its time
New
Reged: 08/20/08
Posts: 3
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married 3 years, no kids, had my house for 6 years before we married, and continued to pay the mortgage on my own throughout the marriage....does she have any claim to my house???
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Starion
Gold
Reged: 03/04/08
Posts: 110
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Only any increase in value (if any) during the three years of marriage. She is entitled to half of that.
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gigi
Platinum
Reged: 11/06/06
Posts: 4699
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Take the value of the house 3 years ago and the value of it now. Subtract the values of the mortgages at both times. The increase in value is what you share.
Unless you paid for it entirely from separate funds, like an inheritance or trust fund from before the marriage. The fact taht YOU paid it, wrote out the check, worked for the money in the account that the check came from, etc., does not mean that she doesn't deserve half of it.
The judges assume that if you're married to someone, you share everything equally... chores, expenses, work, earning. If you are paying more from your work earnings to live and letting her use hers to play & buy crap, that's considered YOUR choice of how to evenly split the obligations and joys of marriage. The jduge is not going to go behind your decisions and say whether or not you made GOOD choices in making those decisions, whether you SHOULD have never let her spend a day at the spa for $1000 a pop every Saturday... wehther you SHOULD have required her to put some of her earnings towards paying for the house. The judge will also not listen to her talk about how you insisted that she keep herself up, stay the perfect weight or wahtever other accusations she wants to make, adn whatever claims she makes in saying that she did her fair share of work for the marriage.. .
The ONLY things the jduge will look at is whether your source of funding for paying your mortgage was clearly separate... like I said, if there was a trust fund to pay for the house or something...
There are some states where you're allowed ot bring up "fault" and say that you deserve more of a piece of the savings accumulated during hte marriage (savings in terms of equity in the house if that's all there was), but not all states allow that, and doing it really brings up a whole can of worms you probably don't want to deal with.
In your sitaution, the way property values have been in the past 3 years, you probably don't have a whole lot to worry about. The contributions that the marriage made to the value of the house probably only are equal to the value of rent and have not added a whole lot to the total value of the equity in the house.
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its time
New
Reged: 08/20/08
Posts: 3
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Pretty much what I figured....to complicate matters she sold an apartment against my will after we were married one year.... and made a tidy profit....should I have been entitled to any of that money? Also forgot to mention in the last post, located in Florida Thanks!
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gigi
Platinum
Reged: 11/06/06
Posts: 4699
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If it was her apartment and you did not use any jointly earned funds to maintain it (if it's rents were maintaining it's carrying costs) then it was hers, alone, to do with as she chose. IF she chose to spend any of the profits on your lifestyle, then that's nice, but if she rolled the profits into some other item for herself, that's ONLY hers.
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allthumbs
Platinum
Reged: 07/12/07
Posts: 346
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Was this apartment her's only? Were you on the title? If not, then it was her's to do with as she wished. The profit was mostly all her's as well because IF the apt. was hers alone, then all you would have been entitled to was 1/2 of the increase in value from the date of your marriage till it was sold. Did it's value increase much in one year? If she spent all the money already, then it's gone. However, if there is any left, you could argue that you deserve 1/2 of the value increase for that one year, if there was any and you can prove it. Even if there wasn't any left, you could still argue that you should deserve 1/2 of that year's increase in value. And then, deduct that from her share of the home's value increase. See?
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its time
New
Reged: 08/20/08
Posts: 3
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well... she is not on the title to my house....and as I alone have paid the mortgage and the utlities etc. during the entire marriage and can prove it, does it matter? She has been married multiple times, and from day one insisted on everything staying seperate.
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allthumbs
Platinum
Reged: 07/12/07
Posts: 346
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Unfortunately, both spouses incomes are considered community property. So when you say "I alone paid the mortgage", you may have written checks from an individual acct. where your paycheck was deposited. But it wasn't "yours alone" as all income earned during a marriage is community property. Perhaps you would do well to talk with a divorce attorney who can answer questions you may have. Many of us think some of our states divorce laws are unfair.
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