Broward's Homestead Exemption Deadline Is September 18, No Exceptions

Every year, a handful of my clients find out about Broward's homestead exemption deadline the hard way. They bought a house in 2025, moved in before the new year, and meant to file. Life got busy. Now it is September, and the state will not give them another chance until 2027.

Florida gives homeowners a wide window to file. The timely deadline for a 2026 exemption was March 2, but Broward, like every county in the state, also allows late filing through a hard cutoff: September 18, 2026. After that date, the Broward County Property Appraiser's office cannot accept a 2026 application for any reason. State law does not build in exceptions for a good excuse, a hardship letter, or plain forgetting.

To qualify, you had to own the property and be using it as your permanent residence on or before January 1, 2026. That covers more people than you might think. Anyone who closed on a Broward home in 2025 and moved in before the new year is eligible, whether they knew it or not. The deadline applies to more than the basic homestead exemption too. It covers the Limited Income Senior Exemption, the Disability Exemption, the Veteran and Military Exemption, and the Surviving Spouse Exemption, all under the same September 18 wall.

Here is the part worth sitting with. Depending on your city's millage rate, the basic homestead exemption saves Broward homeowners somewhere between $659 and $1,009 a year. Not once. Every year you own the home. File it in year one and it renews on its own, no annual paperwork, no reminder needed. Skip the window and you are paying full freight on a bill you did not have to pay, for twelve months you cannot get back.

There is a second piece that matters even more over time. Once your exemption is active, Florida's Save Our Homes provision caps how much your assessed value can climb each year, at 3 percent or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower. For 2026 that cap sits at 2.7 percent. In a market where home values have moved considerably faster than that in a single year, the gap between your assessed value and your actual market value compounds every year you carry the exemption. Homeowners who let a year slip by are not just losing this year's savings. They are pushing back the year the real long-term benefit starts.

Filing takes about ten minutes online through the Broward County Property Appraiser's website. If you bought a home last year, or you know someone who did and has not filed, September 18 is the day to take care of it. After that, the door does not reopen until next year's window.

Roger Averbuj, Broker | Prestige Heritage Realty | (954) 663-8461

Source: Late Filing Exemption Deadline, September 18, 2026, The Galt Mile Community Association