The New Massachusetts Homestead Law
The Massachusetts Homestead law gives you protection on your home from potential creditors and/or lawsuits. After years of attempting to have the existing law revised, a new MA Homestead law was finally passed in December, 2010, and went into effect March 16, 2011.
Among other things, the new law provides:
* Automatic Protection: $125,000 of automatic protection to any primary residence without having to record a Homestead at the Registry of Deed
* Recording a Homestead: $500,000 of protection if you record the Declaration of Homestead at the Registry of Deeds.
* Homestead Protection for Trusts! Property owned in a Trust can now benefit from the Homestead ($500,000). You no longer need to choose between the benefits of transferring your Brookline home or condo into a Trust (for estate planning purposes such as avoidance of probate or estate tax savings) and the creditor protection from the Homestead – you can have BOTH!
* Re-financing: Clarification that refinancing a mortgage will not invalidate previous homesteads.
* Manufactured Homes: homestead protection to manufactured homes.
* Additional Protection: continued additional protection to elderly (over age 62) and disabled individuals.
The new law makes the forms a bit more complicated to fill out. Attorneys usually charge a nominal fee to prepare a Homestead for you, so depending on your situation, it might be wise to have it prepared by an attorney.
The recording fee (payable to the Registry of Deeds) for a Homestead is $35.