What Florida gives you free

Four things every homeowner in this state is entitled to at no cost. None of them requires us, and we would rather you know that than find out later from someone selling you one of them.

1. A property fraud alert — from your Clerk of Court

protectyourfloridaproperty.com — one enrollment, and the clerk emails you whenever a document is recorded against your name or property. It covers Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, Putnam and St. Johns counties.

It is completely free. Paid "title protection" and "deed monitoring" services sell this same alert, monthly. What they add is a bill.

2. Your homestead exemption

We have not independently verified Your County County's online filing address or phone number, so we are not going to print one. Search for your county property appraiser and file directly — it is free either way.

Bring:

Florida driver license or Florida ID card showing this property's address
Florida vehicle registration, if you drive
Florida voter registration at this address, or a recorded Declaration of Domicile
permanent residency card, if you are not a US citizen
your Social Security number — the county requires it under s. 196.011, F.S. JustValue never collects or handles it

3. Portability — moving your Save Our Homes benefit

Portability is filed on Form DR-501T, as an attachment to a new homestead application (DR-501). Filing it alone usually needs a call to the office first.

The transfer carries up to $500,000 of accumulated benefit onto a new homestead. The form asks for your previous property's address, parcel number, county and the date you sold or stopped using it as a homestead — facts only you hold, declared under penalty of perjury. Nobody should fill that in for you, and we do not.

4. Your dates

Exemption applications March 1	Homestead, portability and every other exemption. Miss it and the exemption generally applies the following year instead.
TRIM notice mailed in August	Your Notice of Proposed Property Taxes. Check the just value, the assessed value, and that every exemption you hold is listed. It carries your own petition deadline, and that printed date governs.
Petition to the Value Adjustment Board 25 days after the TRIM notice	A short window, and it starts when the notice is mailed — not when you open it. There is a filing fee, usually $15.

Prepared by JustValue for your county County. Every link and phone number here was retrieved from the source on 2026-07-28; where a county's path could not be verified, this sheet says so rather than printing a guess. This is not tax advice or legal advice. JustValue does not file for you and does not represent you — everything above you can do yourself, free, with your county.

Download this as a one-page PDF

JustValue watches your property-tax record, reminds you when something needs doing, and shows you how to do it. We do not file for you and we do not represent you. Everything on this page is free and yours already.

JustValue is an independent, third-party review of Florida property-tax records — not affiliated with any county property appraiser, and never paid a percentage of your savings.