Florida Personal Property Exemption from Creditors

Florida law protects limited categories of personal property from judgment creditors. The protections come from three separate sources: the Florida Constitution, the Florida Statutes, and federal law. These exemptions are modest compared to other Florida creditor protections like the unlimited homestead exemption and unlimited retirement account protection.

Personal property includes everything that is not real estate: vehicles, furniture, jewelry, art, electronics, bank accounts, investment accounts, and business equipment. Through a process called execution and levy, a judgment creditor can seize any personal property that is not protected by a specific exemption. Bank and investment accounts are reached by garnishment.

Constitutional Personal Property Exemption

The Florida Constitution protects personal property worth up to $1,000 from forced sale. Article X, Section 4(a)(2) makes this exemption available to every natural person in Florida regardless of whether the debtor claims a homestead exemption. The debtor chooses which items of personal property to apply the exemption to, up to the $1,000 cap.

The constitutional exemption stacks with the statutory exemptions under the Florida Statutes. Florida bankruptcy courts confirmed this stacking principle in In re Bezares, holding that the statutory $4,000 wildcard exemption does not replace the constitutional $1,000 exemption. A debtor can claim both.

Joint debtors claim the two exemptions separately: In re Gatto (Bankr. M.D. Fla. 2007) allowed a married couple filing together to stack $10,000 in personal property exemptions.

Motor Vehicle Exemption

Florida law protects up to $5,000 of equity in a single motor vehicle. Equity means the vehicle’s fair market value minus any outstanding loan balance. For example, suppose a debtor owns a car worth $12,000 and still owes $9,000 on it. The debtor has $3,000 of equity, fully within the exemption.

The $5,000 figure took effect on July 1, 2024. Before that, the vehicle exemption had been $1,000 since 1993. The Florida Legislature increased the amount through Chapter 2024-110, recognizing that three decades of inflation had eroded the original exemption’s value.

The motor vehicle exemption protects equity from unsecured judgment creditors only, and it covers a single motor vehicle as defined in Section 320.01(1). Boats and other vessels are titled under a different chapter and do not qualify. A lender who holds a lien on the vehicle can still repossess the car for nonpayment. A debtor who does not own a home can stack the vehicle exemption with the $4,000 wildcard exemption and the $1,000 constitutional exemption, protecting up to $10,000 of vehicle equity.

Wildcard Personal Property Exemption

Florida law provides a $4,000 exemption for personal property of any kind, but only for debtors who do not claim or receive the benefits of the homestead exemption. The debtor can apply the $4,000 exemption to any type of personal property, including a vehicle, a bank account, electronics, or jewelry.

A non-homestead debtor gets meaningfully more personal property protection than a homeowner. The non-homestead debtor can protect $4,000 under the wildcard plus $1,000 under the constitutional exemption, totaling $5,000 for non-vehicle personal property. That is on top of the $5,000 vehicle exemption.

A debtor who claims the homestead exemption cannot use the wildcard. That debtor keeps the $5,000 vehicle exemption and the $1,000 constitutional exemption, which can go toward the vehicle or toward other personal property.

Owning a home is not automatically disqualifying. The Florida Supreme Court held in Osborne v. Dumoulin, 55 So. 3d 577 (Fla. 2011), that a bankruptcy debtor who owns a homestead but surrenders it rather than claiming it as exempt may still take the wildcard under Section 222.25(4). Outside bankruptcy the homestead exemption runs on its own without being claimed, so a homeowner facing a judgment creditor is ordinarily receiving its benefits.

Enhanced Exemptions for Medical Debt

Medical debt carries larger personal property exemptions than other debt. Under Section 222.26, enacted in 2024, a debtor sued on a hospital or licensed facility charge can exempt a single motor vehicle’s equity up to $10,000. A debtor who does not claim or receive the benefits of the homestead exemption can exempt up to $10,000 of other personal property as well. A debtor who claims the homestead exemption gets the larger vehicle exemption but no enlarged exemption for other personal property.

These enhanced exemptions cover only debts owed to facilities licensed under Chapter 395, such as hospitals and surgical centers. They do not cover debts owed to individual physicians, ambulance services, or other providers outside that chapter. A debtor facing both medical and non-medical creditors would apply the enhanced exemptions against the medical creditor and the standard exemptions against the non-medical creditor.

How Personal Property Seizure Works

A judgment creditor ordinarily cannot seize personal property without first obtaining a court judgment. The creditor must file a lawsuit, win, and obtain a final money judgment before pursuing any personal property. Chapter 76 allows a creditor to attach property before judgment when the debtor is secreting property, removing it from the state, or absconding. That remedy carries its own bond and grounds requirements and is not the path an ordinary judgment creditor takes.

The creditor then obtains a writ of execution from the court and delivers it to the sheriff in the county where the property is located. The creditor must tell the sheriff what to seize and where to find it. For a vehicle, that means the make, model, and location. For property inside a home, it means a description of the particular items. The levy instructions must itemize the property with enough particularity that the sheriff can act on them.

The debtor has 15 days after the levy to file an inventory with the court that issued the writ. The inventory lists every item of personal property the debtor owns in Florida with a fair market value for each, attaches an affidavit that the list is complete, and designates the items claimed as exempt. Section 222.061 requires one copy to the judgment creditor and one to the sheriff.

The creditor has five days to object to the inventory or is deemed to admit it. A debtor who lets the 15 days pass does not lose the exemption but loses the choice of what is kept. The levying officer then selects which items are set aside, up to the exempt value.

Personal property levies are expensive for creditors. Sheriff’s fees, bond posting, storage, and auction costs are deducted from the sale proceeds before the creditor receives anything. Because most household items have minimal resale value at auction and most vehicles have limited equity above the exemption, creditors rarely pursue personal property levies unless the debtor owns high-value assets free and clear. Creditors typically pursue bank account garnishment before attempting to levy personal property because bank accounts are easier to reach and yield predictable recoveries.

Seized Property Inside the Home

Florida’s homestead exemption protects the home itself from forced sale. It does not protect personal property located inside the home. A creditor can direct the sheriff to seize non-exempt tangible property from inside a debtor’s residence, including electronics, artwork, jewelry, musical instruments, and collectibles.

The cost of moving, storing, and auctioning used household goods almost always exceeds the expected recovery. A used television, a set of furniture, or a computer brings pennies on the dollar at a sheriff’s auction. The $1,000 constitutional personal property exemption often covers most of what a debtor has in household goods.

Judgment Liens on Personal Property

A judgment creditor can file a judgment lien certificate with the Florida Department of State, creating a lien on all the debtor’s personal property anywhere in Florida. The lien does not require identifying specific items. It attaches to everything the debtor currently owns and everything the debtor acquires during the lien’s five-year term.

The judgment lien does not give the creditor the right to seize property immediately. It establishes priority: if another creditor later levies the same property, the earlier-filed lien gets paid first from the auction proceeds. The lien also encumbers any sale or transfer of personal property.

Section 55.205 protects two kinds of buyers from a judgment lien. A buyer in the ordinary course of business takes free of the lien even knowing about it. An individual who buys household goods from a household seller, pays value, and does not know about the lien takes their own lien ahead of the creditor’s, up to the amount paid. Transfers to relatives and insiders, fraudulent transfers, and larger transfers are carved out of that protection, and every other buyer takes the property subject to the lien.

A judgment lien certificate is valid for five years. The creditor may file one second certificate, in a window that opens six months before the lapse and closes six months after it. Under Section 55.204(3) the second certificate is a new lien, so its priority dates from the day it is filed and a competing creditor who filed in the meantime moves ahead. No third certificate is permitted, which caps a personal property lien at ten years. Filings go through the Department of State’s Sunbiz portal.

Tenancy by the Entireties Protection

Married couples in Florida who own personal property jointly as tenants by the entireties receive protection that exceeds all of the statutory exemptions. Property held as tenants by the entireties is immune from either spouse’s individual creditors, and a private creditor can reach it only with a judgment against both spouses jointly.

The federal government is the exception. Under United States v. Craft, 535 U.S. 274 (2002), a federal tax lien attaches to one spouse’s interest even though state law makes it inalienable, and federal criminal forfeiture can reach it as well. No decision lets the SEC or the FTC do the same.

For a jointly held bank account, Florida presumes entireties ownership. Section 655.79(1) creates that presumption, and a writing specifying another form of ownership defeats it. Beal Bank, SSB v. Almand & Associates, 780 So. 2d 45 (Fla. 2001), governs the spouses’ intent. Its own presumption is narrower, reaching an account the couple opened together, with survivorship and the unities intact and no disclaimer on the signature card. The creditor bears the burden of rebutting the presumption. Courts extend the same reasoning to untitled household property acquired during the marriage.

The presumption does not override a title document. Section 319.22 governs how a motor vehicle registered to two co-owners is held, and it applies even when the co-owners are married. Other states that recognize entireties ownership of personal property may not apply any presumption, and some require the debtor to prove entireties ownership affirmatively.

Entireties protection applies to personal property including vehicles, bank accounts, and investment accounts as well as real estate. When a married couple’s vehicle title reads “and” between their names and the spouses hold it as tenants by the entireties, the vehicle’s full value is protected from any creditor of one spouse alone; “or” titling, the Florida default, defeats the protection. The protection has no dollar cap. A $50,000 vehicle titled jointly as tenants by the entireties is fully protected from an individual creditor, which is far more valuable than the $5,000 statutory vehicle exemption.

Health Aids

Florida law exempts professionally prescribed health aids, with no dollar limit, for the debtor or the debtor’s dependents. Wheelchairs, prosthetic devices, hearing aids, and other medically prescribed equipment are fully protected from creditor claims under Section 222.25(2).

Earned Income Tax Credit

Florida law exempts a debtor’s interest in an earned income tax credit refund, including traceable deposits of this credit in a bank account.

Exceptions to Personal Property Exemptions

The wildcard personal property exemption and the earned income credit exemption do not apply to debts owed for child support or spousal support. Section 222.25 states that exception in both subsections. The $5,000 motor vehicle exemption carries no such exception, so a creditor collecting child support or alimony can reach non-vehicle personal property that would otherwise be exempt while the vehicle exemption still holds.

Federal tax liens override Florida’s personal property exemptions entirely. The IRS can levy personal property regardless of state exemption statutes.

Using cash to buy an expensive vehicle shortly before or after a judgment can be challenged under Section 222.30 as a fraudulent conversion. The statute reaches a conversion of non-exempt property into exempt property made with intent to hinder, delay, or defraud the creditor. Timing is evidence of that intent, not a substitute for it.