What rights do I have for legal separation and keeping my house?
Get Legal Help Today
Compare Quotes From Top Companies and Save
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption
What rights do I have for legal separation and keeping my house?
My husband and I got married last year. I lived in the house for 12 years before we married and 11 years before we met. He has recently started drinking to the point he cannot hold a job and sleeps most of the day. He gets verbally hostile when he drinks.
Asked on June 2, 2012 under Family Law, South Carolina
Answers:
S.L,. Member, California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
If you live in a community property state, community property is property acquired during marriage. Community property also includes income during marriage. Each spouse has a one half interest in the community property.
Separate property is property acquired before marriage or after the marriage ends. Separate property also includes income before marriage or after the marriage ends. A spouse has no claim to the other spouse's separate property.
Since you owned the house before marriage, it is your separate property and your husband would have no claim to it. However, if mortgage payments on the house were made during marriage from income during marriage, the mortgage payments would be community property and your husband would have a one half interest in the amount of those mortgage payments made from income during marriage because that income is community property. If you were making mortgage payments from separate property (income before marriage) and those mortgage payments were made during marriage but are traceable to separate property income, your husband has no claim. If improvements were made to the house during marriage and those improvements were made from income during marriage, the enhanced value of the home from those improvements would be community property and your husband would have a claim for half the value of those improvements. Again, if those improvements were made during marriage, but were made with separate property income (your income before marriage), your husband would have no claim to the enhanced value of the home from those improvements.
If you and your husband separate with no intent to reunite, your income after separation is your separate property. Property you acquire after separation with no intent to reunite is your separate property. Your husband has no claim to your separate property.
If you don't live in a community property state, other rules may be applicable.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.