I have an older 3BR house on 20 acres. We are looking at building a new structure and keeping the existing home as a pool house/entertainment area. Does anyone know the rule on if the new structure must share a roof or slab with the existing structure to homestead the new home and older structure as 1 property? Is there some rule about it being within a certain distance between the structures?

Thank you!

In my experience, each CAD makes up the rules however they see fit within the grey area of the following:

Quote:

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1) "Residence homestead" means a structure (including a mobile home) or a separately secured and occupied portion of a structure (together with the land, not to exceed 20 acres, and improvements used in the residential occupancy of the structure, if the structure and the land and improvements have identical ownership) that:
(A) is owned by one or more individuals, either directly or through a beneficial interest in a qualifying trust;
(B) is designed or adapted for human residence;
(C) is used as a residence; and
(D) is occupied as the individual's principal residence by an owner, by an owner's surviving spouse who has a life estate in the property, or, for property owned through a beneficial interest in a qualifying trust, by a trustor or beneficiary of the trust who qualifies for the exemption.

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Are you referring to homestead exemption for tax purposes or for a homestead for legal reasons? You can homestead up to 150 acres I believe, but that is referring to something different than just the taxes on your residential structure as your homestead....

I was talking about homestead for tax purposes.

I didn't want to have two "houses" and only be able to homestead one and have a separate house. Does that make sense?

Thanks for the help

i'm no expert but if your 20 acres is one parcel with the CAD with an existing homestead exemption surely you could build 100 structures and still be a homestead if you live there. which structure is the homestead doesn't matter. you are still getting taxed on the value of all the structures and less the homestead exemption.

Is there a portion of the 20 acres on ag exemption? if so I would be concerned about losing the ag exemption and tax rollback if you are building on the portion that has ag.

here is collin co (where i live)
https://www.collincad.org/faqs/25-homestead

A homestead is a structure (including a condominium or a manufactured home) that is designed and occupied for use as a residence. A homestead can include up to 20 acres of land, if the land is owned by the homeowner and used for residential purposes.