Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Who Gets the House?
The marital home or residence is often the largest
marital asset many families have. Many times it is not reasonable, fair, or financially sound for one or either
spouse to retain the marital home after divorce. And ultimately, it is up to
the chancellor in the divorce proceeding to determine who gets what in a
divorce, including who gets the house.
In Mississippi, chancellors have vast discretion in
awarding certain marital property to either divorcing spouse. Johnson v. Johnson, 650 So. 2d 1281, 1288
(Miss. 1994) (citations omitted); Boykin v. Boykin, 445 So. 2d 538, 538-39
(Miss. 1984) (“there is no reason why a chancellor, under the broad discretion
granted him, cannot in his decree award possession of the marital residence to
either party.”). As it pertains to awarding the marital home to either spouse,
chancellors generally consider the equitable distribution factors laid out in
Ferguson and they also “consider all the awards to the payee[recipient] spouse
and the concomitant burden placed upon the payor spouse.” Brooks v. Brooks, 652 So. 2d 1113, 1124
(Miss. 1995) (referring to Brendel v. Brendel, 566 So. 2d 1269 (Miss.
1990)); see generally Ferguson v. Ferguson, 639 So. 2d 921
(1994). Essentially, when awarding the marital home to either spouse,
chancellors are charged with determining what is fair as well as assessing
whether an award of the marital home to one spouse will place an unreasonable
burden (usually an unreasonable financial burden) on the awarding spouse. Thus,
if a spouse is going to fight to keep the marital home in a divorce, he or she
should have a good reason to do so and should make sure that he or she can
afford to keep the house.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment