Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: homesteding your home

No. It merely protects that amount of your equity in the home from being levied upon. If you have more equity than the homestead exemption, you will still lose the house to sale, but would get to keep the sale proceeds in excess of the exemption amount, less costs of sale.

Re: homesteding your home

It does not exactly work that way. A homestead is an automatic exemption under California law. In bankruptcy, you are also given an option to use California's exemptions, including the homestead, even though bankruptcy is a federal matter. Your homestead is automatic, and you do not have to record a document to have one. A recorded document will affect what is known as priorities, and many institutional lenders will not finance a loan if there is a recorded homestead on the property. The homestead exemption does not exempt the entire property, only a portion of the value, depending on various criteria that are enunciated in the statute, which is California Code of Civil Procedure 704.730.

Very truly yours,