Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Homestead Declaration Form Okay For Protection?
Please help. I used to work be a live-in property manager & got a form to file a declaration of homestead for a home I own and have lived in since then. The form was properly filled out with the information from the title company and legal description. It has been properly notarized and recorded. It was filed recently. Later, by accident my roommate noticed that there was a line I didn't answer on the form. The line said, 1) I own the following interest in the property. (There was a period.) 2) Then, below that it asked about living there. I marked that it was my principal dwelling, and that I currently reside at that declared homestead. I thought that was the info that line was after. I realize now that I should have put in 100% owner. Since the form is duly recorded, properly filled out, & all the information is correct, is missing that one item something to call the county about? (The form had a period there, rather than a colon, so I didn't know I was to add anything.) Is there anything to be worried about or just leave it? I am the only one on title. I want to retain the date it was recorded, so if I had to make an amendment, would that affect the date? Or just show as a correction to an earlier recorded document?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Homestead Declaration Form Okay For Protection?
First, calling the county won't do any good. The county recorder has no power to correct errors in recorded documents, nor to let you make corrections. Gov't. Code, section 27203.
Also, it is doubtful that the omission would diminish the effectiveness of the instrument. The Code of Civil Procedure, in authorizing the recording of homestead declarations, states that the declaration "shall contain" and then goes on to list three categories of required information, but does not mention the interest owned as a required item. See Code of Civil Procedure section 704.930(a). I suppose the reason is that the interest owned is already a matter of public record.
Next, I think if you were before a judge on a debtor-creditor matter in which the homestead came into play, the judge would (or could, if important) order the declaration corrected on a "nunc pro tunc" (now for then) basis, or simply disregard the omission and go with the public record (your deed).
Finally, the importance of recorded declarations of homestead is greatly overrated; you would get almost the same limited creditor protection from the automatic homestead exemption provided by Code of Civil Procedure sections 704.710 et seq.
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