Leaving Matrimonial Home Question

W

Working Woman

New member
Matrimonial home is in one spouses name.
If spouse who is not named as owner of the house moves out, is he/she at risk of losing entitlement to half of the matrimonial home?

I read that leaving the matrimonial home was a risk, not sure where. Is it true?
If so, why?
 
Pretty sure not. My ex hasnt lived in matrimonial home since...2005. Our seperation date is 2008. He doesnt pay cs, ss or any mortgage, upkeep etc. Our trial is next month as im asking for his equity in lieu of cs that he doesnt pay anyway. It is still legally half his.
 
Working Woman said:
Matrimonial home is in one spouses name.
If spouse who is not named as owner of the house moves out, is he/she at risk of losing entitlement to half of the matrimonial home?

I read that leaving the matrimonial home was a risk, not sure where. Is it true?
If so, why?
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You are entitled to half the value of the matrimonial home as of date of separation or whenever you stopped contributing to upkeep or sale date (it can vary), no matter where you choose to live or whose name is on title. Moving out does mean you have less control over the house though. If it's going to be put on the market, you have to trust the other owner to keep it in good shape and so on, to get the best price.

The main risk of moving out of the home is that only you can move, not the children. They have to stay put until there is agreement about custody and access. So moving away from the home is generally taken as an admission that you are a secondary parent and won't get much access. If that isn't a concern (no kids, or kids are grown), staying in the home isn't nearly as critical.
 
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So moving away from the home is generally taken as an admission that you are a secondary parent and won't get much access.
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Unless of course you do what some crazy ones do, pursue Sole Custody based solely on a selfish reason that "you couldn't communicate with the other parent", and then get a custody evaluator, clinical investigator and OCL involved, just to satisfy your wet dream :rolleyes:

Only....to arrive at what should have been the most logical from the start 50/50
 
Working Woman said:
Matrimonial home is in one spouses name.
If spouse who is not named as owner of the house moves out, is he/she at risk of losing entitlement to half of the matrimonial home?

I read that leaving the matrimonial home was a risk, not sure where. Is it true?
If so, why?
Click to expand...

I don't believe so. As long as you can prove that it was indeed the matrimonial home (did you both receive your mail there, was it listed as your residence for tax purposes, etc), then your moving out does not mean that you have abandoned any claim to it. (It does establish a definite date of separation, though). And if you leave, you run the risk that the ex may trash the place/let it run down so that when you have it valued for the division of assets, it looks like it's worth less and so he has to pay less to buy you out (which is what happened to me).

The hitch is if you have kids - the kids stay in the matrimonial home unless the parties agree otherwise. When I moved out, I wrote up an agreement with my ex and had our signatures witnessed, to the effect that my moving out did not represent any change in our equal commitment to parenting nor any recognition that one parent was the primary caregiver (or something like that - wrote it up more elegantly than that), so that my leaving could not be used against me in later negotiations about custody.
 
Rioe said:
You are entitled to half the value of the matrimonial home as of date of separation or whenever you stopped contributing to upkeep or sale date (it can vary), no matter where you choose to live or whose name is on title.
Click to expand...

I don't believe the above is accurate for valuation of the matrimonial home - if the home is in the name of one spouse only, it is invariably valued as of the date of separation, whereas a jointly owned matrimonial home may be valued as at the date of trial/transfer.
 
mcdreamy said:
I don't believe the above is accurate for valuation of the matrimonial home - if the home is in the name of one spouse only, it is invariably valued as of the date of separation, whereas a jointly owned matrimonial home may be valued as at the date of trial/transfer.
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This is my understanding as well.
 
In my case, I was worried that my EX sells the matrimonial home immediately after separation. I had to register Designation of Matrimonial Home. It goes through land registry office and it can be done only by real estate lawyer. It puts special status on the title of the property. With such status, nobody will sell and buy the property without your signature even if you are not legal owner. The real estate lawyer charged me around $500 for this.
 
I was not on the title of our matrimonial home. I moved out. Ex did not want to sell or did he want to buy out my half. A number of years after I found out by accident that ex had listed the house for sale in a hurry because he did not want to lose it in his bankruptcy. My lawyer actually sprung into action on this one. Even without my name on the title, ex had no legal authority to sell without my consent. I ultimately consented and it was sold with proceeds to be split.
 
Working Woman said:
...
I read that leaving the matrimonial home was a risk, not sure where. Is it true?
If so, why?
...
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure, this is only an issue, when you have kids, and custody/access to the children, needs to be determined. Because then you have one parent, who leaves the matrimonial home, and sets the other parent up to be a primary caregiver, or such.

For the purposes of your share of equity in the matrimonial home, I don't think they care whether you stay or leave - but simply your seperation date. People can be "seperated" with both of them living in the matrimonial home.
 
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