If I am seeking a divorce, and we have two houses. One we purchased when we were married, and the other was given to me in my mother’s will, in 2004. Can I keep my mother’s house, and he keeps the one we owned together. He hasn’t paid bills in the other house nor my mother’s house. He only pays the gas and insurance and wear and tear on the car. He uses the car for work and sometimes to take his mother shopping, etc. plus sometimes takes me shopping, but many times I go with my shopping cart. He has two cars also and has bank accounts with his mother as the beneficiary. I have checking accounts to pay bills, and am currently unemployed since last May. I have a tenant which helps me pay the bills in my mother’s house. He is starting to pay the bills, which is only the electric bill in the other house, plus the phone bill, as I can’t pay everything like I used to. I do photography for very little, as it pays some of the groceries. He is threatening me that he is entitled to everything. We live in my mother’s house because the other house caught fire in October, and will be fixed real soon. Is he entitled to everything, including my parents’ home? All I am asking is my parent’s home as my mother wanted me to have it, and I was raised there. He is threatening to take me off the medical insurance from work. I am diabetic and need medication to survive. When I was working, I had to pay extra money for him to get separate medical insurance. Any help you can give, I appreciate it.
To accurately answer your question I will have to see the deed to both properties to determine who the legal owners(s) are. If you received your mother’s house as an inheritance and kept it in your name only, it is not marital property, and your spouse has no ownership interest in it.
If you are living in the NYC metro area, please call me at 212-370-1660 to discuss mediating your divorce.
Leonard M. Weiner, Esq./Divorce Solutions