Anyhow, I wonder how business is doing. Wonder if he gets personal referrals from old colleagues.

1. There is no waiting period for homestead protection. The protection attaches the day you first occupy the property with the intent to make it your permanent Florida homestead. There are no papers to file and no forms to fill out. There is a Florida statute pertaining to a “declaration of domicile” which may be filied with a court, but this declaration is not required in order to qualify for homestead asset protection. Your intent to occupy a homestead is more important than any declaration you sign or file.

2. Florida courts have protected homestead sale proceeds for a “reasonable time” while debtors seek a new home to live in. You simply keep the funds in a “homestead account” – you may spend money from a homestead account on things other than the purchase of a homestead while the homestead search in ongoing. Therefore, it would seem that debtor could transfer or convert part of his homestead proceeds to an alternative protected asset or to another person during the time the debtor is, or was, searching for a new Florida homestead.

A final note, unless the trio has failed to make payments (largely through insurance, is my guess) to satisfy the settlement, it’s a moot point.

I would agree that they probably put a lot of money into the downpayment. My rather limited understanding of Florida law is that your primary residence can’t be touched when it comes to collecting money from a civil suit (IANAL–this is what a remember from the OJ civil trial). So it would make sense to put just about all they had into the house so that Kathy Wone couldn’t get to it.

Of course, now the house is worth a lot less, and they’ve settled the civil suit, so they’re “on the hook” for the civil damages (i.e., there are no appeals to hold things up–they owe the money NOW). My big question is: Can they really sell the house at all, even at a loss, based on Florida law, without having to give all the money to Kathy Wone?

My guess is that you can only have one primary residence, but there are likely laws about capital gains/losses if you sell your primary residence and buy another primary residence. This is so “regular people” (as opposed to the superrich) don’t lose a fortune on capital gains and losses when they move. Would that apply here? I would guess the answer is no. OJ never moved, as far as I can recall. My guess is that if they sell the Florida house, even at a loss, Kathy Wone will be able to get all of the money from the sale.

Lawyers, what do you think?

I never could figure why they bought in Miami Shores when Wilton Manors has a very active gay community and some nice condos. Ward was staying in Wilton Manors when they were shopping for their Florida home. Someone mentioned here, a year or so ago, that Miami Shores is closer to the Miami airport to flee to South America if it looked like murder charges could be on the front burner.

At least, the new trade for Mr. Price is not Dyl’s relatively new (to him) trade — one could never imagine Victor accepting not one but two male masseurs under his/her roof.