What Disqualifies You From Alimony?

Alimony is also known as spousal maintenance in the state of Arizona. Alimony is not a right, as courts will only grant alimony if the circumstances warrant an award. If you are on the cusp of divorce, there are many measures you’ll want to take to protect your finances from the burden of alimony. What can disqualify from alimony obligations in Arizona? Let’s look at a few scenarios.

What Disqualifies You From Alimony In Arizona?

Alimony disqualification can happen as a court ruling or after you have actually received alimony. Below are a few reasons why you might lose spousal maintenance.

Prenuptial Or Postnuptial Agreement

Couples who are engaged can execute a prenuptial agreement that entirely eliminates the possibility of alimony. This is quite a common scenario for two-career couples.

Married couples can draft a post-marital agreement for this same purpose. The court will enforce the terms, as long as the contract is valid.

Lifestyle Changes

Cohabitation or remarriage can disqualify you from getting alimony. Presumably, a stable, long-term relationship will come with financial advantages. Sometimes, the court will award spousal support on the premise that the recipient is so accustomed to shared household finances that they may struggle to make ends meet.

The court could deem future payments unnecessary once cohabitation enters the picture. In this case, you may need legal counsel to reinstate your alimony.

Lump Sum Payment

Part of a property settlement during a divorce can include one spouse granting the other spouse a greater share of the marital estate. This can be done on the condition that a request for alimony is dropped.

This one-time action may be preferable to making continuous payments over a long period of time.

No Effort By Spouse Receiving Alimony

A court can order rehabilitative alimony. This consists of payments for a short period of time so that the dependent spouse may pursue job training or schooling in order to become self-sufficient.

Any spouse who refuses to make such efforts cannot expect the court to extend the payment period. Court approval is required for any measure that negatively impacts a spouse’s potential entitlement to alimony payments following a divorce.

Alimony Factors In Arizona

There are several factors that a court takes into account when determining alimony. The court first examines certain qualifying factors to determine if one spouse even can procure alimony and then and only then decides how much and for how long.   There are no juries in Arizona family court, only a sitting judge.  So whether you like it or not, one person, in a black robe, will someday make a big decision on how much and how long your ex-spouse may or may not be paid upon divorce.

The Need For Spousal Maintenance

The court first decides whether one spouse actually qualifies for spousal maintenance and whether the other has the means to pay, before ordering maintenance be paid. A spouse may request alimony if he or she does not have enough property after marital distribution to provide for oneself, or is somehow unable to find proper employment.

If one spouse has significantly contributed financially to the other spouse’s education, then alimony can be requested by the spouse who contributed. The court will look at the other’s spouse’s financial situation as well. A divorce lawyer in Scottsdale can help you file an alimony petition.

Duration Of Marriage

The longer the separating couple has been married, the higher the chance for alimony for one spouse may be. Generally speaking, if married less than 5 years, procuring maintenance from the wealthier spouse can be a challenge, or impossible. Once one hits ten years or more, the ability to obtain maintenance for some period of time appears to jump significantly.  If you have been married 30 years or more you can almost guarantee that someone is going to be paying spousal maintenance to the other.

The law of Arizona specifically states to take the duration of marriage into consideration when setting alimony. However, the law does not specify the ideal duration or a minimum duration. So even a spouse that was married for just a week can technically request alimony.  As noted, however, marriages of short duration rarely qualify for a payout.

Unfaithful Spouses

The short answer is yes.  This is a common question for some divorcees. Understandably, a spouse may not want to pay alimony to another who has been unfaithful throughout the marriage. So, some spouses may prefer to have such spousal misconduct be a factor in determining alimony. However, in Arizona, divorce is not granted based on spousal misconduct. Arizona is a no fault jurisdiction.  Thus, couples can file for divorce in Arizona without providing a reason.

If one spouse contests the divorce, the other spouse only has to show to the court that the marriage is broken beyond repair. Marital misconduct is not legally relevant to the divorce proceedings, and therefore will not play a role in any alimony fight. Unfaithfulness on one side does not lead to automatically denying alimony for that spouse, nor does the court demand the cheating spouse to pay the other. The same applies for dissolution of covenant marriages.  Long story short, while he or she may have cheated—he or she may still get paid by the Court depending on your income and length of marriage.

Prenuptial Agreements

A prenuptial agreement is an optional private contractual agreement that spouses enter into before marriage. When a couple divorces, a prenup is upheld for the most part if all provisions are in accordance with the law. If one spouse has agreed not to seek alimony in a prenup, the court will often uphold this in divorce proceedings.

However, the court may rule otherwise if the spouse that needs alimony could end up in a welfare state without spousal maintenance. Arizona law allows courts to decline the validity of prenups if one spouse could end up in dire financial need following divorce.

Source:

1. What Disqualifies You From Alimony? Retrieved Septemeber 16, 2024. from https://helloprenup.com/finances/what-disqualifies-you-from-alimony/