Are you beginning a divorce? You may be wondering, “What will happen to my property after a divorce?” Our Rochester attorney details what you should expect.
Property After a Divorce | Separate Property
Separate property is property that accumulated either before the start of the marriage, or after the beginning of a divorce action. Sometimes separate property is acquired during the course of the marriage but which the other spouse has no claim to. For instance, if they receive an inheritance and somebody left the money to them, that money is theirs, separate and distinct from marital property, and they get to keep that on their own. In these instances, they should be careful not to comingle or intermix that property with martial property. If that happened, the court very well could say that separate property was turned into marital property and they could end up owing inheritance to their spouse that otherwise they would not have had to give to them.
What Happens to the House After a Divorce?
Typically, what’s going to happen is that the house is going to be sold, or one spouse is going to buy it from the other. That’s going to entail going to the bank and getting it refinanced in that spouse’s name alone if it was jointly titled and paying off the other spouse’s equity in the house.
Personal Belongings
In many divorce cases, each spouse has many personal belongings. These could be things like beds, dressers, clothes, etc. Typically, divorce attorneys don’t handle those belongings within the context of a divorce. Those things are better off being meditated between the spouses themselves. Paying an attorney is not ideal when dealing with whether a spouse gets to keep their own dressers. If a spouse brings property into the marriage, that can be taken out by them. It is theirs to keep. That is separate property. If during the course of the marriage, a spouse was specifically given an item, it is theirs to keep as well. Attorneys typically do not get involved in the division of things like pots and pans.
If you are going through a divorce, please call our experienced Rochester divorce attorney today for a free consultation.