Property Settlement Agreement

[Jeff777]

Does anyone know how the marital home is usually divided in a divorce?

I have custody of our (4) kids and will most likely continue to have physical custody for at least the next 2 years or so (she's been involved with drugs since 4/06). I am trying to get about 85% of the profits from the home in order to buy another house for the kids and I. If she agrees to the 85-15 split can I get a judge to sign off on it? Any suggestions.

[SilverManic]

hmm in your situation it's diffirent. Userally in divorces it's split 50/50 or if you have the kids she would be asked to live else where until the children are of age and then the house sold when the kids leave home. However because she took drugs and from what I can guess this is why she left then the judge might go more in your favor.

Good luck,

~S.

[Hope75]

Does anyone know how the marital home is usually divided in a divorce?

I have custody of our (4) kids and will most likely continue to have physical custody for at least the next 2 years or so (she's been involved with drugs since 4/06). I am trying to get about 85% of the profits from the home in order to buy another house for the kids and I. If she agrees to the 85-15 split can I get a judge to sign off on it? Any suggestions.

 

I would think this would be a good question to ask your divorce lawyer.

 

Have you?

[Jeff777]

Well, before she started to go off the deep end we went to see a mediator and hammered out a 50/50 agreement with her taking the girls and me taking the boys. Since then however, family services said no way was she going to get any of the kids for some time.

 

I'm tired of paying attorney fees, but will see my general lawyer who also handles family law matters and get general counsel as to what to file. I did my filing pro se (myself) and included the "Memorandum of Understanding" (the mediator document) along with the filing.

[Hope75]

Oh I hope that you can come to some sort of agreement where you do not have to separate the kids. That would make this even more devestating than it already is.

 

You mentioned she has a drug problem too, didn't you?

[Jeff777]

Well.. you're right. It wouldn't be good for the kids to be separated. Now that's definitely not going to happen. I don't know the future on how my wife will handle sobriety/acting out - but it will probably be 1-2 years before she could see the kids unsupervised due to her drug and psychological problems.

 

Depression & Mid-life crisis = affair/drug addiction.

[avman]

Property settlements really vary from state to state and are kind of at the discretion of the judge. They like to have things divided more or less evenly but there are always exceptions.

 

Best to talk to your attorney and at least get some advice even if you continue to represent yourself.

[BeStrongBeHappy]

if you and your spouse agree to any property settlement, and both sign, the judge usually accepts it unless it is harmful to the children or there is a question that you might have coerced her into it or she is not in her right mind when agreeing to it...

 

judges frequently allow the parent who has custody to stay in the marital home so the children are not disrupted, but they can still order you to pay her 50% of the equity when the house sells if you have not agreed to a separation agreement that splits the assets they way both you and your wife want in advance of going to the judge.

 

But i am a little disturbed that you were willing to give up your daughters and split the family up along boy/girl lines... your daughters could see this as you think they are less valuable to you than your sons (are they?), which can do immeasurable psychological harm to them...

 

so i think it might be in your interest to hire a lawyer to help you work out a legal separation agreement. otherwise you might not make the kind of positive impression on the judge that you think you will.

[Jeff777]

In my Complaint for Divorce I stipulated that (since a Family court Judge had awarded me primary physical custody) I wanted to retain primary physical custody. We had agreed on the split not because I wanted to split the girls from the boys - but because (1) My wife appeared to be acting O.K. and (2) I did not want a huge court battle with her.

 

Early on (April 06) I started to see that this was not a good thing for the girls and for the family as a whole. At the very beginning of my wife's affair with my brother (when it all came out) I was so devastated that it was hard for me to handle all (4) kids (Mr. Mom I wasn't - my kudos to all you Moms!).

 

So as it stands today - I have petitioned the judge to retain primary physical custody of ALL (4) kids & it will stay this way. I believe this is best for the kids.

 

I have told my wife via letter (she's currently in a FLA county jail) that I will sign off on requesting she pay child support if she agrees to give me 70% of the profits from the sale of the home. Otherwise - my lawyer said yesterday that if she doesn't agree to this in a property settlement agreement - that a 50/50 split could mean her half being placed in a trust for the kids with child support payments coming out of it.

[BeStrongBeHappy]

i am glad you got a lawyer... as long as that lawyer is not trying to inflame you into an expensive court battle, they can make sure that your settlement/custody agreements are in your best interest and the interest of your children...

 

i used a lawyer in my own divorce, not to 'go after' my husband, but to insure that everything was written up properly and my interests where protected... we settled amicably and it only cost me about $1500 in attorney's fees, so it is worth it if everyone is being reasonable.

 

good luck, i hope it goes well for you, and your wife gets her act together so that she can again at least be a decent role model for your children.

[Jeff777]

Hey Guys - the "update" - My lawyer said that the judge usually treats property settlement and child support as two different entities. So that would mean that he probably would divide the house in half and order her to pay child support.

 

He suggested that we set up a trust account for the kids when the property is settled and payments be made for the kids from this account. His fee?

$1,400.00 to START. I said I could not afford that - He said - "Well.."

thats my fee."

 

I was thinking about how a judge could take half of the only asset available to the children of a marriage and give it to a person who has proven themselves non-competent.