Marital property includes personal
possessions, real property and money. If you and your spouse cannot agree on how
to divide your property, the court will divide it for you. The court generally
divides the property as follows:
First, the court must identify what
property is marital property and what property is separate property. Marital
property is all the property that the parties obtain during the marriage,
including the increase in value of the parties’ separate property. After the
marital property is identified, the court must equitably divide it. This does
not mean equally. The court does not consider who is at fault in the divorce in
the division of property.
The court may order that certain
property be sold and the money received be divided as the court feels is fair.
This often happens when the husband and wife cannot agree on who keeps certain
items.
The court considers the entire
situation of both parties involved in a marital dispute. The court attempts to
divide the property as fairly as possible based upon all the facts and
circumstances. The court tries to consider the interests and needs of the
parties and custody of any minor children. The court may grant possession of the
marital residence to the parent who has custody of the minor children, either
while the children are under 18, and order it sold when the youngest child turns
18, or may award the residence to the custodial parent and offset the equity of
the marital residence against other property.
The Court must also consider the
allocation of marital debts and would typically award the debts to the party
that received the property.
The Court may consider the fault and
the condition of the parties and award alimony in solido (lump sum amount of
money) where after an equitable division of property, the court determines that
one spouse needs more than the property to support him or herself.
You can divide your property and debts
any way you want, provided you do it by agreement. If you cannot agree, you will
have a hearing and the judge will decide how to divide your property. Know your
rights before making any final decisions.
I have prepared spread sheet to help
you in the division of the property. You will need to list the property, debt,
and present value of the property. The present value is not what you paid for
it, but what the asset would sell for today. Then you will put the net value of
the asset or debt in the column of the spouse that will receive the property.
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