Is a premarital home subject to being divided as part of a divorce
Nelson: About eight years ago, I purchased my home in Winter Springs. My wife really wanted it, but she wasn't my wife at the time. I purchased it for about $178,000, and I paid cash. We got married a year later. A year after that, we had a child. Then about four or five months ago, she decided to leave us.
Attorney Tom Olsen: Got it.
Nelson: We're in the middle of a divorce. I'm wondering whether or not she can come after me for the house.
Tom: Did you ever add her name to the deed, Nelson?
Nelson: No. Never.
Tom: Nelson, here's my belief about this situation that it's this, that you brought that home into the marriage and so you're going to leave with that home but with this understanding, if the moment that you got married, you had $170,000 of equity in that home, and at the moment that you're getting divorced, you have $220,000 of equity in a home, because it's gone up in value or because you paid down the mortgage, that $50,000 gain of equity during the time of your marriage is subject to being divided.
Nelson: Oh, great.
Tom: The court might very well say, "While you were married, you gained $50,000 of equity, we're going to split that. She's going to get 25,000 of it." Then you're just going to have to figure out, "Okay, how do I get her this 25,000?" Hopefully you got some other assets that you might use to pay that amount off.
Nelson: That is so fantastic because my house is worth 380,000 now.
Tom: Hey Nelson, I'm not a divorce attorney. I'm telling you what my understanding of the divorce law is. It's time for you to sit down with a divorce attorney and hopefully they'll give you the same advice.
Nelson: I have a divorce attorney. That lady is costing me 500 now. Oh jeez. I just wanted to see other opinion. Oh man, this is a mess. I also have primary custody of my six-year-old daughter. Well, I thank you for your time, sir. I appreciate it. I actually listen to you quite often.
Tom: Nelson, have you retained a divorce attorney yet?
Nelson: Yes, I've had one, Also, my house got flooded about six weeks after she decided to leave us. My house got ruined.
Tom: Did your divorce attorney give you the same or similar advice to what I just gave you?
Nelson: She did.
Tom: Okay. Great news, Nelson.
Nelson: Yes, she did. I hope that girl has a little common decency after the pain she's done, but anyway I'm being neither here nor there. I appreciate your time, and I hope you have a good day, sir.
Tom: All right, Nelson. Best of luck to you. Robert, it happens fairly often over the years that I'll have a newly married couple come to see me and the husband says, "Tom, before I got married, I owned this home. I've just got married here recently, and I'd like to add my wife's name to the home." Hopefully he's having that conversation to me outside the presence of his new wife because I will tell him, "Look, please let this marriage mature for a number of years." Make sure it's going to work before you add her name to the deed because once you add her name to the deed, I don't care what kind of equity you have in it, you get divorced, she's going to leave with one half of it.
Attorney Robert Hidock: Yes, it's funny I was counseling a friend last night about the same thing. He's in North Carolina. He suffered a stroke. His home is down here. He's going to get divorced, and his wife has never been on the deed. He's had the house before her, and she keeps pressuring him to put her on the deed. I counseled him last night. I'm like, "Don't. We know this is headed for a divorce. You don't want to put her on that deed."
Tom: If the husband says to me, "Well, Tom, she just wants to make sure that she ends up with a home if I pass away," fine, do a will. Your friend could do a will. You could do a will that says, "When I die, the home goes to my wife." Hopefully you can hand her a copy of that will and say, "Look here, honey. That's all taken care of. If I die, you get the home. That is different than adding your name to the deed because if you add the name to the deed, it's written in stone. If you leave the home and the will, then you can always change that down the road.
Robert: Absolutely.
[00:04:34] [END OF AUDIO]