Can Motor Home Be Considered Primary Residence For Purpose Of Homestead Exemption?

[tedbell]

Is it possible to sell my house & use the equity to purchase a motor home, subsequently claiming homestead exemption on it if I have no other permanent address and live in it full time? I'm in Alaska. This is my last question for the forum before seeing an attorney on Wednesday!

Thanks

[ValleYum]

My thought would be "no" because the federal homestead exemption specifically states real property and an RV is typically considered to be personal property, ymmv.

[HHM]

Don't know about Fed Exemption...but in general, most states have a homestead equivalent for mobile homes or simply allow the homestead to be used toward motor homes. The issue, as was stated in the other thread you started, what is your actual "intent," you must intend the property to be a homestead. Now, that sounds easy enough, but you need to establish circumstantial evidence to support that "intent." e.g. change of address, actually live in it, forward mail, update drivers license, etc etc.

[justbroke]

I'm definitely confused now about just which property is the homestead and which isn't. In any event, what I wrote in the prior thread remains. As for whether Washington considers RV's as a homestead, you'd need to check the law.

In Florida, we have a lot of caselaw including the Florida Supreme court on the issue of RVs and the ability to homestead them. To get a homestead on an RV in Florida, you must actually prove that it is a residence and literally NOT a "mobile" home! If you lease land, are in an RV/Trailer park, are connected to utilities, and generally never "drive" it anywhere, then it is your residence and can get the homestead exemption. I don't know if Washington treats it similarly.

In any event, HHM suggests just using the regular personal property exemptions if the homestead will not work.

[One Half Full]

I am not a legal person, but in my mind, if you had an RV pad, then the pad and not the RV may or may not be homestead because the RV is portable, not attached to the land, and a vehicle, hence "property." Even a mobile home is bought and sold like a vehicle. I am pretty sure homestead exemption is directed to a piece of real estate/land property.

[sbatman]

Our houseboat in Florida was considered our "primary residence" Plenty of case law on that, considering how many people live of boats there.

[LadyInTheRed]

This thread is almost a year old. The OP filed BK last month and probably already found a satisfactory answer.

Please check dates on threads and don't revive old ones, unless there is a good reason to do so (like you are the OP and want to share how your situation turned out). Thanks.