Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Maryland
Post Divorce Property Settlement
My ex-husband served me with a lawsuit to sell our marital home and give him 1/2 the proceeds. He has not lived in the home or paid anything towards the home 14 years. We have a Legal Separation Agreement (that was not incorporated into our divorce proceedings) in which he gave up his financial obligations to the home. The home had little to no appreciation when he left. Can I file a counter claim to for him to sign a quit claim to take his name off of the house and go away? Will he receive a financial benefit without having any financial obligation?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Post Divorce Property Settlement
Yes, you can and should. But you should understand that even though you may have been separated for a long time before the actual divorce, and even though you were paying the mortgage and living in the property during the separation, he retained a marital interest, because you were in all likelihood using marital funds (your earnings) to pay the mortgage and upkeep. It would have been best to resolve the ownership issue at the time of the divorce.
To defend this suit, you will have to establish how much of the property's equity growth occurred after the divorce, so that you can give the court the basis for ruling that you are entitled to the largest share of the equity. Hopefully you can reach an agreement with him and avoid the expense of going to court.
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