage, time, title, interest, possession, and survivorship exist. Section 1 of this deed recites that both grantors are married to each other and hold the property as tenants by the entirety, as fixed text rather than a blank, and the reservation in Section 7 keeps the life estate in the same form. Because both spouses sign as grantors, the deed also carries on its face the joinder that Article X, Section 4(c) of the Florida Constitution requires when a married owner alienates homestead by sale, mortgage, or gift; the guide describes how that section's separate restriction on devise reads at the second death, and how Section 732.4017 treats a lifetime transfer whose maker keeps a power to revoke.

Warranty on the remainder

The deed conveys with the granting words of the statutory warranty deed in Section 689.02 and carries that section's covenant of title in Section 8, in the plural, so Section 689.03 gives it the effect of full common-law covenants binding both grantors and their heirs. The covenant runs subject to the matters listed in Section 5 and to the life estate and powers reserved in Section 7.

No statute, but settled recognition

No Florida statute creates the enhanced life estate deed. The instrument rests on common-law property principles, on the Florida Bar's Uniform Title Standards 6.10 through 6.12, which state that a life tenant whose deed couples the life estate with the power to sell, convey, mortgage, and otherwise manage the fee can convey or encumber it without the remainderman, and on appellate decisions: Hirschenson v. Compu-Link Corp. of MI, 389 So. 3d 574 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023), and Varano v. Varano, 415 So. 3d 1100 (Fla. 4th DCA 2025), the latter a case in which a husband and wife had deeded themselves an ordinary life estate without reserved powers, leaving the widow unable to sell the fee. Section 7 of this form reserves the powers those authorities describe, expressly and in full.

Signing, witnesses, and documentary stamps

Each spouse signs before two subscribing witnesses under Section 689.01, and the form prints two witness blocks as to each grantor, with the printed name and post-office address lines that Section 695.26 has made recording data since 2024. Each spouse acknowledges on a separate Section 695.25(1) certificate, with the physical presence or online notarization boxes and a reserved area for the notary's seal. On documentary stamp tax, the Department of Revenue's Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004 concluded that an enhanced life estate deed of unencumbered property transfers no present beneficial interest and is not taxable regardless of consideration; the guide explains the ruling's limits and the minimum tax clerks commonly collect.

The package includes the fillable deed form, a completed example filled in for a Seminole County couple, and the guide covering every section, signing, and recording. This description and the guide describe the form and Florida law in general terms and are not legal advice.