Abstract
For many marital couples, the most valuable asset at the time of divorce is the home in which they live. If that home was brought to the marriage by one of the parties and the marital community helped pay down the mortgage, the couple may disagree about whether or how much of the value of the marital home is subject to distribution at the time of divorce. Different states have adopted different approaches to the conditions under which some of the value of the marital home is subject to distribution. The approaches are designed to achieve a variety of goals including reimbursing parties for past expenditures and distributing gains in a way that is fair both to the marital community and to the individual who brought the house to the marriage. Regrettably, many states do not take adequate account of the different implications of mortgage payments that mostly go towards interest and mortgage payments that mostly go towards the reduction of the principal owed. Marital communities may be awarded significantly more depending on when in the mortgage’s life the marriage exists. Such an approach may result both in dissimilar treatment of relevantly similar cases and in great unfairness, especially in cases where marriages are relatively short. This disparity in treatment can and should be rectified.
Recommended Citation
Mark Strasser,
DIVIDING UP THE MARITAL HOME,
49
S. Ill. U. L.J.
17
(2024).
Available at:
https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/siulj/vol49/iss1/4