Is Motor Home Exempt Homestead In Chapter 7?

An asset protection client described the following homestead dilemma. The client lived in a mobile home on a lot he and his family rented in a trailer home park. The mobile home had a motor and was drive able, but the family had attached the home to utilities service on the lot and had not driven the home off the lot for several years. The family wanted to travel to Minnesota and live there temporarily in the motor home during a job assignment. The client assured me that the family would return to Florida as soon as he completed the temporary job assignment. He asked whether the mobile home would be exempt homestead property if he filed for bankruptcy soon after returning to Florida and living in the mobile home on the same rented lot.

There are several issues raised by this fact situation. As long as the client always intends to return to Florida I do not think he interrupts Florida residency for bankruptcy purposes by his temporary situation in another state. The more important issue is whether the mobile home is homestead property. Courts have protected all sorts of property under a homestead umbrella including cooperative apartments, mobile homes, and houseboats. Homestead law is liberally applied to protect the debtor’s family.

The motor home is closest in kind to a houseboat. Both the houseboat and motor home are motorized and capable of self-movement. Courts have denied homestead protections of houseboats which had a functioning motor and were used, or capable of use, as a sailing vessel. Houseboats permanently attached to a dock have been afforded homestead protection in Florida. When this client’s mobile home was permanently anchored to the rental lot it may have been protected homestead. I think a bankruptcy court may deny homestead protection after the client drives the motor home back and forth to Minnesota. Homestead protection would not be lost because this family moved away from Florida temporarily, but it may be lost because they drove their home out of state. If the client left the home anchored in Florida, traveled to Minnesota by other means, and rented a place in Minnesota I think he would have a better chance, but far from certainty, of protecting the mobile home if he were to file bankruptcy in Florida upon his return.

posted by Jonathan Alper, bankruptcy and asset protection attorney, Orlando, Florida