Plot question about marital assets

[OldHideki]

I just want to get some clarity about the division of assets in a divorce. There are many stories in the Loving Wives category where the house was purchased by the man prior to marriage, and is the excluded from the assets that are divided.

Say the man purchases a house prior in his name only. At the time of the wedding, he owns 20% of the house, and the bank owns 80%. After 15 years, the house gets paid off. In the divorce, does the man get to claim the entire home as an asset owned prior to marriage, or only the 20% owned by him at the time of the wedding?

I am not a divorce lawyer, so I don’t know how this works. I am trying to use this in a plot point for a story.

 

[KimGordon67]

I just want to get some clarity about the division of assets in a divorce. There are many stories in the Loving Wives category where the house was purchased by the man prior to marriage, and is the excluded from the assets that are divided.

Say the man purchases a house prior in his name only. At the time of the wedding, he owns 20% of the house, and the bank owns 80%. After 15 years, the house gets paid off. In the divorce, does the man get to claim the entire home as an asset owned prior to marriage, or only the 20% owned by him at the time of the wedding?

I am not a divorce lawyer, so I don’t know how this works. I am trying to use this in a plot point for a story.

If you want to set your story in New Zealand, I can totally tell you how this works! The US laws regarding marital property make my head hurt, but my understanding is that it would vary significantly on the basis of state? https://www.divorcenet.com/states/nationwide/property_division_by_state

 

[jaF0]

My opinion is that none of that belongs in a Lit LW story.

There is nothing 'loving' or erotic about the evils of lawyers and the legal system.

 

[bettiezyx]

Au contraire!

Lawyers fit well into BDSM stories! Emphasis on the SM part.

 

[SisterJezabel]

Lawyers fit well into BDSM stories! Emphasis on the SM part.

You made me laugh!

No idea but I'd believe a story where an aggrieved partner thought they'd been short changed by a partner.

 

[emap]

Heaven's to Betsy, you brought logic into a porn forum. The horrors.

There is a reason that contested divorces can take years to resolve to no ones satisfaction. There are laws on things that can and can't be claimed by a wife or husband in a divorce, and all of them are tossed out the window in a contested divorce.

Basically that means that if the lawyer is good enough something owned by the opposite party before the marriage can be given to the aggrieved party in the settlement. In part this is because of children, for whatever reason kids tend to end up with the wife and they get the house. Doesn't matter who owned the house first, once kids get into things they are staying in the house.

Without kids the house will tend to stay with whoever had it first. If both did it will be part of the settlement, say if he wants the house she makes more alimony, if she wants it he pays less alimony. Also depends on who has the job, a house husband will make less than a wife even if the one with a job has the same pay as for the wife. Partly it's sexist, mostly it's simply because men make more money and are expected to be working.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

It depends on the state. In most, not all, they have what they call no fault divorce where everything is split right down the middle. There are of course exceptions... If there if a prenuptial agreement that would exclude certain things brought into the marriage by one or the other spouse. If one spouse cheats on the other, certain things will happen and the cheating spouse usually ends up with only that which he/she has agreed to in the prenup.

See your local legal eagles to see what is what and who gets what.

 

[OldHideki]

Sorry about trying to bring logic and reasoning to a porn site

The story idea is after two years of marriage, the wife gets a wake up call about how solid her marriage is, and it has become a ticking time bomb. She has not cheated on the marriage, and has found a man who she considers prime husband material, a little dull, but hard working and loyal. The problem is she still is attracted to “bad boys”, and her public flirting with said men has now soured the marriage for the husband.

One of the tells that she had been ignoring is he still insists on using condoms, even though she is on the pill. He suspects cheating, even though there is none, and is avoiding getting a STD.

They are still in the process of saving up for down payment for a house. The husband is now insisting on putting down double the minimum amount. She decides that she has until the down payment is acquired to turn the marriage around.

From this starting point, the wife expands their sex life, trying things she had previously refused to try, along with trying to understand why she still flirts in order to change her behavior. The story would have many chapters containing graphic descriptions of various sex acts. This is where it turns into erotic literature.

It might not be necessary to get accuracy about the division of marital assets, but the perception of what may happen. I want a financial hook to keep the husband around, when the wife he suspects is cheating now goes from vanilla sex to willing to try anything. If it were me, this would raise even more red flags.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

It depends on the state where they live in at the time of the divorce, whether there is a pre-nup, and whether he adds her name to the title. The answer will vary depending upon those three factors.

 

[Yerkiddin]

In the USA, divorce is settled at the state level. Every state is different.

 

[Paul_Chance]

Divorce in the US is complicated, largely due to variation in state laws.

Absent a pre-nuptial agreement, the laws apply. For community property states (California is one), it's straight-forward. Absent some other arrangement, at the time of marriage all assets are pooled as a single legal entity (the "couple") and then upon divorce, all assets are divided 50/50. Seems straight-forward. The devil usually rises his head in fighting over that 50/50, since it includes assets and liabilities.

Here is the main thing that causes those disputes.

One party usually either a.) enters marriage with more assets or b.) has a significantly greater income and acquirements more assets during the course of the marriage. Humans being humans, most divorces happen with acrimony, so it's a combination of "my soon to be ex doesn't deserve that" or "fuck em, they're going to have to fight for every god damned dollar they get from me".

If it were my hook, as described, I would simply make the wife the primary bread winner, so she has contributed more to the down payment saving the husband has (she has more invested) and he has a financial reason not to leave. Combined their income qualifies them for the loan. Divorced neither of them alone can qualify.

 

[loquere]

I'd just say fifty fifty.

 

[OldHideki]

Paul_Chance: your idea of her having a larger income has merit, but I was thinking about having her have less income. It also somewhat goes against the “Prime Husband” material. He would have to have more potential as a breadwinner, and she would have the ability to become a stay-at-home mother, at least while the children young.

I imagine her going to college as an accounting major. She would work and study to get her CPA after college. In her mind, she has a ten year plan with includes a BA, her CPA, a husband, a house, and then children. These are check marks for her life. She plans to stop working until the youngest child is in the first grade. She would then return to work, to build up the children’s college fund, as well as funds for retirement. She has a plan, which does not include her moving up the corporate ladder.

He would have gone the college as a double major, possibly Engineering and Business Management. He, according to her plan, would hire in as an engineer, study at night for a MBA, and would rise the corporate ladder into management. My expectation is she has chosen extremely well, and that his rise is almost inevitable. He actually knows it, too.

I wanted a time restriction, like saving up for the mortgage down payment. The idea of double the regular amount is to allow him to have a down payment after the divorce. He was updated then purchase a home before getting remarried. I am now thinking a stronger hook would be obtaining the CPA for her, and the MBA for him. Did this sound better?

Thank You, for your responses. If you have any additional ideas to strengthen my premise, I would be happy to read them.

 

[OldHideki]

Sorry about that. I am not sure what happened to my response.

It should have read that after getting a divorce, the now ex-husband would buy a home prior to marrying.

 

[bettiezyx]

CPA & Business Major Pillow Talk

W: & then I transferred the depreciation into the income asset account..

H: Oh, you talk so dirty!

W: After shifting the loan into the Bermuda dummy corp..

H: *stroking* Yeah? Who needs to be spanked?