Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

The fact that the home is currently in the trust does not affect your homestead exemption. The law on the homestead does not talk about what form of title the home needs to be under, only that the judgment debtor and/or spouse or family member lives there. The exemption is $50,000 if you live there alone, or $75,000 if you have a spouse or family living there, or $150,000 if one of you is over 65, or disabled, or you're over 55 and combined gross income is $20,000 or less. Anyways, even if there is not much equity in the property now, if you record a declared homestead, it would prevent any future judgment lien from being attached to the property after the recoding date unless there is surplus equity more than the total of all the mortgages on the property and the amount of the homestead exemption, which is unlikely now.

I'd be happy to help you prepare the declared homestead. Please check my profile for my contact info.

Larry L. Doan, Esq.

https://www.lawguru.com/cgi/bbs/attyPages/liem.html

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