Highlands County Life Estate Deed Without Warranties (One Unmarried Sole Owner Retaining the Life Estate) Form

One owner, one signature, one acknowledgment certificate, and no spouse to join: this Florida life estate deed without warranties names its grantor as an unmarried person and the sole owner in fixed deed text, conveys the remainder to one or two grantees, and reserves a life estate in the grantor, with no warranty of title.

Why the single-owner configuration needs no joinder

Article X, Section 4(c) of the Florida Constitution lets the owner of homestead alienate it by sale, gift, or mortgage, joined by the spouse if married. Florida abolished dower and curtesy and has no statewide community property regime, so that joinder rule is the one spousal signature rule a Florida deed carries, and an unmarried sole owner conveys alone. This form takes that configuration as its premise: the grantor block prints the words an unmarried person and the sole owner of the property as deed text, and no second signature block, joinder block, or status selector appears anywhere on the instrument.

A life estate the grantor cannot take back

The conveyance paragraph grants, bargains, sells, and conveys the remainder in fee simple to the grantee, to have and to hold upon the death of the grantor, and reserves unto the grantor a life estate for life, with the right to possess, occupy, and collect the rents and income of the property. A second paragraph then closes the door that an enhanced life estate deed, the lady bird deed, leaves open: the grantor reserves no power to sell, convey, mortgage, encumber, or otherwise dispose of the remainder, and no power to revoke the deed. Once delivered, the remainder belongs to the grantee; a later sale or mortgage of the whole property takes the remainderman's signature too, and at the grantor's death the life estate simply ends.

No covenants, by design

Florida attaches statutory warranty covenants only to a deed made substantially in the Section 689.02 form, and this instrument says plainly that it is not that deed: the grantor makes no covenant of seisin, right to convey, freedom from encumbrances, quiet enjoyment, or further assurances. The grantee takes the remainder subject to every mortgage, lien, easement, and restriction of record, whether or not it is listed in the deed's matters of record section, which the form marks as informational.

What the form carries and the patterns it recites

The grantor section prints the fixed status recital over a name and post office address; the grantee section takes one or two grantees with their post office addresses and any designation of how two grantees hold the remainder. The signature section carries one GRANTOR block and two witness blocks, each witness block taking the printed name and post office address that Section 695.26 has made recording data since 2024. One acknowledgment certificate follows, in the Section 695.25 short form, with a reserved area for the notary's rubber-stamp seal. A widow who holds the house in her own name and passes the remainder to a grandchild, a divorced owner of a rental condominium naming a sibling as remainderman, and a single owner of inherited acreage conveying the remainder to two nieces as joint tenants with right of survivorship present the one-owner pattern this deed recites. A married owner, co-owners conveying together, and a trustee or entity grantor each follow a different pattern.

Stamps, exemptions, and the county clerk

Documentary stamp tax under Section 201.02 is computed on the consideration at 70 cents per 100 dollars, and the Department of Revenue counts the balance of any mortgage on the property as consideration even on a gift. A gift of unencumbered property is not taxable under the Department's rule; a deed reciting a nominal sum and other valuable consideration carries at least the minimum stamp. The grantor who keeps living on the property holds equitable title for the homestead exemption under Section 196.041(2), and Section 738.508 leaves the recurring taxes, insurance, interest, and ordinary repairs with the life tenant. The deed is recorded with the clerk of the circuit court in the county where the land lies.

The package includes the fillable deed form, a completed example filled in for a realistic Brevard County fact pattern, and the guide that walks through every section, the witness and notary requirements, and the documentary stamp tax. Neither this description nor the guide applies Florida law to a particular title or family, and neither is legal advice.