Legal Question in Family Law in New Jersey

Re: Property settlement without divorce

Manu,

You certainly can enter into a property settlement agreement to buy out your wife's interest in the house. Are you agreeing (stipulating)to the value or did you get an appraisal? That should be part of the agreement as well. In order to avoid possible future claims that the agreement wasn't fair, etc., I would have the agreement prepared by an attorney and both you and your wife should be represented by attorneys for review of the agreement and to authenticate the signatures.

Re: Property settlement without divorce

If you do not intend to get a divorce when you are making this agreement, then you are doing a 'mid-marriage' agreement. It may be enforceable.

A larger question is what your goals are. It is not clear what you are doing, or exactly why. I suggest that you have not given enough information in your posting to answer the real underlying issues. I suggest you retain a divorce attorney to discuss your goals and your options.

Re: Property settlement without divorce

I agree with the prior postings especially as to determining overall goals and having attorneys draft the agreement. To specifically answer your questions, yes you can enter into a settlement agreement that permits you to buy out your wife's share of the home and not get divorced for several years or forever for that matter. As to whether she can come back seeking more money from you after she spends her proceeds, that's the type of question that has a lot of "ifs" around it and cannot be answered yes or no. Call if you have further questions.