When you and your spouse finally have that hard discussion and decide it is in your best interests to part ways, you may find it natural to remove yourself from your shared marital home. However, before you pack up and move out, you must carefully consider this initiative and how it may affect your upcoming divorce proceedings. With this in mind, please continue reading to learn what happens if you decide to move out before filing and finalizing a divorce and how an experienced Bergen County equitable distribution attorney at McNerney & McAuliffe can help you weigh your options.
What should I consider before moving out of my marital property?
At McNerney & McAuliffe, we completely understand your motivation to move away from your spouse if your marital home has become a tense, highly stressful environment since you announced you wanted a divorce. We most definitely support your decision if your personal safety is at risk (i.e., you are being made the victim of domestic violence). If this is true, we highly advise you to seek our legal assistance sooner rather than later, so that we may potentially help you with a temporary restraining order.
All we want, though, is to ensure that you understand the small complexities you may experience after moving out of your marital property. For example, you may lose easy access to valuable or sentimental assets residing in your marital home. This may include important financial records kept in safeboxes or regularly mailed to this residential address. And if you are about to embark in a highly-contested divorce, you may expect your spouse to destroy or hide these assets and documents to gain a more favorable outcome.
This is not to mention that temporarily renting a new place may mean an extra expense for you. And you may not want to take on this cost when your litigated divorce is expected to be expensive as it is.
What happens if I move out before we file for divorce?
First things first, your home may be considered marital property if it was purchased during your marriage and both your and your spouse’s names are on the deed and the mortgage. With this, your rights to your home may not be put at risk, even if you move out of there before your divorce is filed and finalized. That is, it may still undergo equitable distribution, in which the New Jersey family court divides it fairly and justly.
However, the court may deem it fair and just to grant your home to your spouse if they stay. This is because they may view their stay as more of a commitment to its upkeep. Such upkeep may entail financially contributing to maintaining the home, being physically present to care for your shared children who remained in the home, and more. In turn, your move out may indirectly affect your child custody rights in the aftermath of your divorce.
We hope that this blog offers the insight you were searching for. For more information, we encourage you to contact a skilled Bergen County family law attorney from McNerney & McAuliffe today.