Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Homestead

In California, your home is automatically homesteaded and it lasts until you no longer have the home as your home. The amount of equity protected varies on whether you are married, disabled, over a certain age, etc. But if you have put the house up as security for a loan, there is no homesteading as to the lender.

Re: Homestead

There are two kinds of homestead in California. One is "automatic," in that you don't have to file anything or fill out any papers in advance. It is there to protect certain assets from seizure by creditors when the occasion arises.

The other kind is the "declared homestead," which requires a homeowner to fill out and record a declaration in a certain format, containing certain facts.

The coverage and protection of the two kinds of homestead are overlapping in part, but also each gives certain protection not given by the other, so if threatened by possible suits, it is better to record a declaration of homestead to complement the automatic homestead. One negative aspect to recording a declaration of homestead is that it is a kind of red flag to people checking your credit worthiness that you may be in future trouble.

Once recorded, a homestead remains in effect unless and until the person declaring the homestead declares a homestead on other property or records a declaration of abandonment of homestead. Of course, if you sell the property, you effectively terminate the homestead because once the proceeds of sale are distributed, there is no longer anything to protect.

California also has some new laws called the "Marketable Record Title Act" which causes the termination of certain claims against real property after the passage of a great many years. I do not know if this Act affects homesteads; probably not, if the homesteader is still in possession of the homesteaded property.

In any event, a declared homestead protects one from involuntary liens arising after the homestead declaration is recorded. It does not "protect" you against liens you voluntarily create at any time, nor against involuntary liens such as mortgages and judgments that were recorded before you recorded the homestead.