Divorce and House Representation

For some couples, the marital home may well be the major asset in a divorce. Most couples acquired their home jointly—although there will certainly be those who came into the marriage with a home and never added their spouse’s name or co-owned the asset in any way.

If you jointly own your marital home and still pay for the mortgage, the issue of whether to keep or sell the house can become one of the biggest decisions in the divorce. In many cases, one spouse remains in the home and the other moves out during the process of the divorce.

Even if the spouse remaining in the home intends to sell or refinance at some point, this usually does not happen immediately. There are a number of issues you need to consider during your Florida divorce regarding keeping or selling your marital home. Some of these issues include:

Choose to Disentangle Yourself or Move out Beforehand
In most cases, a Florida divorce attorney may advise you to disengage from your spouse right away. Other partners still continue to share a home while other couples find this arrangement complicated and unworkable.

At that juncture, the property will be disposed of and the proceeds split. This idea might be a practical resolution. But, you will probably find this intrusive since your ex is still a part-owner of the house, they have all the liberty to dictate to you about the rules at home. Usually, if possible, it is a better decision to release yourself from being tied to your spouse as soon as possible.

Consider Many Things for a Marital Home Settlement
The main thing to ask yourself is whether you can afford the monthly mortgage on your own. Most divorced individuals miscalculate their expenditures to pay all the bills on their own. You can set it down first, figure out a realistic fund allotment, and decide whether or not you can afford to remain in the home, accepting the responsibilities like property taxes, utilities, and property maintenance.

Also, you must think about whether you would be comfortable living with your ex. If you decide to sell your home later, there must be enough equity in the home to obtain some productive businesses for you.

Carefully Consider Issues Before Leaving While Divorce is Ongoing
Think about what would transpire if you entrust your ex to continue to pay the mortgage. If your partner defaults on paying on time, your credit status would be sabotaged.

If this actually happens or if you are still contemplating moving out of the spousal home; creditors can devaluate your credit score when different addresses of short term are presented.

Reflect on How Much Your Home is Worth
Has your home been appraised to specifically know your financial status? This is a crucial thing to do before deciding to stay, leave, sell, or keep.

If you and your ex can still get along, you can slowly save up money and check online what comparative homes in your community have sold for.

Assess the Capital Gains Tax of Your Property
Leisure homes are not qualified for capital gains exclusions; your main residence is a house you have lived in for at least two to five years before you market the home. Capital gain is your home’s selling price, minus the expenditures associated with the deal, minus your adjusted “basis.”

Worry About Capital Gains When Your Spouse Buys Out the Other's Interest in the Marital Home
If you are the one who is dealing with your interest in the spousal home, then you don’t ought to regard the capital gains. The sale of the marital home is deemed a part of your divorce.

However, if you are planning to buy your spouse’s interest in the house, planning to live in, and afterward sell the house, then you will be subject to capital gains when you sell. But, you will obtain the $250,000 capital gains exclusion.

Aspects to Look at When Keeping or Selling the Home
Our marital home is our asset, however, in many cases, it can be so hard to be emotionally separated from it especially when you’ve spent your decades in that particular home.

Maybe this is where you grew your children and created long-term relationships with the people around your vicinity. Perhaps your home’s environment puts your children in an excellent school, which you would not want to lose.

Or maybe your home is the nearest to your workplace, or maybe the home simply symbolizes strength to one or both of you. Work out on having an unbiased third-party evaluator for you to understand the financial impact of keeping/selling/staying in the marital home.

Does Moving Out of the Marital Home Mean Abandonment?
In Florida, spouses are permitted to move out of the marital house with no threat of the court lifting the issue of abandonment since Florida says nothing about this topic.

That being said, being the one to move out of the marital home could give your spouse the chance to stay in the marital home as the immediate custodian of the children. This could then be considered when the court is resolving guardianship concerns.


Deciding Whether It is Practical to Retain the Marital Home
There are situations when maintaining the marital home can yield beneficial results, whether financially, or from a realistic perspective. Some of those instances comprise:

✔️ If your children go to a school district, it makes sense to remain in the marital home to retain their convenience for them.
✔️ If you have low monthly mortgage fees and fairly low property taxes, it might be just fine to stay. You might have a hardship locating another place to live which will be as affordable as where you are presently residing.
✔️ If you have sufficient investments to buy out your partner instantly, you enjoy your present home and you want to stay there longer, then it could be a fair idea to stay in the marital home from a virtuously financial outlook.

Correspondingly, there are times when preserving the marital home may make have a sentiment to you emotionally, but indeed does not make sense from a monetary stance. These conditions include:

✔️ When you demand the cash from the deal of the marital home to begin a new chapter in your life;
✔️ When you don’t have enough cash to buy out your partner;
✔️ When your kids are grown and gone and you don’t desire that freedom, or
✔️ When your marital home is big and costly, you could not pay for the maintenance, taxes, and mortgage settlements.


Trust Florida’s Expert in Family Law Attorney
When contemplating about selling or keeping your spousal home in Florida, Atty. Mellany Marquez Kelly is the best attorney for that matter. She’s the expert family lawyer with more than enough experience in the endeavor, you won’t be confused even a bit when you work with her.

Attorney Mellany Marquez-Kelly has been assisting innumerable clients in Florida regarding the keeping or selling of spousal homes. Attorney Mellany Marquez-Kelly is a professional and intelligent divorce lawyer in Fort Myers, Fl. and its surrounding areas in Southwest Florida.

To learn more about child custody and divorce, message us online, or call us at 239-214-0403 today!