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A Homestead is an Easy Way to Protect Your HomeIn Massachusetts, an estate of homestead, also referred to as the homestead act or a homestead deed, is an interest in real property designed to protect the possession and enjoyment of the owner and the owner's surviving spouse against the claims of creditors by protecting the property from execution and forced sale, as long as such person occupies or intends to occupy such property as his or her principal place of residence. All homestead forms, or deeds, must be filed in the county in which the residence is located. The filing fee is $35. To acquire a claim of homestead in a manufactured home, the homestead declaration must be filed at the city or town clerk's office in the city or town the manufactured home is located. An owner or owners of a home who occupy or intend to occupy said home as a principal residence may acquire an estate of homestead to the extent of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000.00), and upon filing of a homestead shall be protected against attachment, levy on execution or sale to satisfy debt (except for certain cases that are specifically excluded by the statue); however, only one owner may acquire an estate of homestead in the home for the benefit of his or her family. The statute defines owner to "include a sole owner, joint tenant, tenant by the entirety or tenant in common." It also defines family to "include either a parent and a child or children, a husband and wife and their children, if any, or a sole owner." Should the spouse or parent who declares the homestead die, the law (Massachusetts General Law c. 188 §§ 1-10) protects the house until the youngest unmarried child reaches the age of eighteen (18) and until the surviving spouse dies or remarries. An owner can declare a homestead on his or her principal residence only. A person can have more than one residence, but the statute only allows the protection of one's legal domicile. There apparently is not any legislative intent to allow the exemption to apply to a summer and a winter residence. The estate of homestead is terminated upon the sale or transfer of the real property or mobile home during the declarant's lifetime, upon the death of the surviving declarant or by release of the homestead estate duly signed, sealed and acknowledged by the declarant and recorded in the Registry of Deeds, or when the property ceases to be your residence. In some cases, a lending institution may require that your homestead be released when you refinance or take out a second mortgage. In such a case, once the mortgage is recorded or registered, you can record a new homestead. Liens imposed as a result of the payment of Mass Health benefits are exempt from homestead protection. Upon the dealth of a recipient of Mass Health benefits, the Commonwealth may file a claim for reimbursement from the person's probate estate.
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