Couples share their property and possessions during a marriage regardless of who has their name on the title or whose name is on the account. If the couple ends up going through a divorce though they will need to split all of their possessions. Some may be easily split such as a bank account. It is easy to withdraw funds and put it into a new account. However, other property, especially physical property such as vehicles and homes, are not as easy to divide.
People cannot split a house in half and each take half of a house. So, when splitting a house couples need to divide the equity in the home. Typically this is done in one of two ways. Couples can either sell the house and split the proceeds or one spouse will keep the house and need to pay the other spouse for their portion of the equity.
Options for dividing the house
The first option can be the easiest and cleanest way to divide a house. The couple will easily know how much they received for the house and the money will be readily available after the sale and easy to split between the spouses.
There are reasons why one spouse may want to keep the home though such as keeping some consistency for their children after the divorce. However, splitting the equity becomes more difficult if one spouse keeps the house. One way to do it is that the spouse keeping the house will need to refinance it into their name alone and take out enough cash to pay the other spouse for their portion of the equity. Another option would be to potentially pay the equity from other sources such as retirement accounts. If one spouse is keeping the house it is important to know whether they will be able to pay the other spouse their share of the equity prior to finalizing the divorce.
Property division during a divorce in Indiana can be a complicated process. Experienced attorneys understand how it is done though and may be a useful resource.