Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

Re: Divore Without living apart

The grounds for divorce in MD are separation, either voluntarily for 1 year or nonvoluntarily for 2, desertion, adultery, excessively vicious conduct, cruelty of treatment, insanity and criminal conviction, both with certain additional conditions. Almost all divorces are based upon the first 3. Sometimes the court will consider the parties to be separated if they set up separate accommodations within the same premises and don't cohabitate for the requisite period of time. For example, one moves into the basement and the other stays in the marital bedroom. If there's equity in the house, eventually they will need to sell it so each can afford to maintain separate households.