Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

VA equitable distribution laws concerning a house.

Situation: property is bought with one person making the full down payment but both parties are making ALL ongoing payments (mortgage, taxes, upkeep) assume 50/50. Both are on deed since neither can afford this house seperately. In event of dissolution what factors into equation? Seperate property will be documented prior to purchase and distro is not in question - in this case down payment. Questions surround split of everything above that (increase in equity, property appreciation etc). One side thinks that percentage of down payment has ''multipler effect'' to be considered in above as sole factor in deciding how everything else is split - regardless of percentage of payments. Other side thinks that percentage of down payment has an opportunity cost that must be considered but that percentage of payment, upkeep etc also factor in - not sure of how much each is taken into account and what the formula would be. Also what other factors play into this - time of marriage / ownership, etc?

Thanks


Asked on 8/10/06, 11:18 am

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

Re: VA equitable distribution laws concerning a house.

One side thinks that there should be a multiplier effect for the party who made the down payment with respect to the determination of marital assets which are properly subject to equitable distribution; the other has a different view as to the appropriate formula for determining the eventual distributable worth of the down payment under an equitable distribution procedure.

It would appear that this marriage is already headed for dissolution. (Putting the down payment aside and forgetting about multipliers, and considering all other factors contributing to equity being roughly equal, the safest approach

for the maintenance of marital harmony is the 50-50 harmonic division of all marital assets.)

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Answered on 8/10/06, 4:57 pm


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