815.20.Homestead exemption definition.

Section 815.20(1) sets the core homestead protection: an exempt homestead, as defined in section 990.01(14), selected by a resident owner and occupied by that owner, is exempt from execution, from every judgment lien, and from liability for the owner’s debts, up to $75,000. That protection does not reach mortgages, laborers’ and mechanics’ liens, purchase money liens, taxes, or other exceptions the law otherwise provides.

The exemption survives changes in how the owner uses the property. Temporary removal from the homestead, with the intent to reoccupy it, does not impair the exemption. And selling the homestead does not strip the protection either — it extends to the sale proceeds, up to $75,000, for two years, so long as the owner holds those proceeds with the intent to buy another homestead.

Married and co-owned property gets its own treatment. The exemption extends to land owned by a husband and wife jointly, in common, or as marital property, and each spouse may claim a homestead exemption of up to $75,000. It also extends to the interest of tenants in common who have a homestead on the land with the consent of their cotenants, and to any estate less than a fee.

Section 815.20(2) gives an owner a way to clear a judgment lien from a homestead worth less than $75,000: the owner, or an heir, devisee, grantee, or mortgagee, may proceed under section 806.04 for declaratory relief if the judgment owner fails, for 10 days after a demand, to execute a recordable release of the homestead from that lien.