Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

I think you'll get more (and better) answers to your question if you re-ask it under a category dealing with divorce issues rather than under "real estate and real property." However, I'm happy to give you my views, as follows:

Whether you went through a paralegal, used a topnotch law firm, or represented yourself, your dissolution of marriage resulted in a court judgment, a/k/a decree. That judgment should, and probably does, provide some guidance for the now-divorced parties as to how and when the assets and liabilities are to be divided. Therefore, I think your starting point has got to be to dust off your dissolution judgment from 2006 and see what was ordered.

A judge will look primarily to the provisions of the judgment of dissolution and any marital settlement agreement the parties negotiated and signed, or which was attached to the judgment as an exhibit. Secondarily, the judge will consider the degree of cooperation and participation of each former spouse in carrying out the terms of the judgment or settlement agreement, including excess (i.e., over 50%) expenses of carrying the property (mortgage, taxes, insurance) one or the other has borne, and excess benefits (rental income, benefit of occupancy, etc.) that one or the other may have received.

If your settlement agreement was done properly, it was incorporated into the judgment. A court is going to enforce the settlement agreement in accordance with its terms. The passage of time seems too long to set aside the settlement agreement, and you have not set forth any grounds that would give her standing to set it aside.

Send me a private e-mail if you would like a copy of a memo that I have which sets forth the strict statutory requirements to set aside a marriage settlement agreement.