Are you going through the divorce process and have questions about the house during divorce? Check out this article, then give our Georgia lawyers a call.
Sharing a Home During Divorce
I had a client call me with what is not a unique situation and asked me if both he and his wife could share the marital residence during their pending divorce in Georgia. In fact, you can, and it is more and more common just from an economic standpoint that folks going through a divorce remain under the same roof until everything is finalized. The key to the situation is you cannot act as husband and wife while you’re living in the home together, specifically you cannot reconsummate the marriage. If you do that and your divorce complaint has been filed, it is subject to being dismissed. You can live under the same roof, but you cannot cohabitate, and you cannot hold yourself out as husband and wife.
Family House During a Divorce
Whenever we receive a call from a new client, one of their major concerns is that they have a residence and they want to know what’s going to happen to that house after a divorce is completed. It’s a bit of a complicated answer because some people want to remain in their residence and some people don’t. Some people want to get a fresh start.
The first question that we would ask usually during your initial consultation is what you want to happen to that home. Depending on what your answer is, whether you want to stay in the house or whether you want to move somewhere else, we really need to sit down and look at whether you can afford to stay there, whether it would require your spouse’s support to stay there, whether your children are comfortable and want to stay there or not.
Certainly, the location of where you’re going to live is going to matter to the court as to custody. The question that we usually get when it comes to your home is whether your kids are comfortable there. Do they want to stay? Is it in their school district? If you can afford to stay there, that would be our proposal to the judge. Now, if you can’t afford to stay there, that creates an issue for the trial court to decide, how can we pay for this home if you want to stay? Would it be more appropriate for both parties if it’s listed for sale? If that’s the case, should we sell it while we’re in a divorce? Should we wait until after the divorce is complete and then put it on the market and then mover the children out of the home? The judge is really going to want us to walk him/her through what you want to happen, how it’s going to affect your kids, if you have any, and who’s going to maintain the debt on that property. Based on that and our answers in the trial court, the judge is going to decide whether you’re going to be able to keep your home, maintain the payments on it, or whether it may be best to sell the property and split the proceeds. A lot of times, so long as we tell the court and show the court that it’s reasonable for you to remain in your home, the court is not going to force you out of your residence.
Summer Home During a Divorce
I had a client call the other day because he is in the middle of a divorce and wanted to know what would happen with his vacation home as a result of going through this divorce. How would it be divided? The summer home would be an asset of the marriage, if it was purchased during the marriage. It would be appraised to establish a value. If you don’t reach an agreement and you ask a judge, a judge could order that the vacation home be sold. That is why we generally are advocates of mediation so that the parties can work together to come to a resolution where the assets basically aren’t sold at the direction of a judge who really doesn’t know that much about your personal property.
Are you or a loved one in the process of a divorce in Statesboro, Springfield, or Swainsboro and have questions about the house during divorce? Contact the experienced Georgia divorce attorneys at Hall & Navarro today for a consultation and case evaluation. We can help get your life back on track.
