If I divorce my husband so I have any rights to our home since it is in just his name?
Full Question:
Answer:
The answer to your question depends on whether your state is an 'equitable distribution' state or a 'community property' state.
In an equitable distribution state, the division of property and debts between the divorcing parties should be fair and equitable, but not necessarily equal. There is no fixed standard to divide property in equitable distribution states, and each case will be decided on its facts, with consideration of the rights of each party and any children of the marriage. In determining an eqitable division of the property the court may consider, among others, the following factors:
* Fault in the breakup of the marriage
* Benefits the innocent spouse may lose due to the breakup of the marriage
* Disparity of earning power
* Health problems and age of spouses
* Needs of children
* Indebtedness and liabilities
* Tax consequences of the division of property
* Earning power, education, business opportunities, capacities, and abilities of the spouses
* Need for future support
* Nature of the property
* Wasting of community assets by the spouses
* Credit for temporary support paid
* Gifts to or by a spouse during the marriage
* Increase in value of separate property through community efforts by time, talent, labor, and effort
* Expected inheritances
* Attorney's fees owed
* Value of the separate estates of the spouses
* Actual or constructive fraud committed by a spouse
In a community property state, everything a husband and wife acquire once they are married is owned equally (fifty-fifty) by both of them, regardless of who provided the money to purchase the asset or whose name the asset is held in, with the exception of inheritances, specific gifts to one of the spouses, and property and profits clearly traceable to property owned before marriage, all of which is separate property. Community property recognizes the equal contribution of both parties to the marriage even though one or the other may earn more income through employment. By agreement or action the married couple can turn (transmute) separate property into community property, including by commingling community and separate funds in one account.