You may be wondering: What happens to our home in a Louisville divorce? This is a central question in every divorce which involves home ownership. Who gets the house? What’s the best decision for your unique circumstances?
First, if you are a parent you should not move out of the family home without seeking the counsel of the proven experienced divorce and family law attorneys at Dodd & Dodd. Moving out could harm your own interests when it comes to child custody and parenting time.
The key to the question of what happens to our home in a Louisville divorce is to separate your emotions from the realities of this important decision. In most cases, it has required the income of both parties to make payments on the house. This is much more difficult (or impossible) after the divorce.
The core issue from the perspective of divorce is the amount of equity in your home. This is an asset which should be equitably divided between the parties. If one of the former spouses wishes to keep the family home, they must “offset” the marital interest the other party has in the home as part of the property settlement. The party who wishes to keep the home must not only make the payments or refinance the home altogether, they must pay their former spouse roughly half of the existing equity in the home.
If your spouse wants to keep the house there is an important fact you must consider and address: An order from a divorce Judge awarding the house to one party or the other has no impact whatsoever on who is responsible for the existing mortgage(s). So if the party who keeps the house falls behind on payments, it will not only damage the credit of their former spouse but expose them to collections and financial obligation on a home they no longer own or enjoy. If one of the spouses wishes to keep the home it should be refinanced to remove the other party from the mortgage(s).
The best answer to the question What happens to our home in a Louisville divorce is it must either be sold or refinanced. The simplest answer is to sell the house and divide the equity between the parties. If one of the parties wishes to keep the home they will in all likelihood have to demonstrate their ability to not only afford the associated payment but to offset their former spouse’s interest in the equity of the home.
We invite you to review the strong recommendations of our former clients and contact us or call 502-584-1108 to schedule an appointment with one of our experienced divorce and family law attorneys.
