The marital property you purchased, accrued, or improved during your marriage will certainly be important and valuable to both yourself and your soon-to-be ex-spouse. Yet only one of you will be able to keep it. Indeed, property division could be the most contentious part of your divorce in Florida. Since you cannot simply cut your family car or home in half and each take a portion, you have to try to make a fair division in other ways.
To begin, you need to know that Florida is an equitable distribution state, as opposed to a community property state. The concept of equitable distribution is based on fairness, not equality. That is to say, your marital property will be split in a way deemed appropriate based on who deserves ownership of each item. Potentially, one spouse could end up with a majority of the marital property while the other receives very little. You need to present a reasonable argument as to why you should be given the marital property you believe should stay yours after the divorce ends, or you could miss out on important assets.
Reasons why a piece of property should remain yours include:
- Purchaser: If you paid the full cost for a particular piece of property, then you can argue it should remain yours. This is the most straightforward approach to equitable property division, and it is often the most likely to be recognized by a family law court.
- Improver: You can also argue for the continued possession of particular assets if you put in significant effort to maintain or improve it. For example, you should be allowed to hold ownership of a family business if you spent the majority of your time managing it.
- User: Ownership of property might also be imparted onto you if you were the spouse who used and enjoyed the item the most. Imagine a scenario in which your spouse bought an outdoor BBQ but never used it, yet you used it every weekend. You could feasibly argue for ownership for this reason.
Jacksonville Property Division Lawyers Helping With Your Case
Property division can become a serious problem in your divorce if you are not ready for it, or if you or your spouse will not make an attempt to cooperate. By working with our Jacksonville divorce attorneys from Owenby Law, P.A., you can remove the stress and guesswork from the property division procedure. We encourage you to seek an amicable solution through mediation so the court does not have to decide division for you based on Florida’s rules. However, if your best interests would be jeopardized by the only agreement your spouse proposes, we will not hesitate to represent you in litigation.
Contact our firm today by calling 904.770.3141 and scheduling a free 30-minute consultation.