Selling a House During a Divorce in Florida: Who Signs and When You Can Sell

The house is usually the last big thing two people still own together, and most of the file waits on what happens to it. Most advice about selling in a divorce is written for nowhere in particular. Florida is specific: the state divides marital property by a standard that starts at equal and moves only for a reason, a homestead cannot be sold on one signature even when only one name is on the deed, and in some counties the petition arrives with an order telling both of you to leave the assets alone. Here is how it actually runs, with the statutes and the dates, and what each path costs.

Key highlights

• Florida is an equitable distribution state, not a community property state. Section 61.075 tells the judge to begin with the premise that distribution should be equal, then move from there if the facts justify it.
• Homestead takes two signatures. The Florida Constitution lets an owner alienate the homestead by mortgage, sale or gift only when joined by the spouse, whatever the deed says.
• The filing date is a line in the sand. Section 61.075(7) sets the cut-off for what counts as marital at the earlier of a valid separation agreement or the filing of the petition.
• Some circuits freeze things the day you file. In Orange and Osceola counties a standing temporary order is served with the petition and bars disposing of or mortgaging assets outside the ordinary course.
• You can sell before the judgment. Plenty of couples do, because a sale turns one long argument into two numbers.

The short answer

Yes, you can sell a Florida house while the divorce is pending, and often you should. What you cannot do is sell it alone, quietly, or in a way that moves money where the other side cannot see it. Get both signatures, check whether your circuit has a standing order, and put in writing where the proceeds sit until the judgment. If one of you wants to keep the house, the question stops being legal and becomes arithmetic: can that person refinance the mortgage into their own name and fund the other’s share? If the answer is no, the house gets sold sooner or later, and sooner is almost always cheaper.

Who actually has to sign

This is where Florida surprises people, so it goes first.

Homestead needs both spouses. Article X, Section 4(c) of the Florida Constitution says the owner of homestead real estate, joined by the spouse if married, may alienate the homestead by mortgage, sale or gift. There is no exception for a deed in one name. The same section sets the homestead itself at up to 160 acres of contiguous land outside a municipality, or half an acre inside one. In practice the title company raises this long before the judge does, and a closing that tries to skip the signature does not close.

Tenancy by the entireties ends with the marriage. Most married Florida couples hold the house as tenants by the entireties. Under section 689.15, in cases of estates by entirety the tenants become tenants in common upon dissolution of marriage. The survivorship right disappears at the judgment, which is one reason the deed and the final judgment need to agree with each other.

A deed between the two of you is cheap. If the settlement has one spouse keep the house, the transfer itself is usually free of Florida’s documentary stamp tax. Section 201.02(7)(a) exempts a deed between spouses or former spouses made pursuant to an action for dissolution of their marriage where the property is or was their marital home, in spite of any consideration. That exemption is for the two of you. A deed to an outside buyer is taxed normally.

What changes the day the petition is filed

Before anything is filed, one of you has to have lived here. Section 61.021 requires one party to reside 6 months in the state before the petition. After filing, three clocks start.

The standing order, where your circuit uses one. This is the piece sellers miss. In Orange and Osceola counties the Ninth Judicial Circuit’s Administrative Order 2004-05-05 puts a standing temporary order in force immediately on the filing of a contested dissolution. It binds the petitioner on filing and the respondent on service, and the petitioner has to hand a copy to the process server to go out with the petition. Its asset section is blunt: neither party may conceal, damage or dispose of any asset, marital or nonmarital, nor dissipate the value of an asset, for example by adding a mortgage to real estate or by failing to take care of it, and neither party may dispose of any asset other than in the customary conduct of business and personal affairs. A separate paragraph on additional debt bars pledging, encumbering or mortgaging any asset except by written consent of the parties or an order of the court.

Mandatory disclosure, 45 days. The same order spells out Family Law Rule 12.285: each party files a complete financial affidavit within 45 days of service of the initial pleading on the respondent, and the supporting financial documents get exchanged on the same clock. If someone asks for temporary financial relief sooner, the affidavit comes sooner. Mortgage statements, tax returns and the payoff on the house all live in that file, which is why the numbers in this article are easier to produce than most people expect.

Twenty days, at a minimum. Section 61.19 says no final judgment of dissolution may be entered until at least 20 days have elapsed from the filing of the original petition, unless the court finds that injustice would result from the delay. That is the floor, not the normal case. Contested files run months, and the Ninth Circuit requires mediation before a hearing on temporary relief and again before a case is noticed for trial.

Money while you wait. Section 61.071 allows either party to claim temporary alimony and suit money in the petition, in an answer or by motion, and the court shall allow a reasonable sum where the claim is well founded. The standing order adds that food, shelter, utilities, transportation and necessary medical expenses carry on as they were during the intact marriage until the court says otherwise.

How Florida splits the house

Florida is not a 50/50 state in the way people mean when they say it. Section 61.075(1) tells the court to set apart to each spouse that spouse’s nonmarital assets and liabilities, then to distribute the marital ones beginning with the premise that the distribution should be equal, unless there is a justification for an unequal distribution based on all relevant factors. The listed factors include the contribution of each spouse to the marriage, the economic circumstances of the parties and the duration of the marriage. Subsection (3) requires the distribution to be supported by factual findings based on competent substantial evidence, with specific written findings. A judge has to show the work.

What counts as marital is mechanical, and mostly about timing. Subsection (6)(a) treats assets acquired and liabilities incurred during the marriage, individually by either spouse or jointly, as marital. Subsection (6)(b) treats assets acquired and liabilities incurred before the marriage as nonmarital. Subsection (7) fixes the cut-off date for identifying marital assets and liabilities at the earliest of the date of a valid separation agreement, a date expressly set in that agreement, or the date the petition for dissolution is filed.

Houses rarely sit cleanly on one side. One spouse owns the place before the wedding, both pay the mortgage for nine years, both sign for the new roof: that house is partly nonmarital and partly marital, and the argument is about the share rather than the house. Three things decide it in practice: what the house was worth at the wedding, what has been paid against the principal since, and what the improvements did to the value. Pull those numbers early, because every other decision sits on top of them.

If one of you stays in the house

Exclusive use of the marital home is common, especially with school age children. It is also where quiet assumptions turn into losses, because the spouse who stays keeps paying the mortgage and expects that to come back at the end, and the one who leaves keeps paying half and expects rent for the other half.

Section 61.077 settles the default, and it is the opposite of what most people assume: a party is not entitled to any credits or setoffs upon the sale of the marital home unless the settlement agreement, the final judgment of dissolution, or the final judgment equitably distributing assets or debts specifically provides that certain credits or setoffs are allowed. Where there is no agreement, the statute gives the court a list to weigh before deciding: whether exclusive use and possession was awarded and why, whether the alimony or the child support paid to the occupying party was meant to cover the mortgage, taxes and insurance, the value of the use to the party living there, the value of the lost use to the party who left, which party can claim the mortgage interest and property tax deductions, whether either will face a capital gains event on the sale, and anything else needed to be fair between them.

The practical reading: if it is not in the agreement or the judgment, do not count on it. One paragraph in a marital settlement agreement about who pays the mortgage, who pays the insurance and what that buys at closing is worth more than a year of arguing about it afterwards.

Your options, side by side

Five routes that actually get used, and what each one costs:

What the sale costs in Florida

Whatever route you take, the same Florida line items show up on the settlement statement. Documentary stamp tax on the deed runs 70 cents for each $100 of consideration under section 201.02, which is $2,450 on a $350,000 sale. Then the mortgage payoff, any other recorded liens, prorated property taxes for the part of the year you owned it, title and settlement charges, and a real estate commission if the house was listed. For a line by line walk through the numbers, see what closing costs a seller actually pays.

Two Florida specifics worth planning around. Property taxes are due November 1 and go delinquent on April 1, so a sale timed near that line needs a payoff pulled from the county rather than a guess; if the bill is already behind, the mechanics are in behind on property taxes in Florida. And the homestead exemption, which is up to $25,000 of assessed value under section 196.031 plus a further exemption of up to $25,000 on assessed value above $50,000 for levies other than school district levies, follows the residence and the owner, so ask the county property appraiser what happens to yours before someone moves out, not after.

The tax questions, in plain terms

Two different rules get mixed up here, and they do different jobs.

Moving the house between the two of you. The IRS, in Publication 504, treats a transfer of property to a spouse or former spouse that is incident to divorce as producing no recognized gain or loss. Incident to divorce means the transfer occurs within 1 year after the date the marriage ends, or is related to the ending of the marriage, made under the divorce or separation instrument and occurring within 6 years. The spouse who receives the property takes the other’s adjusted basis rather than a value reset at market, so the built-in gain travels with the house. That matters: taking the house instead of the retirement account can mean taking the tax bill with it.

Selling the house to somebody else. Here the main home exclusion applies. IRS Topic 701 allows up to $250,000 of gain to be excluded, or up to $500,000 on a joint return, where the ownership and use tests are met: owned for at least 24 months and used as a residence for at least 24 months within the 5 year period ending on the date of sale. Either spouse can meet the ownership test on a joint return, but both have to meet the use test. A spouse who moved out early is exactly the case to check with a CPA, and section 61.077 even lists a capital gains event as one of the factors a judge weighs on credits.

The Florida market while you decide

Timing is part of the decision, so here is the state of play. In the September 2026 Florida REALTORS single-family summary, 20,537 houses closed statewide, down 3.5 percent year over year, at a median sale price of $415,000. Sellers received a median of 95.7 percent of the original list price. The median time from listing to contract was 47 days and from listing to closing 87 days. Inventory sat at 95,799 active listings, about 4.4 months of supply, and 5,743 of those sales were paid in cash.

Read those two timing numbers with a divorce calendar next to them. A listed sale is roughly three months from sign in the yard to money in the account. That is fine when both of you can keep the house presentable and keep paying for it. It is a problem when the mortgage is stretching, when one household has become two, or when the house needs a roof nobody wants to finance in the middle of a dissolution.

The same report shows what distress does to price: 252 foreclosure or bank-owned sales closed at a median of $240,000 against 20,182 traditional sales at $417,900. That gap is not a divorce gap, it is a condition and urgency gap, and it is the reason to deal with a stretched mortgage early rather than at the end. If payments are already behind, read selling before foreclosure in Florida alongside this, because that clock is shorter than the divorce clock and it usually sets the deadline.

How a fast as-is cash sale works here

The process is deliberately dull, which is the point when everything else is not. Both of you describe the house honestly, including the condition and anything recorded against it, and you get a written cash offer, usually inside about 24 hours. If you accept, a Florida title company confirms title, pulls the mortgage payoff and any lien payoffs, and prepares a settlement statement that shows exactly what is left. Both spouses sign the deed, because the homestead rule does not bend for a cash buyer either. The proceeds go where your agreement or the judgment says they go, including into escrow until the judgment if that is what you have agreed.

There is no lender, so no appraisal, no financing contingency and no underwriter deciding in week five that the roof is unacceptable. Closing can land about two to three weeks out when title is clean, or later if the case needs the time. You take what you want and leave the rest, cleanout included, which matters more than usual when two people are dividing a house full of things. For the plain English version of selling in that condition, start with what selling a house as-is actually means.

How Sterling Home Offer helps

We buy single-family houses for cash across Florida, and divorce sales are an ordinary part of the week. The promise is short enough to hold us to. A no-obligation cash offer in about 24 hours, built on the condition of the actual house and real nearby sales. Strictly as-is: no repairs, no cleanout, old roofs, tired kitchens, deferred everything. No agent commission and no fees, so the offer is the number you work from. We will talk to both spouses, or to both attorneys, and send one written offer to each side so nobody is relaying numbers for the other. And your date is the date, whether that means three weeks or three months while the case finishes. If the house also came through an estate, selling an inherited house in Florida covers that side, and the wider state picture sits on our Florida cash buyer page.

The bottom line

A Florida divorce does not stop you selling the house. It decides who signs, when, and where the money sits afterwards. Both spouses sign on a homestead whatever the deed says, the filing date fixes what counts as marital, your circuit may have frozen the asset the day the petition went in, and section 61.077 gives nobody a credit that is not written down. Settle those four things and the sale itself is the easy part: list it if you both have the time and the patience, buy each other out if the refinance works, and sell as-is if the house needs more than either of you is willing to put into a place you are leaving.

Sources

1. Florida Constitution, Article X, Section 4, Homestead: the owner of homestead real estate, joined by the spouse if married, may alienate the homestead by mortgage, sale or gift, and the homestead is up to 160 acres of contiguous land outside a municipality or half an acre inside one (The Florida Senate)
2. Florida Statute 61.075, Equitable distribution of marital assets and liabilities: the court sets apart each spouse’s nonmarital assets, begins with the premise that distribution should be equal unless an unequal distribution is justified by the listed factors, must support the distribution with specific written findings, treats assets acquired during the marriage as marital and those acquired before it as nonmarital, and fixes the cut-off date at the earliest of a valid separation agreement, a date set in it, or the filing of the petition (The Florida Senate)
3. Florida Statute 689.15, Estates by survivorship: in cases of estates by entirety, the tenants become tenants in common upon dissolution of marriage (The Florida Senate)
4. Florida Statute 61.077, Determination of entitlement to setoffs or credits upon sale of marital home: no credits or setoffs unless the settlement agreement or final judgment specifically provides for them, and a list of factors the court weighs including exclusive occupancy, alimony or child support covering the mortgage and taxes, the value of the use, the lost use to the party who moved out, the tax deductions and any capital gains event (The Florida Senate)
5. Florida Statute 61.021, Residence requirements: one of the parties to the marriage must reside 6 months in the state before filing the petition (The Florida Senate)
6. Florida Statute 61.19, Entry of judgment of dissolution of marriage, delay period: no final judgment may be entered until at least 20 days have elapsed from the date of filing the original petition, unless the court finds that injustice would result from the delay (The Florida Senate)
7. Florida Statute 61.071, Alimony pendente lite; suit money: a party may claim alimony and suit money in the petition, an answer or by motion, and where the claim is well founded the court shall allow a reasonable sum (The Florida Senate)
8. Ninth Judicial Circuit Administrative Order 2004-05-05, Amended Order Governing Dissolution of Marriage Actions, Orange and Osceola Counties: the standing temporary order is docketed and handed to the process server with the petition, binds the petitioner on filing and the respondent on service, bars concealing, damaging or disposing of any asset and dissipating its value including by adding a mortgage to real estate, allows no disposal of an asset other than in the customary conduct of business and personal affairs, bars pledging, encumbering or mortgaging any asset except by written consent or court order, requires a financial affidavit within 45 days of service under Family Law Rule 12.285, continues payment of food, shelter, utilities, transportation and necessary medical expenses as during the intact marriage, and requires mediation before a temporary relief hearing and before trial (Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida)
9. Florida Statute 64.041, Complaint for partition, in Chapter 64, Partition of Property: the complaint describes the lands, names the owners and other interested persons and states the share of each (The Florida Senate)
10. Florida Statute 201.02: documentary stamp tax on deeds at 70 cents for each $100 of consideration, with subsection (7)(a) exempting a deed between spouses or former spouses pursuant to an action for dissolution of their marriage where the property is or was their marital home in spite of any consideration, and refunding tax paid where the deed was made a year or more before the dissolution (The Florida Senate)
11. Florida Statute 196.031, Exemption of homesteads: an exemption of up to $25,000 of assessed value, plus an additional exemption of up to $25,000 on assessed value greater than $50,000 for all levies other than school district levies (The Florida Senate)
12. IRS Publication 504, Divorced or Separated Individuals, Property Settlements: no gain or loss is recognized on a transfer of property to a spouse or former spouse incident to divorce, meaning within 1 year after the marriage ends or related to the ending of the marriage under the divorce instrument and within 6 years, and the recipient’s basis is the transferor’s adjusted basis rather than fair market value (Internal Revenue Service)
13. IRS Topic no. 701, Sale of your home: up to $250,000 of gain may be excluded, or up to $500,000 on a joint return, where the home was owned for at least 24 months and used as a residence for at least 24 months during the 5 year period ending on the date of sale (Internal Revenue Service)
14. Monthly Market Summary, September 2026, Single-Family Homes, Florida: 20,537 closed sales (down 3.5 percent), 5,743 paid in cash, median sale price $415,000, median time to contract 47 days, median time to sale 87 days, 95.7 percent of original list price received, 95,799 active listings and 4.4 months supply, with a distressed table showing 252 foreclosure or bank-owned sales at a median of $240,000 against 20,182 traditional sales at $417,900 (Florida REALTORS)