You may have built your dream home a few years ago. You and your spouse spent months adding custom features to make your kitchen, bathrooms and family media room all you ever wanted. Your children have made good friends in the neighborhood and love the nearby neighborhood pool. Yet now, you and your spouse have decided to divorce. You aren’t sure what that will mean for you financially, but you want to keep your home.
Yet, who will get the house in your divorce?
Property division in an Indiana divorce
In Indiana, couples divorcing will follow equitable property distribution rules in divorce. That means any marital property you and your spouse have will be divided in a fair, equitable manner. For a home you purchased during your marriage, you will split its worth in divorce.
If you want to keep your marital home in divorce, you have a few options to consider when you divorce. You could:
- Refinance your mortgage and buy your spouse out of their share of the home’s assets.
- Give your spouse more of your retirement assets, a vacation home or other property to offset their share in the home’s worth.
- Continue to co-own your home with your spouse until a later time (perhaps after your children graduate high school).
Getting help with asset division in divorce
Dividing property and assets with your spouse can be complicated in divorce. It may take time to track all of your marital property. You should work closely with your divorce attorney as you negotiate splitting assets with your spouse.
You will have to decide which assets are more important to you and which assets you are willing to let go. If you really want to keep your marital home, you will need to plan on how to negotiate that and give your spouse their share of its worth.