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Elliot S. Schlissel is a father’s rights attorney with more than 45 years experience representing fathers in all aspects of divorce, family law, equitable distribution and litigation. He and his associates can be reached for consultation at 516-561-6645, 718-350-2802 or by sending an email to schlissel.law@att.net.
When considering bringing a divorce lawsuit and there is a marital home involved, a question arises as to what will happen to the house in the divorce case. Assets acquired during the marriage are considered marital property. If the home was acquired during the marriage, it is a marital asset. (If the home was acquired by one of the parties to the marriage prior to the marriage, it is separate property and may not be distributed in the divorce. However this is a different topic than what this article is about, and I will not be going into details concerning what happens to the home as separate property in divorces at this time.)
It will be necessary to appraise the home to establish its market value. Thereafter one would have to take into consideration the amount of the mortgage on the house. By subtracting the mortgage from the value of the house, you arrive at the home’s equity. Let’s assume for argument sake there is going to be a 50/50 split of marital assets. In this example, let’s say the home is worth $400,000 and there is a $100,000 mortgage remaining on the property. The homeowners would thereafter have equity in the amount of $300,000 and each of the parties would have an equity interest of $150,000.
If there is plenty of cash available, the party who wants to keep the home can exchange a marital asset worth approximately $150,000 for the other party’s ownership interest in the house. If there aren’t any liquid assets a trade can be made with regard to pension benefits or 401(k) assets. However it should be noted pension and 401(k) assets are pretaxed assets and therefore they would have to be tax impacted on before an exchange for a real estate interest could be made.
Is the Home Affordable?
One of the issues which must be faced by the party seeking to purchase the home is whether after purchasing the home, he or she will be financially able to maintain the mortgage, taxes, utilities, upkeep and maintenance on the home. Homes can be expensive to maintain and the issue of affordability should be closely looked into before making any financial arrangements.
Residential Custody of the Children in the Home
Many courts will give the parent who obtains residential custody of the parties’ children exclusive occupancy and possession of the home until such time as the youngest child is either 18 or 21 years of age.
Conclusion
The issue of one of the parents keeping the home may be more complicated than it looks to be at first glance. The best way to deal with this matter is to meet with an experienced divorce lawyer and go through all of the details with him or her.
The Appellate Division of the First Department, an appeals court, recently affirmed a lower court’s ruling in a divorce lawsuit which ordered the wife to pay $750,000 into an escrow account to cover her husband’s legal fees in their divorce lawsuit. In addition, the appellate court also upheld the lower court’s ruling fining the wife $15,000 for frivolous conduct with regard to filing a jurisdictional challenge to the authority of the courts in New York more than two and a half years after the litigation started.
The lower court had found the defendant wife, Guni Murjani, had “unnecessarily delayed discovery and removed the parties’ art collection.” In addition, the court found she had “controlled the parties’ liquid assets.” As a result of these actions, the lower court found she should sell or take other action with regard to her property to fund the husband’s $750,000 legal fees. The court also found the wife should be enjoined (stopped) from taking further action with regard to a suit filed in Bombay, India, which was designed to block her husband’s divorce action in the State of New York.
Channel Islands Trust
The husband and wife were the beneficiaries a Channel Islands Trust. This trust had value of between 40 and 60 million dollars. It had been established by Mohan Murjani, a Hong Kong garment industry entrepreneur. The proceeds of this trust were the principal source of income for the family. Unfortunately, Channel Islands laws keep secret all information regarding trusts. As part of the lower court decision, Judge Drager ordered Guni Murjani to ask the Royal Courts in the Channel Islands make the files concerning the trusts available to the judge.
Elliot S. Schlissel is a divorce lawyer representing clients throughout the Metropolitan New York area.
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