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Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 188, provides homeowner’s the ability to protect a certain amount of equity based upon satisfying certain filing and other requirements for a homestead exemption. The Massachusetts law allows for up to $500,000 in protection when a Declaration of Homestead is filed with the Registry of Deeds in the county in which the property used as the principal residence is located. There are other aspects of the Massachusetts homestead law which may need to be addressed in a homestead filing, specifically, elderly and disabled filers will qualify for a different, statutorily defined, type of homestead exemption.
What Does a Homestead Exemption Protect Me From?
If a homeowner records a homestead exemption declaration at the appropriate Registry of Deeds in Massachusetts, the filer is protected up to the amount of the exemption from the attachment, seizure, levy, execution on judgment, or forced sale to pay debts. Protection under the exemption, however, is not provided by the Massachusetts homestead law for the following:
- a sale of the home to pay local, state, or federal taxes, assessments, claims and liens
- a lien on the home that was previously recorded (prior to the recording of the declaration of homestead)
- a home mortgage on the principal residence
- where buildings on land not owned by the homestead owner are attached, levied or sold for ground rent of the lot
- a court order that a spouse, former spouse or parent must pay child support to a spouse, former spouse or minor children
- a court ordered judgment for fraud, mistake, duress, undue influence or lack of capacity
If a Homestead Declaration only Protects Me Partially, What Good is it?
This is an excellent question, and the answer lies in understanding not what the homestead declaration on a principal residence doesn’t protect the homeowner from, but what it does protect the homeowner from. The main benefit, from my perspective, is that a properly filed declaration of homestead will protect the filer from most unsecured creditors. “What is an unsecured creditor?” you ask. An unsecured creditor is a person or institution that has lent money to you without having collateral in return for lending that money. Credit cards companies are the perfect example of unsecured creditors because these companies effectively lend you money, through credit, to make purchases and have nothing to withhold from you if you fail to pay them back. Contrast a credit card company to a car loan which if not paid timely allows the finance company to repossess a car if monthly bills are left unpaid; the car is collateral in that case. The beauty of the homestead declaration is that it prevents most unsecured creditors from reaching the value in a home, up to the value of the homestead exemption, by attachment, seizure, execution of a judgment, levy or forced sale. The same degree of protection will typically apply to many types of judgments resulting from lawsuits against the homestead exemption owner.
In Massachusetts, even those who do not file for a homestead exemption will automatically be protected up to $125,000 in homestead exemption. Given that the cost of filing is limited to a modest fee at the registry of deeds and possibly the cost of an attorney to prepare the declaration of homestead, the decision to file and qualify for the $500,000 of homestead exemption should be a fairly easy one.
Take full advantage of the homestead exemption by filing for a declaration of homestead in Massachusetts.
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The information provided in the pages and posts of this website are for general informational purposes only. The information presented on this site is not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is formed by the use of this site.
