Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
I am about to file for an uncontested, no fault divorce from my husband in Smith County, Texas. We have very few assets. But have already divided our property. Our house was purchased using an inheritance from my grandmother, and the mortgage is in my name, with my mother as a co-signer. He has been out of work for most of our marriage, and I have been the sole provider. He has signed a document (witnessed) stating he has no interest in the house, and I signed the same document station I have no interest in his upcoming disability settlement, when it comes through. Using the Smith County appraisal as a valuation, I have less than $20k of equity in the house purchased in 2008. The purchase price was $10k over the current tax appraisal. My 401K is less than $13k, and he has no interest in getting any money or property from me. That's all we have, having filed bankruptcy in 2012.
On the petition for divorce, do I check that we have more than $50 K in property? And since we have an agreement for the distribution of property, do I list the house in separate property? How do I value it?
Because this will be uncontested, and we agreed on the division of property, ourselves, I just want to make sure that there is no cause for a judge to override our agreement.
1 Answer from Attorneys
You can check the "no more than $50K" box. It doesn't really matter because that box has to do with the discovery level under Rule 190 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. It won't affect the outcome of your case.
List the house as separate property if you want and value it at the tax appraisal value. I don't know where you got your form, but it sounds like it's asking you questions that are not necessary for a simple petition for divorce.
You could hire an attorney to just draft the paper work for you and make sure that it is correct. Perhaps an attorney in Tyler would draft the petition, waiver of service, and an agreed decree for you along with a special warranty deed for the house. As a benchmark, I charge $1,000 to draft paperwork like that. If someone is charging a lot less than that, they probably don't know what they're doing. If they charge a lot more, they are probably making the case more complicated than it needs to be.
Good luck!!
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