Moved to Florida Recently? The 730-Day Rule Decides Which Bankruptcy Exemptions You Get

Live in Florida and moved here in the last two years?

Florida gains hundreds of thousands of new residents every year, many from New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Ohio, and Illinois. Florida's homestead protection has a national reputation, and new residents often assume it covers them the day they unpack. It may not. Federal bankruptcy law decides which state's exemptions you use by looking backward, and a recent move changes the answer.

Exemptions follow your domicile history, not your address

Exemptions are the rules that decide what property you keep in bankruptcy. The choice of which state's exemption law applies is made by 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(A), and it turns on domicile, meaning the place you live and intend to remain, not merely where you receive mail.

The rule works in two steps:

1. The 730-day test. If you were domiciled in one state for the full 730 days (roughly two years) immediately before the day you file, you use that state's exemption law.
2. The 180-day look-back. If you moved during those 730 days, you look at the 180 days immediately before the 730-day window began. The state where you were domiciled during those 180 days, or for the longer part of them, supplies the exemption law.

A practical example: a couple moves from New Jersey to Tampa, and 14 months later they need to file. They have not been Florida domiciliaries for 730 days. The 180-day window before the 730-day period falls entirely in their New Jersey years, so New Jersey's exemption law, or whatever choice New Jersey law allows, governs their case even though they file in a Florida court.

A Florida driver's license, voter registration, and homestead tax exemption do not override the domicile history, but they are evidence of when your Florida domicile began, so keep them.

Florida is an opt-out state

Federal law offers its own list of exemptions in 11 U.S.C. § 522(d), but it lets each state decide whether its residents may use that list. Florida opted out. Under Fla. Stat. § 222.20, a debtor whose exemptions are governed by Florida law uses Florida's exemptions, not the federal list.

For someone who has been a Florida domiciliary for more than two years, that means the Florida package: the homestead under Article X, § 4 of the Florida Constitution, the personal property exemption, the wage protection for a head of family, the retirement account exemption, and the others covered in Florida Bankruptcy Exemptions: What You Keep.

The Florida homestead has no dollar cap under the constitution. It is limited by size instead: one-half acre of contiguous land within a municipality, or 160 acres of contiguous land outside one. That combination is unusual nationally and is the reason the timing of a move matters so much here.

The federal fallback when no exemptions are available

Some states write their exemption laws so that they protect only their own residents. When the 730-day rule points to one of those states and you no longer live there, you could end up with no exemptions at all. Section 522(b)(3) anticipates this. In the paragraph that follows the domicile test, it provides that if applying the rule would leave you ineligible for any exemption, you may elect the federal exemptions in § 522(d).

Whether a particular state's exemptions follow a former resident into a Florida bankruptcy depends on how that state wrote its statutes, and courts have not read every state's laws the same way. This is a question to answer with counsel before filing, not after the trustee raises it.

The homestead cap for newer homes: § 522(p)

New residents who bought a Florida home face a second rule. Under 11 U.S.C. § 522(p), a debtor who uses state exemptions cannot exempt more than a set dollar amount of homestead value that was acquired during the 1,215 days (about three years and four months) before filing. The cap is a federal figure that adjusts periodically for inflation, so check the current number at the time of filing rather than relying on an older article.

Two points about § 522(p) are worth knowing:

• The cap applies to value acquired in the 1,215-day window, which can include the purchase itself and, in many readings, equity added through payments or improvements during that period.
• Equity rolled over from a previous principal residence acquired before the window does not count against the cap, but only if the old and new homes are in the same state. Selling a house in Ohio and buying in Sarasota does not qualify for the rollover protection.

A separate rule, 11 U.S.C. § 522(o), reduces the homestead exemption by any value that came from nonexempt property you converted into the home within 10 years before filing with intent to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors. Paying down a Florida mortgage with money that should have gone to creditors is the classic example. See Fraudulent Transfers in Florida Bankruptcy for how trustees look at those transactions.

If you moved away from Florida

The rule runs both directions. A former Floridian who moved to North Carolina or Tennessee within the last two years may find that Florida's exemption law, not the new state's, controls the case. That can help or hurt. Florida's personal property exemptions are modest compared to some states, and the Florida homestead protects a home you actually reside in, so it may not protect a Florida house you left behind. A move out of state should be evaluated with the same 730-day arithmetic before anything is filed.

Where you file: venue under 28 U.S.C. § 1408

The exemption question and the court question are different. Venue is governed by 28 U.S.C. § 1408, which allows you to file in the federal district where your domicile, residence, principal place of business, or principal assets were located for the 180 days before filing, or for the longer part of those 180 days than any other district.

So a person who has lived in Florida for seven months generally files in Florida, while using another state's exemptions. Florida has three bankruptcy districts:

• Northern District of Florida, including Tallahassee, Pensacola, Panama City, and Gainesville.
• Middle District of Florida, including Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, and Fort Myers.
• Southern District of Florida, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach.

Each district has its own local rules and trustee practices, which are summarized in Florida Bankruptcy Exemptions 2026: All Districts.

Should you wait to file?

Sometimes waiting is the right answer. If you are a few months short of 730 days as a Florida domiciliary, and creditors are not about to garnish wages or levy an account, delaying the petition until Florida law applies can be a legitimate choice. Timing a filing date is permitted. Moving assets around to improve your position is a different matter and is covered in Bankruptcy Exemption Planning in Florida.

If a lawsuit, garnishment, or foreclosure is already underway, waiting may cost more than it saves.

Frequently asked questions

I own a home in Florida but still spend summers in New York. Which state is my domicile? Domicile is a factual question about where you intend to make your permanent home. Your homestead filing, voter registration, tax filings, and where you spend most of the year are all evidence. Mixed facts deserve a careful look before filing.

Do I need to tell the court where I lived before Florida? Yes. The bankruptcy petition asks for prior addresses, and the trustee will use that history to test your exemption claims.

Before you worry about exemptions, the free Florida means test calculator takes about three minutes and shows whether Chapter 7 is realistic at your income before you pay for a consultation.