My boyfriend and I bought a house May 2015. My name is on the loan and his name is on the deed. We married in 2017 and recently filed for a divorce. He is now telling me that he is entitled to half of the house because it’s “marital” property. The same thing for his truck. His truck was purchased in 2016 and once again, the loan is in my name. Both of these, he’s stating are “marital” property and says he gets half.
I am the main breadwinner in our family. He decided to choose drugs/other women over his family. He left home once for 9 days and came back for us to do two different marriage counseling sessions, which he later refused to go back to. He admitted drug use to me, but now denies it. He left at the beginning of April and at the end of April, we would have celebrated our 2nd wedding aniv.
Two months into our marriage, he quit his job for about 3 months. He was in and out of a few jobs for an additional 5-6 months.
He refused a drug screen recently.
He is requesting alimony/post separation money, full custody of our son, me pay him child support, half of my 401k, half of the martial assets (house and truck).
I’m extremely confused as what he is exactly “entitled” to?
It sounds like there is a marital property component to the house in which you would both be entitled to one-half of the principal reduction on the mortgage from the date of marriage to the date of separation. You have a unique situation in that the house is in his name (his separate property), the mortgage is in your name (your separate debt), but you continued to pay down the mortgage during the marriage with funds received during the marriage (marital funds).
You have a unique situation with the truck as well since it was acquired prior to the marriage (the separate property of the person whose name it is in) but it is your separate debt because the loan was acquired before the marriage.
Neither the house nor the truck are entirely marital property. Marital property is an asset that is acquired during the marriage (between the date of marriage and date of separation) which is not an inheritance.
You should negotiate that whoever keeps the house and the truck also keeps the associated debt. For him, he would need to refinance the auto loan.
He would be entitled to half of the value of your 401(k) that was acquired between the date of marriage and the date of separation.
He may be entitled to PSS and alimony if he was the dependent spouse and you were the supporting spouse, but alimony could be impacted by marital misconduct grounds of abusing drugs.
Anna Ayscue
Attorney with Rosen Law Firm Cary • Chapel Hill • Durham • Raleigh • Wake Forest
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