Nevada allows homesteads. They are a great asset protection device for all homeowners and the Nevada Legislature has just increased the amount of protection by $200,000.
A homestead is property consisting of:
- Land with dwelling on it;
- A mobile home whether or not the underlying land is owned by the mobile home owner; and/or
- A unit (condominium)
Please note that homestead protection is not available for ‘rental property’. The amount of “exemption” or “protection” is “that amount of equity in property held by the claimant which does not exceed $550,000 in value.” A homestead is not subject to forced sale on execution or any final process from any court, except as otherwise provided by subsections 2, 3 and 5, and NRS 115.090 and except as otherwise required by federal law. A homestead claim/declaration must be recorded. Then, a recorded Declaration of Homestead per Nevada law NRS 115 , protects the equity in your residence up to $550,000. It does not protect homeowners from any mortgage or deed of trust (including seconds) recorded prior to a homestead. So your mortgage(s), your common interest community CC&Rs, By Laws allowing for HOA fines, are not affected by a homestead.
The form can be located by clicking —-> HOMESTEAD FORM
The form must be PRINTED in legible black ink with a border of 1 inch on all sides. There is a $14 filing fee, but if the form does not meet these requirements an additional $25 fee can be charged.
The Clark County Assessor has, as always, an excellent Homestead Website to assist in filling out this form.
Note also liens (judgment) cannot be filed against Nevada homesteaded properties as ruled by the Nevada Supreme Court in In re Contrevo.
September 4, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Great post! When did they raise the amount to 550K? I’m going to link to this post, I think it is great for everyone to get this in place, it is often forgotten. Can you explain how this works when your primary residence is held in a trust, do you still need the homestead? Thanks for your help!
September 4, 2007 at 8:37 pm
[...] This is a link to a post by Prudential Americana Group’s Legal Counsel, Darren Welsh. Darren has a great blog but most of his posts are directed more toward Realtors, this is one that EVERY Nevada homeowner needs to read. In our litigious society this is a must! Happy Reading! [...]
September 14, 2007 at 9:35 am
Thanks! When you posted this info I did not need it however; when I was asked about it I new where to go to get the information I needed. This is a great resource!
September 16, 2007 at 6:25 pm
“Can you explain how this works when your primary residence is held in a trust, do you still need the homestead?”
That’s a great question, hopefully you will address it in a future post. Can a homestead or a mortgage exemption be applied for by a Trust or even an LLC?
September 16, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Only applies to, allodial (what a great word) inviduals, not entities, trusts, etc. Trusts and entities have their own protections. The very person that set up your trust/entity will tell you more.
NRS 115.020 HOMESTEADS are for “husband or wife, or both of them, or the single person.”
October 27, 2008 at 5:00 am
URL has changed:
http://www.accessclarkcounty.com/depts/assessor/pages/Homestead.aspx
October 27, 2008 at 9:00 am
Thank you Molly Ivins, I corrected the FORM and the website, I appreciate you. Darren.
January 27, 2009 at 12:18 pm
I beleive your response to Shawn re homesteads and trusts is wrong.
NRS 115.020(5): The rights acquired by declaring a homestead are not extinguished by the conveyance of the underlying property in trust for the benefit of the person or persons who declared it. A trustee may by similar declaration claim property, held by him, as a homestead for the settlor or for one or more beneficiaries of the trust, or both, if the person or persons for whom the claim is made reside on or in the property.
February 9, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Wow $550 is great for homeowners!!! Not for me I have a civil judgment on a Nevada homeowner, i guess I’m out of luck. Does anyone know how I can find other assets???
March 3, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Linda:
You have the right to make the judgment debtor appear before you (or your attorney) to take a deposition of the judgment debtor in “aid of execution” of your judgment. You may also issue a Request To Produce documents that might lead to the discovery of assets.
At a deposition you may ask the judgment debtor all types of questions that may help lead to the discovery of assets.
Try googling “Deposition In Aid of Execution” and see what you can learn.
It is worth the price of a conference room rental ($100 1/2 day) and court reporter appearance ($75) to make the SOB sit there and be bombarded with detailed financial questions for a couple of hours.
Of course if he doesn’t appear you can ask the court to hold him in contempt.
April 3, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Does declaring a homestead protect your primary residence from judgements if you let rental property go into forclosure?? Also if you have recieved a notice of intent to accelerate the loan on that rental property, just before you file the homestead on your primary residence, are you still protected up to $ 550k??
April 3, 2009 at 7:16 pm
You have no homestead protection until you actually file for one. As to rental property, the foreclosing party may do a “judicial” foreclosure in Nevada to obtain a judgment against you for any amount the foreclosure sale doesn’t satisfy. He then has the right to execute against any executable assests (Nevada has numerous exemptions, NRS 21.090). However, you have a time limit to claim, and YOU must claim exempt property. A homesteaded property that does not have equity in excess of the exemption amount (Now $550,000) is exempt.
Hope that helps.
April 4, 2009 at 8:43 am
As to the Lender’s ability to sue for ‘deficiency’ (money the lender does not gain from foreclosure sale) see the following blog and NOTE that the second deed of trust is your biggest issue, as a “sold off junior lien holder” it becomes an unsecured debt and will likely be the worst problem – blog – http://ameglegal.wordpress.com/2007/04/27/tgif-legal-tip-foreclosuredeficiency/
File the homstead on your personal home right away
http://ameglegal.wordpress.com/2007/04/27/tgif-legal-tip-foreclosuredeficiency/
May 7, 2009 at 4:28 pm
I have been reading the Nevada homestead act laws (yes my head hurts!) I wanted to make sure I understood this correctly…You get the land, put a dewelling on it, get the parcel(s) numbers for it ‘then’ file for homesteading? Do you have to have a dewelling on the land in order to file, or can you file on just the land? When I had lived in CA you could homestead as much land as you could use/work. Is that the same here? It wasn’t very clear on somethings.
Thank you…
June 3, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Could you tell me about the Homestead laws on rental property in Nevada? Does this include shared rental property,such as, a building,with land, rented individually to seniors?
June 4, 2009 at 8:11 am
No, unfortunately Homestead protection only applies to personally occupied residences. Only your true home, not investments.
June 3, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Ann:
The Nevada Homestead laws only apply to principal residences and there is no protection for rental, commercial or second home properties.
June 16, 2009 at 3:25 pm
i have 2 house on one parcel of land which cant be divided,are they both protected? i filed for homestead in 1996 and refinanced in 2003 is my homestead still good or do i need to re-file it?
June 17, 2009 at 2:44 am
Mike:
You don\’t need to refile a homestead exemption because of a refinance.
The homestead exemption will protect all structures on the land as long at is your principal residence.
However, if the second house on the land is a rental, you should consult a Nevada attorney as the rental house certainly will not be protected and a question will arise as to the land. A lot will depend on the platting and application for building permit when the second house was built.
If I were representing a judgment creditor I would certainly attack the second house and some of the land if it is used as a rental.
June 17, 2009 at 7:14 am
i live in one house and my son and his family live in the other. there were no building permits needed when i built my 2nd house. all lots are 1.25 acres ,with no dividing them up, one well,one septic tank, and i believe only one power hook-up now. my son does pay some rent when working , (he hasnt worked in 4 months).
June 18, 2009 at 1:54 am
Mike:
I would think that your son does not pay you rent. He contributes to household expenses (utilites, food, property taxes, etc.) when he can.
Being that the entire family is occupied by one family unit I think your chances are very good that the entire compound is protected under the Nevada homestead exemption.