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There are so many things that one must take into account when facing a divorce but one of the biggest is what will happen to the real property or real estate, such as the marital home, when you get divorced.  In addition, if you are planning on getting married and you already own real estate, you should consider what would happen to that real estate if you and your fiancé were to get divorced in the future.  This blog is written to widely address how real estate will be handled in a divorce matter, if you have specific questions regarding you own future, please do not hesitate to contact us to schedule a consultation by clicking on this link or calling (248) 608-4123.

When It Comes To Real Estate In A Divorce, Does It Matter Whose Name Is On The Title To The Property?

The short answer is no, it does not matter whose name is on the title to real estate.  This is true with regards to any asset in a divorce, if it was earned or contributed to during the marriage then some or all of that property will be consider marital and subject to an equitable division unless there is a prenuptial agreement.  Typically with real estate, it does not matter whether one person purchased the property and holds the title in their name or whether it is titled in both spouse's names.

If one of the spouse's owned the property before the marriage or used a significant amount of premarital funds to purchase the home and they can prove it, then that spouse may be able to reclaim whatever equity they had in the home at the time of marriage or recoup the down payment.  In that situation, the spouse that is making the argument that they have some separate equity in the home that should be awarded to them will have to obtain an appraisal showing the current value of the home, an historic appraisal showing the value of the home at the time of the marriage, documentation showing the current balance of the mortgage and documentation showing the mortgage balance at the time of the marriage.  Then that spouse might be awarded one-hundred percent of their premarital equity but any increase in equity during the marriage will most likely get divided equally between the spouses. There are some rare circumstances that would allow the spouse with the premarital equity to claim that the increase in value should also be separate and under those circumstances the court would consider granting that spouse all of the equity in that real estate.

When it comes to the marital home, that is almost always considered joint property and the equity will be divided equally regardless of whose name is on the title to the home.  In most cases, if there is premarital equity in the home, the court will award some or all of that to one spouse but depending on the length of the marriage and other factors, case law indicates that judges could decide that the entire value of the property should be divided equally regardless of any premarital equity that one spouse may have had at the time of the marriage.

Unless you get a prenuptial agreement prior to the marriage, if you get divorced, all of the property that is accumulated or increases in value will be roughly equally divided regardless of whose name is on the title.  This blog was written to broadly address how real estate will be handled in a divorce case in Michigan, if you have questions regarding your own particular situation, please contact us to schedule a consultation by clicking on this link or calling (248) 608-4123.