I have been separated from my husband for over a year and a month now. We have no children and were only married for 14 months. We do own a house and my name is on the deed but not the mortgage. We have had it appraised and are working on a separation agreement but this process is not working. I informed him that I would not be signing over the deed to the house until we have agreed upon an amount of money that is fair for the both of us. I know the house will be very profitable for him when he does sell it and want to make sure I receive a fair settlement or we should the house now which he does not want to do. I have not received my taxes nor the half of the first time home buyers money from him yet either. I do not want to file for divorce until these things have happened. Or should I file and just hope they do before he have a hearing? Would you recommend me getting a lawyer even though we are only talking a couple thousand dollars I would be getting from the house? Should I file and check equitable distribution? What happens if I check equitable distribution but we then come to an agreement on the division of property before we have a hearing? Since we were only married for 14 months will this change the way the property is divided? He has told me numerous times " I do not deserve half of the assets so do not expect to get anything from him." He also quit his job and does not have a new one yet does this change anything? Am I able to get a court appointed attorney for this issue? I would greatly appreciate your advice and anyone out there who can help me with this situation.
If you don’t feel comfortable resolving the case yourself then I’d suggest you hire an attorney. The court does not appoint attorneys in cases like this. If you wish to represent yourself then you may find Rosen Online helpful. You can find more information here:
He is only entitled to half the assets that accrued during the marriage unless you did something to change a premarital asset into a marital asset. An analysis of each asset is really beyond the scope of the forum because the answer can become very fact intense, but the important thing to take away is, generally, he shouldn’t receive anything that you did obtain during the marriage.