Married couples share ownership of most of their property. Of all the assets you own together, your marital home is probably the most valuable.
The financial value and emotional significance of your home might mean that it is the focal point of your property division dispute in your divorce. Which spouse gets to keep the marital home when you divorce in Florida?
Who keeps the house depends on several factors
There is no straightforward answer regarding which spouse gets to keep the house in a divorce. Numerous issues influence the outcome of property division in a divorce.
The first and most obvious is whether the house is the separate property of either spouse. If one of you owned the house before your marriage or if the house was part of an inheritance, then it may be separate property when you divorce. A premarital or post-marital agreement could also exclude the house from the property division process.
If the two of you don’t have an agreement about the house and it is marital property, then a judge will decide what happens to it (unless you can agree on what to do about it on your own). Florida’s equitable distribution standard means that allocating the house is not a “winner-take-all” situation.
While only one spouse will usually get to retain ownership of the home, both can expect to receive an appropriate amount of the home’s value in the property division. If one spouse keeps the home, they will probably have to refinance it and buy out their spouse’s share. The judge might also decide that it would be best for the spouses to sell the home and share the proceeds.
Learning about property division rules in Florida can help you plan for a possible future divorce.