Hi,
My ex-wife acquired a car in November 2006 with a 60 months loan (started in Nov 2006 and ending in Feb 2011)
We got married 22 July 2009 and paid with marital funds during the marriage, that was the car we use together.
How would you calculate the marital component and the separate component knowing the value of the car when we separated was exactly $11,468 (because she crashed the car and receive benefits from the car insurance for 11,468$)
Thank you very much
Clearly, a portion is of the vehicle is marital. If I were you I would ask that at least 2/5 of the value be considered marital (2 of the 5 years that payments were made).
You could also argue that the vehicle was a gift to the marriage, since you both used the car. There is a presumption that property acquired before marriage is separate, but you could make the argument that because you jointly used the vehicle, it should be considered a gift to the marriage, and therefore the entire value would be marital. This is a stretch, though.
Thank you very much, I would go for a 2/5