Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

Re: Divorce

You didn't provide enough detail to give a definitive answer, but you may be entitled to much more than what she gave you. The reason for that is that a marital residence that is purchased by one of the spouses and then brought into the marriage is usually treated as partly marital and partly nonmarital for property division purposes in a divorce.

Presumably your wife was paying on a mortgage on the property when you got married and continued to do so until it was sold. Most likely she used earned income (salary) to make the mortgage payments, as well as to pay for upkeep on the property (taxes, maintenance, etc). Since earned income is marital property regardless of which spouse earns it, you, in effect, were contributing to the property each time such a payment was made. As the equity in the property increased through paydown of the mortgage balance and because of appreciation, your marital interest increased as well.

You would have to apply numbers to the above analysis to try and determine roughly what the value of your marital interest might be. If she owned the property for 20 years before the marriage and your marriage hasn't lasted very long, your property interest will be relatively small. On the other hand, if she had just bought the property shortly before the marriage and the marriage has lasted for a longer period of time, it would be more substantial.

You may be entitled to make this claim notwithstanding that she gave you a token amount unless you've agreed to waive any further claims against the property. You would be well advised to contact an experienced family law attorney for assistance with this matter.

Robert Sher