Going through a divorce is a trying time for anyone. There are a lot of aspects that need to be taken care of, one of which is the division of property. It is common for divorcing couples to decide how they divide property; however if they can’t agree they are able to take their dispute to the courts.
If a divorcing couple can’t decide how they are going to divide their property and it does end up at court then the courts will divide their property under one of two basic schemes, which are community property or equitable distribution. In the state of Michigan, division of property cases will be handled in an equitable distribution way. In equitable distribution states the courts consider a range of factors such as the following:
• Length of marriage
• Amount and source of income
• Liabilities
• Earning potential
• Marital responsibilities
• Health
• Ability to care for self
• Your skills and employment
• Your estate
In an equitable distribution state, such as Michigan, all of the marital property is divided in an equitable fashion according to the court. So what exactly does this mean? Dividing property in an equitable way is dividing the property in a way that is fair not necessarily equal, which is done with the above in mind. To automatically believe the marital property would be divided 50-50 would be a wrong assumption in any equitable distribution state.
When you are in the process of dividing your property you need to separate the property into marital property and separate property. Separate property are generally things that aren’t considered to be marital property, such as items that were accumulated while cohabitating prior to marriage, property that is received as an inheritance by one spouse and increases in the value as the result of passive appreciation i.e. interest. These separate pieces of property aren’t generally divided when a marriage breaks up, however despite these general rules separate property can be distributed as part of a property division in a divorce if the marital property that needs to be divided is insufficient.
Once the assets have been divided into separate and marital the court will assign a monetary value on the marital property and the separate property. It will then distribute the marital assets between the two parties in an equitable fashion. Equitable does not mean equal, but rather what is deemed by the Circuit Court to be fair.
Marital property isn’t just about who gets to live in the house or apartment owned by the divorced couple; it also involves what shares of value each spouse will have in the property and who is entitled to vehicles. Also you may have a joint business, which will also be classed as marital property and again needs to be divided.
When you are declaring marital and separate property all assets must be brought to light as repeatedly trying to hide assets from each other and the court will result in contempt of court to which the court is required to take action against.
The end result of property division should be one that is most fair to each spouse. It is done so that neither spouse will face hardship after the marriage has broken down. My advice to you when it comes to property division is to involve an attorney in the proceedings as they will be able to guide you through the process and ensure that the division of property is done fairly.
![[Valid RSS feed]](images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
