
At Black and Buono, we draft Homesteads at no charge, as a professional courtesy, to our clients. You only pay the recording cost, charged by the Registry of Deeds of $35.00. This represents an average savings of $100.00.
As of March 16, 2011 the revised Homestead Law takes effect (2010 Mass. Acts Chapter 395). The revisions generally expand the scope of Homesteads and also do away with some of the prior law’s more anachronistic provisions.
The statute now provides for an automatic homestead without any action required of the owner. The automatic homestead, under section four, provides for $125,000.00 protection for the owner and his or her family. It should be noted, however, that while this is an improvement upon the old statute where no coverage was provided on an automatic basis, the protection provided is still significantly less than the $500,000 protection provided under the declared homestead.
The new statute provides $500,000.00 protection on the recording of a written Declaration of Homestead. Section 5 provides several amendments for the form of declaration to be recorded, the most notable among these being:
- Homesteads may now be declared where the home is owned by a trust
- If the Homestead is declared while the owner is single, and the owner then gets married, the homestead shall accrue to the benefit of the new spouse, and that benefit shall accrue as of the date of the original filing.
- The new statute anticipates that a homestead may be declared by multiple owners. That is, each co-tenant, joint owner or tenant by the entirety may declare their own homestead.