Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
My boyfriend of 9 years is leaving me. We have a seven year son. I purchased a old home I've restored, it's in my name and I paid for all the expences to fix. When I had the baby he wanted me to quit my job, I haven't work in over seven years. Do I have to get a divorce to get custody rights and does he have rights to my home? If so what about spousel support? What are my rights?
Thank you.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Did you and he get married? Did you represent yourselves to others as being married while you were shacking up?
This makes a big difference with regard to the house.
If you and he were married (either formally or informally), then you can file for divorce. If not, you should file a paternity suit.
Unless you are considered under Texas law to be common-law married, which you're probably not (given that you refer to him as your "boyfriend"), none of that stuff you brought up will apply. You cannot get a divorce unless you were married to begin with, you would not be entitled to spousal support (you wouldn't be anyway given the number of years you've been together), and he should not have any claim on your home, unless he's put money of his own into making substantial improvements to it, in which case he MIGHT be able to sue you to get reimbursed for some of that if he can show he had some kind of reasonable expectation that he would have sone sort of equitable interest in the house (not likely unless there was at a minimum some kind of discussion between you on this, otherwise it's pretty much considered "rent"). Regardless of your marital status, you'll have to file what's called a SAPCR (Suit Affecting Parent-Child Relationship") with the family court in your county to get matters re support, custody, and visitation straightened out. Until you do, either one of you has the unrestricted right to have the child 100% of the time (and to take the child away from the other parent at any time, for any or no reason), and neither of you have to pay child support or accommodate the other on visitation requests. It will take a while to get final SAPCR orders in place, but when you file tge SAPCR, you can request temporary orders be issued, and they will be binding until the final orders are in place. Good luck.