Down the Drain?

January 5, 2012   ·   0 Comments

Q: My husband and I have lived in Royal Palm for the 15 years of our marriage in a
home titled in his name, which he owned before our marriage. We both worked during
the marriage, but he made more money. We each retired about five years ago. We paid
off the original 30-year mortgage on the house a couple of years ago from our joint
account.

During the marriage, the value of the home first increased and later crashed with the rest
of the housing market. The poor “boy” is having a belated mid-life crisis, and has decided
his retirement needs a new romance. We are talking divorce.

He says that a business lawyer told him that he would not have to share the value of the
house with me, since it is in his name. That would be a big loss to me. Is that true?

A: Your husband and his lawyer might or might not be correct. A careful analysis
would first have to consider the value of the house at the time of your marriage, and its
current value.

If the value of the house was the same as it was at the time of your marriage, or lower
than it was a purchase, the marital component of the house would be limited to the
amount that you husband paid towards reducing the mortgage note from month to month.
You would not get a credit for the whole mortgage payment, just the amount which
reduced the mortgage balance.

If, during the marriage you spent marital money or marital labor improving the property,
an additional claim might be made for a in the non-marital portion of the property’s value
if and only if the value of the house was more now than it was at the time of the marriage.
You may need the assistance of a forensic accountant to trace the various components of
the home’s value.

In that case you could add the benefit of the mortgage pay down to the value of your
marital contribution during the marriage and determine the percentage of this marital
equity as part of the overall equity.

At sale there would be a marital portion and a non-marital portion. Of course your
interest in the marital portion would probably be limited to 50 percent under Florida
statutes, absent the presence of circumstances of facts entitling you to an unequal
distribution.

Michael H. Gora has been certified by the Board of Specialization of The Florida
Bar as a specialist in family and matrimonial law and is a partner with Shapiro Blasi
Wasserman & Gora P.A. in Boca Raton, and may be reached at (561-477-7800).

By aheizer