Category Archives: Divorce Attorney

The house a couple lives in is often their biggest asset. If the house was purchased during a marriage, it is considered a marital asset that ultimately needs to be divided in the event of a divorce. This is the case regardless if one or both spouse’s names are on the deed. So, what are your options when it comes to homeownership during a divorce?

How Is A House Divided In A Divorce?

There are two typical ways for you and your spouse to divide the equity in a house during a divorce, which includes the following:

• Sell the house and divide the net proceeds evenly.
• One spouse can refinance the debt secured by the house to remove the other spouse from the obligation while buying out the other spouse’s interest in the equity, at the same time.

The options above depend on whether either spouse wishes to keep the house and can actually afford to keep the house. If neither spouse wants the house, then the house will usually go on the market. If one spouse does want the house, then he or she will need to obtain a new mortgage in a large enough amount equal to his or her equitable share of the equity.

It is possible for one spouse to refinance the mortgage in an amount sufficient to pay off the existing mortgage and give different assets to the other spouse that ultimately offset their equitable share of the equity. The spouse must execute a new deed reflecting the new ownership, at this time.

Of course, both spouses can remain co-owners of the house after a divorce, but this situation is not recommended. Additionally, the way you hold interest in the home will change upon the divorce.

What To Do If You Want To Keep Your House

Use these three tips below if you plan to keep your house after going through a divorce.

Budget Well

Create a tight budget that can help you determine what monthly costs are associated with homeownership. You must figure out if your income and savings are enough to afford the home moving forward.

Have Sufficient Income And Savings

Having sufficient income and savings is key toward qualifying for a mortgage on your own. You will need to not only pay off the existing debt, but also buy out your ex-spouse’s share of the equity, or find enough assets that you can give to him or her to offset their share of the equity. You will need to be able to pay the mortgage, insurance, taxes, and all maintenance needs on your own.

Hire A Divorce Attorney

You need to seek the advice of an experienced divorce attorney if you wish to keep your home after a divorce. Contact the team at Canterbury Law Group today!

Source:

1. Who Gets The House In A Divorce? Retrieved September 11, 2024. from https://www.johnsonduffie.com/articles/who-gets-the-house-in-a-divorce/

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/

If your relationship features more lows than highs, use these 35 loveless marriage quotes to ease the pain.

Quotes About A Loveless Marriage

1. “Both men and women remain in dysfunctional, loveless relationships when it is materially opportune.” – Bell Hooks

2.”Every man’s work, pursued steadily, tends to become an end in itself, and so to bridge over the loveless chasms of his life.” – George Eliot

3. “Scholarship has the same relationship to wisdom as righteousness has to holiness: it is cold and dry, it is loveless and knows no deep feelings of inadequacy or longing.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

4. “For every quarrel a man and wife have before others, they have a hundred when alone.” – E.W. Howe

5. “All sins, except a sin against itself, love should forgive. All lives, save loveless lives, true love should pardon.” – Sir Robert

6. “All love is betrayal, in that it flatters life. The loveless man is best armed.” – John Updike

7. “An unhappy person in marriage is always the most unhappy kind of parent.” – Rossana Condoleo

8. “While neither of us is content, neither of us wants to quit. So we keep hurting one another while claiming to be in love.” – Rupi Kaur

9. “Lack of communication is the main cause of unhappy marriages.” – Akita Lailah Gifty

10. “A lack of responsive intimate interactions is the first sign of marriages’ demise. Conflict develops later.” – Sue Johnson

11. “A man and his wife fight 100 times more when they are by themselves than they do in front of other people.” – E.W. Howe

12. “I find it astonishing that a miserable marriage continues to be miserable after it is over.” – Rebecca West

13. “There is nothing more severe than living in an unhappy marriage. I’ve witnessed it kill people, so it worries me.” – Simon Cowell

14. “So far, it’s much preferable to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone.” – Marilyn Monroe

15. “I wasn’t sure which would be the harshest; I debated between having him die in Hell or in an unhappy marriage.” – Lord Byron

16. “Divorce is not always tragic. Staying in an unhappy marriage while giving your kids the wrong lesson about love is awful.” – Jennifer Weiner

17. “Why don’t we call it quits? I suppose that she continues to be with me as I stay with her. And doing that is not simple.” – John Green

18. “Marriage is not a process for prolonging the life of love, sir. It merely mummifies its corpse.” – P.G. Wodehouse

19. “Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most of the love is lost.” – Khalil Gibran

20. “Ultimately, the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or friendship, is conversation.” – Oscar Wilde

21. “And the worst thing she had heard was the words he hadn’t said, the fact that he hadn’t loved her.” – Danielle Steel

22. “I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.” – Groucho Marx

23. “We ruined each other by staying together. We destroyed each other’s dreams.” – Kate Chisman

24. “Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.” – J.K. Rowling

25. “Rich only matters if he marries you, I said grimly. Handsome matters not at all.” – Danielle Teller

26. “Two strangers sharing a roof, that’s the tragedy of a loveless marriage.” – Preeti Shenoy

27. “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in a marriage.” – Charlotte Gilman

28. “I know enough to know that no woman should ever marry a man who hated his mother.” – Martha Gellhorn

29. “A bad husband in a marriage can be like a bully; he’s constantly belittling and berating you.” – Anonymous

30. “He is like a black hole; he sucks away any happiness and hope you have.” – Anonymous

31. “At times, sleeping with you makes me feel really lonely.” – H.R.K. Murakami

32. “You can be enough for a person sometimes, but they may decide not to be in your life.” – Shannon Alder

33. “Shouting ruins so many enjoyable moments in one’s life. If your neighbors haven’t heard about it first, you’ve never heard of a bad marriage.” – Lillian Russell

34. “When a noise interrupts your sleep and you don’t want to be awakened, you can have a long, complex dream that explains the entire noise.” – A. Witting

35. “You should not be involved in or worried about an unhappy marriage.” – Anthony Riches