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30 U. Fla. L. Rev. 227 (1977-1978)
Our Legal Chameleon Revisited: Florida's Homestead Exemption

handle is hein.journals/uflr30 and id is 241 raw text is: University of Florida Law Review VOLUME XXX W rNTER 1978 NumBER 2 OUR LEGAL CHAMELEON REVISITED: FLORIDA'S HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION J. ALLEN MvlAiNEs* DONNA LrTmAN MAmNEs** The Florida homestead exemption is at once the great bulwark of the individual homeowner and a formidable barrier to creditors and county and municipal fiscal authorities. To the intending alienor it is frequently a pitfall, and to many a testator or trustor it is the fatal rock upon which he is lured by the sirens of full and free choice in leaving his property. To the general practitioner, however, it is more often than not a chameleon, which changes color to accord with the background against which it is viewed,' With these words Harold B. Crosby and George J. Miller began their 1949 University of Florida Law Review article, Our Legal Chameleon, the Florida Homestead Exemption. That article described the four major provisions of Florida's then-existing homestead exemption law: the personalty and realty exemptions from forced sale and the personalty and realty exemptions from taxation. Since application of these exemptions is conditioned upon satisfac- tion of requirements that vary under differing circumstances, Crosby and Miller concluded that this area of the law possessed chameleon-like qualities. Although the chameleon remains protected under Florida law today, it hardly resembles its ancestor. In the early 1960's it was attacked because it had been misconstrued, was antiquated, and provided unjustified protection for debtors.2 The Homestead exemption was given new life by the 1968 constitu- tional revision, but was again criticized as a sacred cow in 1972.3 The current exemption laws are faced with many problems which were unknown in 1949. Changing patterns of living have resulted in new forms of home ownership not contemplated by the original homestead laws. In fact, there has been a trend away from home ownership that threatens the very existence of the homestead exemption. OBA., 1973, Taylor University; J.D., 1976, University of Florida; Member of the State Bar of Georgia. **B.A., 1973, University of Miami; J.D., 1976, University of Florida; Member of the State Bar of Georgia. 1. Crosby & Miller, Our Legal Chameleon, The Florida Homestead Exemption I-V, 2 U. FMA. L. Ry. 12 (1949). 2. See Shapo, Restraints on Alienation and Devise of Homestead: Monsters Unfettered from Florida's Past, 19 U. MIAMI L. Rav. 72 (1964). 8. Note, Our Legal Chameleon is a Sacred Cow: Alienation of Homestead Under the 1968 Constitution, 24 U. FA. L. Rav. 701 (1972).

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