Q: In civil judgment against me (FL), would homestead exemption be affected by having home office/business.
I am wondering if a judgment creditor can pierce the vail of homestead exemption from forced sale if I have a home office/business in my house, (not open to the public, just for storing inventory and selling online). It would be about 15% of the square footage of the house.
A: Most likely would not lose the exemption if it is indeed your primary residence. To be certain, however, my firm would have to conduct research, so you cannot take this answer as legal advice. A couple steps to start with are: (A) contacting your local tax collector's office and ask them if you can keep your exemption under these circumstances; while the exemption for property tax purposes is DIFFERENT than the exemption for protection from creditors, if you lose it for property tax purposes, you'd probably also lose it for the other purpose; and (B) confirm that your local zoning code permits you to have a home office/business at your address. If you don't know the answer, ask your local planning & zoning office or code enforcement office.
Terrence H Thorgaard agrees with this answer
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