Hialeah mayoral candidate Bryan Calvo lived for years in a home that improperly received a low-income senior property-tax exemption intended for his parents, some of it while he served as a city council member, according to county records.
The Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser’s Office determined last year that the Hialeah home did not qualify for the senior exemption for homeowners 65 and older, which Calvo’s mother applied for in 2019 for tax years 2019-24. The family paid $5,282.97 last year to settle back taxes and penalties.
Calvo’s father inherited the home from his mother in November 2016. In January 2017, Calvo, then 19 and studying at Harvard, was added to the deed alongside his mother as a co-owner.
Calvo, who is running in the Nov. 4 Hialeah elections, told the Miami Herald his father added him and his mother to the title “so that if anything happened to him, we wouldn’t have to go through probate. It was a simple way to protect the family home, something many Hialeah families understand all too well.” His father died on Oct. 16.
County records show Calvo’s mother applied in June 2019 for both the standard homestead exemption and an additional senior exemption for homeowners 65 and older with limited income, which reduces the property’s assessed value for tax purposes by an additional $50,000. Based on that information, the county granted the exemption starting with the 2019 tax year.
To qualify for Florida’s senior homestead exemption, at least one homeowner must be 65 or older and the total household adjusted gross income cannot exceed $37,694, according to the Florida Department of Revenue’s 2025 guidelines. When the Calvo family applied in 2019, the limit was $30,174.
Calvo said he was unaware of the exemptions his parents had applied for or received.
“I didn’t know the exemption existed until my parents received a letter from the Property Appraiser’s Office in the summer of 2024,” he said.
While Calvo was still serving on the City Council, the Property Appraiser’s Office notified his family that the senior exemption had been improperly applied and issued a Notice of Intent to Lien to recover back taxes, penalties and interest.
The Property Appraiser’s Office launched an investigation in December 2023 after receiving an “anonymous phone call from a concerned neighbor” claiming that Calvo’s parents did not live in their Hialeah home but resided in Broward County, according to public records. Investigators found no evidence that the family had abandoned the home or owned property in Broward. However, the office noted that both Calvo and his then-wife were “believed to be gainfully employed.”
The office later determined that Calvo and his then-wife had established permanent residence at the property; the couple married in December 2019 and divorced in March 2024.
Calvo said he had no role in applying for the exemptions and that his parents handled the home’s finances.
“It’s an obscure rule that most people, especially seniors, don’t know about,” he said. “My parents qualified when they applied, but once household income crossed the limit in 2022, they should have withdrawn the exemption. They only learned of that requirement after receiving the letter in 2024.”
Calvo told the Herald his first full-time job was as a law clerk in the summer of 2022, shortly after graduating from Florida International University College of Law. He was elected to the Hialeah City Council in November 2021, a part-time position with a $44,000 annual salary, and resigned in May 2024, effective November, to run for Miami-Dade Tax Collector. The disqualification of the property’s senior exemptions surfaced during that campaign against fellow Republican Dariel Fernandez.
“My parents received the letter, paid the back taxes and fine that same day, and closed the matter immediately,” Calvo said. “There’s been no investigation, because there was no fraud.”
Calvo defended his decision to continue living in his parents’ home after his marriage, citing affordability challenges faced by many Hialeah families.
“Like many hardworking families in Hialeah, we faced the challenge of high housing costs,” he said. “Staying with family wasn’t about convenience, it was about doing things responsibly and saving until we could properly afford our own home.”
Calvo’s statement as a mayoral candidate shows he moved out of the family home in March 2025, after living there for 27 years.
“Like so many in Hialeah, that’s part of the American dream, to work hard, save, and eventually build your own home here.”