Is a Boat Slip Real Property in Florida? Deeded Slips, Dockominiums and Leases

We get this question on waterfront closings every month, usually from a buyer who was told the slip "comes with the house" or "is deeded." The honest answer is that a slip is only real property if someone actually owns the space it occupies and conveyed it by deed. In much of Florida nobody private can, because the State of Florida owns the bottom of most navigable water. This article sorts slips into the five legal forms we see, shows how to identify each from the paperwork, and explains what changes at closing. For who owns the shoreline itself, see our guide to seawalls and riparian rights.

The five things a Florida boat slip can be

Every slip we have closed falls into one of five categories, in descending order of how much you actually own.

• 1. A fee simple slip on private submerged land. In a man-made basin or canal dug out of private uplands, or where an old state deed conveyed the bottom into private hands, the land under the water can be privately owned. A slip there can be platted or described by metes and bounds and conveyed by warranty deed like any lot. This is the rarest form and the strongest.
• 2. A dockominium unit. The marina is submitted to condominium ownership under Chapter 718, and each slip is a unit: a defined block of space, with an undivided share of the common elements (docks, pilings, parking, bathhouse). It has its own parcel identification number and tax bill, it is conveyed by deed, and it carries monthly assessments. Dry-storage buildings sold the same way are called rackominiums.
• 3. A limited common element or assigned slip. The most common form in residential condos and waterfront HOA communities. The slip is not a unit. It is a part of the common property reserved for the exclusive use of one owner, and it is appurtenant to that owner's unit or lot. You do not get a deed to the slip; you get the unit, and the right to the slip follows under the declaration, sometimes confirmed by a recorded assignment.
• 4. A leasehold slip. The marina holds a lease, either from a private owner or from the State of Florida over sovereign submerged land, and sells or assigns long-term sub-rights to individual slips. You own a share of a lease with an expiration date, not land.
• 5. A license, membership or rental. A yacht club equity membership, a slip agreement, a month-to-month or annual rental. It is a contract between you and the operator. It may be transferable with the operator's consent, and it may not be.

Only the first two are real property in the full sense. The third is a real property right, but only as an attachment to something else you own. The fourth is an interest in real property that shrinks every year. The fifth is personal property at best.

Free Florida Closing Calculators

Who owns the bottom decides everything

Florida took title to the beds of its navigable waters when it became a state in 1845, and it holds them in trust for the public. These are sovereign submerged lands, administered by the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund through the Department of Environmental Protection under Chapter 253 and Rule 18-21 of the Florida Administrative Code. A private party cannot own a slip in fee over water the state owns, because there is nothing under the boat for them to own.

What the upland owner has instead is riparian rights: the right of access to the water and, with authorization, the right to build a dock out to it. A single-family dock within the size limits usually needs only a consent or a letter of consent. A multi-slip facility or a marina needs a sovereign submerged land lease, which has a fixed term, an annual fee based on the preempted area, renewal conditions, and a requirement that the lessee keep the upland interest that supports it. When a lease like that expires or is not renewed, every slip "sold" under it goes with it.

This is why the first question on any slip is not what the listing says but what is under the water. The answer is usually in three places: the marina's recorded declaration or plat, the county property appraiser's parcel map, and the DEP's lease records. If the marina basin was excavated from private land, or the chain of title includes an old Trustees deed to the bottom, fee ownership is possible. If the docks extend into a river, bay or the Intracoastal Waterway, assume a state lease until proven otherwise. Our article on fish camps and submerged land leases covers how those leases work and the traps in old, grandfathered structures.

How to tell from the documents

You can sort a slip into its category in about twenty minutes with four documents. Ask for them before you make an offer.

• The seller's vesting deed. If the seller holds a deed whose legal description is the slip itself ("Unit B-14, Harbor Marina, a Condominium" or a lot and block in a plat), it is category 1 or 2. If the deed describes only a house or a condo apartment and the slip is mentioned as "together with the use of Slip 14," it is category 3.
• The tax roll. Search the property appraiser's site for the slip. A real property slip has its own parcel number and its own tax bill. If there is no separate parcel, the slip is not a separately owned piece of real estate, whatever the listing says.
• The declaration. For a condo or HOA slip, read the sections on limited common elements, assignment and transfer. Florida's Condominium Act lets a declaration permit limited common elements to be transferred between unit owners, but only in the manner the declaration provides. Many declarations require the association's written approval, restrict transfers to other owners in the same community, or cap the number of slips one owner may hold.
• The submerged land lease. If there is one, get the current lease, its expiration date, the last renewal, proof the annual fees are paid, and any DEP compliance letters. A lease with three years left and an unresolved violation is a very different asset from one renewed last year.

Two warning signs. A "bill of sale" or "assignment of slip agreement" as the only transfer document means you are in category 4 or 5. And a slip that has changed hands several times by unrecorded assignment may have no clean chain at all, which becomes your problem when you try to sell it.

What changes at closing: deed, title insurance, taxes, financing

The conveyance. Fee slips and dockominium units close like any other real estate: a warranty deed, recorded in the county's official records. Limited common element slips transfer with the unit's deed; if the slip is being assigned separately between owners, the assignment should follow the declaration exactly, be approved by the association in writing, and be recorded. Leasehold and license slips transfer by assignment with the consent of the lessor or operator.

Title insurance. We can issue an owner's policy on a fee slip or a dockominium unit, with the usual exceptions plus ones specific to water: the rights of the public and the government in navigable waters, and the terms of any submerged land lease. On a limited common element slip, the policy insures the unit, and coverage for the slip right depends on the recorded documents supporting it. A leasehold can be insured with a leasehold policy if the lease is recorded and long enough to be worth insuring. A license or membership cannot be insured as title to land at all.

Doc stamps and recording. A deed to a slip carries documentary stamp tax at the same $0.70 per $100 as any other deed ($0.60 in Miami-Dade). Assignments of leasehold interests in real property are generally taxable too. Our doc stamp calculator gives the figure.

Property tax. A real property slip gets its own bill and is never homestead, so it is assessed under the non-homestead cap rather than Save Our Homes. A limited common element slip is taxed as part of the unit it belongs to.

Financing. Banks lend against real estate they can take a mortgage on. That works for fee slips and dockominiums, though the pool of lenders is small and down payments are high. A slip that is only a use right or a license is normally a cash purchase, or is financed with a personal or marine loan secured by something else.

Selling a slip separately from the home

The most common dispute we see is a waterfront owner who sells the house and wants to keep the slip, or sell it to a neighbor for a price that reflects what slips now cost. Whether that is possible depends entirely on the category.

• Fee and dockominium slips are freely transferable unless the declaration restricts buyers, for example to residents of an associated community or to owners approved by the association.
• Limited common element slips can be separated from a unit only if the declaration says so and only to a permitted transferee, which is usually another owner in the same condominium. A slip cannot be sold to an outsider who owns nothing in the community, because the right exists only as an attachment to a unit. If the contract for the home is silent, the slip goes with the unit.
• Single-family docks behind a house are not separately saleable at all. The dock is an improvement that exists by virtue of the upland owner's riparian rights and the state's consent; it conveys with the lot. Renting it out is a separate question that turns on the consent's terms and local zoning.
• Leasehold and license slips need the lessor's or operator's consent, and the transfer fee can be substantial.

If you are buying a home and the slip is part of why, the contract should say so in words: the slip number, the document that creates the right, a requirement that the seller deliver the recorded assignment or association approval at closing, and a contingency if the association refuses. If you are selling and intend to keep the slip, that belongs in the contract too, along with proof that the declaration lets you.

Send us the listing and whatever documents you have before you sign. We will tell you which of the five categories the slip is in, what can be insured, and what the closing will require.

Related Reading

Waterfront

Who Owns the Seawall? Florida Riparian Rights

Where private ownership ends and the state's begins.

Waterfront

Fish Camps and Sovereign Submerged Land Leases

How state leases over water work, and the title traps.

Waterfront

Can You Foreclose on a Houseboat in Florida?

When something that floats is real property, and when it is not.

Frequently Asked Questions