Wishful Thinking Is Not an Appropriate Financial Strategy, According to Family Law Attorneys

There are more possible answers to the question of which spouse keeps the marital home than you might expect.  If the house was nonmarital property before the couple married, the court usually awards it to the spouse who originally bought it and orders him or her to pay an equalizing payment to the other spouse, to compensate for part of the appreciation of the house’s value during the marriage.  If the parties have minor children together, the court usually awards the house to the spouse with the majority of the parenting time, so the children will not have to change schools.  Sometimes no one keeps the house; if the mortgage payment took up a substantial portion of both spouses’ incomes, then it is likely that neither one can afford to keep paying the mortgage on a single income.  When this happens, the court orders the couple to sell the house and divide the proceeds.  They say that divorce makes everyone poorer, and no one feels this more acutely than couples who sell their houses and divide the measly proceeds in the middle of an abysmal housing market.  If your marriage fell apart just as the economy tanked, contact a Boca Raton divorce lawyer.

Judge Gives Daddy’s Girl a Reality Check

People often tell you that divorce means standing on your own two feet like you never have before, but until you experience it, you don’t know what they mean.  A couple bought a house when they experienced a windfall; the husband received a severance payout from his job, expecting to find a new job quickly, and the wife inherited money from her maternal kin.  The previous owner of the house was the wife’s father, who sold it to the couple at a bargain price.

Things did not go as the couple planned.  The husband earned less money at his new job than he had at the one where he received the severance payment that enabled him to make a down payment on the marital home.  Just to afford the property taxes, the couple relied on cash gifts from the wife’s brother.

The couple divorced in 2008, and during mediation, they agreed that the wife would remain in the marital home until the couple’s youngest child, who was eight at the time of the divorce, turned eighteen, and then they would determine whether the wife could afford to keep the house or whether they would need to sell it.  Later, at trial, the court asked the wife how she would afford the mortgage payments, and she said that she would ask her brother for money.  The judge said that this was not a realistic plan, and he ordered the couple to sell the house and divide the proceeds.

Contact Schwartz | White About Divorce 

A South Florida family law attorney can help you divide your marital property after a marriage where you depended on family members financially.  Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.

Source:

scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=4095259326586603240&q=divorce+martin&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2010&as_yhi=2020