OK, so here’s the scenarios.
- A hurricane damages my property to the point where it is uninhabitable and I choose to rebuild.
- A hurricane damages my property and I can still live there and do the rebuilding work around me. In this scenario you did NOT loose the Certificate of Occupancy or CO.
OK, so the good news is that the Florida Legislature thought about this and gave guidance to the Property Appraisers.
For homesteaded properties that are uninhabitable, you lost the CO, the property owner must notify the Property Appraiser by March 1, following the calamity, that he or she intends to repair or rebuild the uninhabitable property and intends to live in the property as his or her primary residence after the property is repaired or rebuilt and does not claim a homestead on any other property or otherwise violate his or her homestead eligibility.
You see, under normal circumstances, any improvements made to your property would be assessed at full market value once substantially completed. However, under the calamity provision, any changes, additions or improvements made to the dwelling as a result of calamity, are protected from being assessed at full market value.
Under the Florida Statutes, if your property dwelling is damaged or destroyed by misfortune or calamity, the assessed value may not be increased due to the required changes, additions or improvements that replace all or a portion of the property when:
- The total square footage of the homestead property as changed or improved does not exceed 1,500 square feet; or
- The square footage of the homestead property as changed or improved does not exceed 110 percent of the square footage in existence prior to the damage or destruction.
Once repaired or rebuilt and deemed substantially complete, the dwelling will be assessed as if the damage or destruction had not occurred. And this must be done within 3 years.
If you do rebuild with a larger house then 110% of your origional square footage would be assessed as if the calamity never occured and then any square footage over that would be valued at the current market value.
The calamity provision does not apply to site improvements or miscellaneous yard items like a pool or a sea wall. Once repaired or rebuilt, those items will be assessed at full market value the tax roll following their completion.
