Benefits of owning your property through an LLC | Page 3 | General Homesteading Discussion | Forums

We owned our last house, the offgrid cabin, in an LLC. It added some complications at closing time when selling but it felt nice knowing that we were shielded from things. Most states won't give a primary residence exemption for homes in an LLC since the LLC isn't a 'person'. We were granted one by some miracle.

We looked into doing this.  My friend is an attorney and it cost's about $500 around here.  Here the big thing is you have to advertise it in a major newspaper-has to have a certain amount of circulation- for three consecutive months.  It is considered legal/public notification and costs about $300.  If you are running as a farm/business it can make sense.  The liability part sounds pretty good, but the protection of LLC's is being challenged at times, especially if they smell big money...and according to the lawyer there are cases where people have won.

We are concerned about loosing everything or going broke to a frivolous liability law suit. Some idiot trespassing on posted land steps in a wood chuck hole and breaks his leg has more rights than us the land owner.  So I looked into this years ago. The best solution and most affordable that I am aware is an 'umbrella liability' policy.  Mine covers up to 1 million in liability and cost's me about $110 a year.  I did have to up my auto insurance for more liability on them but it wasn't much.  If someone shoots their foot off on my property they can sue me...their attorney will go after the liability policy...good thing is they deal with the Insurance company lawyers and get's me off the hook for up to 1 mil.  The umbrella also covers us for liability in auto accidents and any other civil liability/claims and some criminal liability. 

For us it is peace of mind.

Recently looked into upping it to 3 mil, the premium would go up to about $400 a year...not sure that is worth the extra money.  But for $110 a year at this time...we think it is a good idea.

It's concerning out there...

When I flip through the channels and see all the court room shows and then there are dozens of law firms pitching for personal injury law suits. 

If you get sued you could be innocent/not liable, but you still have to pay for your defense...that is where the umbrella policy is nice.

There is one local law firm that is always advertising on TV, they show 'actual' people they represented and how they got them a big check...the people they put on these commercials look and talk like they were just waiting for a bus to run over their foot so they could get an insurance pay out.

Sad