Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

Question regarding marital property in Virginia. My fiance and I make equal salary give or take bonus amounts. She bought a condo for about $615,000 (415k mortgage, 200k loan from parents) about a year and a half ago and will have owned it for 2 years when we are married. I have been living in the condo for nearly 8 months and will have lived there over a year when we are married. She has no debt. I, however, have a large amount of debt from schooling and living prior to working around $170,000 or so. When we get married will I be entitled to any equity in the home? What if we lived together for several years and my loans were paid off? What would happen if I were put on the mortgage and deed? If we sign a pre-nutial agreement, is there anything I can get even though I have negative equity? Any other information would be very helpful.


Asked on 2/02/10, 7:12 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

After you marry your finance and make contributions to the payment of the mortgage and/or the upkeep/maintenance of the condo whether it be with your money and/or labor and materials, then you could credibly raise a marital claim to the property. However, before all that happens, you can forget about such a claim including whatever your alleged contributions may have been prior to the marriage.

As to your question regarding "what you can get" if there's only negative equity attached to the unit, the answer is ZERO, which apparently is about all you would deserve.

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Answered on 2/07/10, 7:43 am


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