Is my home homestead exempt?

[theGrundle]

I am in ch.7 bankruptcy. I am 1/3 beneficiary to a spendthrift trust. This trust includes a house which me and the other beneficiaries are entitled to live. We also receive small monies each month from the trust. I originally had the home listed with the trust in my schedule of assets and the entire trust listed as exempt under 541c2:spendthrift exemption. Since the trustee may object to this and be able to attach some of my share of the trust, I am going to amend and list the house separetely under schedule A and exempt under homestead exemption. I live in Kansas.
I am fairly sure I have recently read in some cases that homestead exemption applies even if you do not own the house, but if the house is owned by a trust which you are a beneficiary of and you intend to live there.
Can anyone verify this or has anyone dealt with this?

This is one snipit of a case I found>

[AngelinaCat]

I am in Florida, which is a Homestead state.

I am not sure what a 'spendthrift trust' is, but my husband (AngelinaCatHub) and I are the trustees and beneficiaries of of both a Revocable Family Trust, and a non-revocable Charitable Remainder Unitrust, or CRUT. The Family Trust administers our bank accounts, actually two CU accounts, and the CRUT is the actual owner of our house and land. We have a life-estate, and we live on the property, and it is homesteaded. We also receive a yearly stipend from the CRUT in January each year. From this, we pay our property taxes, homeowners insurance, my HSA, and other things of that nature.

All of this was done in 2001, long before we ever had to think about the possibility of BK. We filed Ch7 December 12, 2007. We were declared an asset case, because some of our personal property was over the limit of what was allowed by Florida exemptions.

The trustee did look at the Crut and ask a couple questions, but in the end, he ended up 'Abandoning Interest' in the real estate, because it "is fully encumbered or otherwise exempt". This means that it was not owned directly by us. The CRUT owns it, and all we have is the Life Estate. Yet, because we live there, we have it fully Homesteaded.

I hope this helps to answer some of your questions. I will look at the Kansas Statutes more closely in the morning. It is near Midnight now, and I need to retire.

[AngelinaCat]

I re-read a bit. In Florida, you have to apply for the Homestead Exemption, and must live on the property for at least six months. And you can only apply for Homestead on one property only. You can't move it between Property A for six months, then move it to Property B the next six months. Also, the Homestead will stay with the property owner who is the primary resident, and has declared the property to be their primary domicle.

My understanding is that if you share this property with two other people, the three of you are going to have to agree as to who is going to be the primary resident. If you are, then go and apply for Homestead and get that paperwork in.

In Florida, a new resident can apply at any time, but if an established resident wants to change the Homestead, he/she only has the period between Jan 1, and April 1 of each year to file and establish their Homestead. Once the resident has been there for a year or two, yearly renewal of the Homestead becomes automatic.