alimony

[cindale]

What is the name of your state? CA

I have been divorced for 3 years. In the decree my ex and I retained equal ownership in 2 houses that we owned at the time of the divorce. There was never any mention of spousal support except that jurisdiction was retained so that she could sue me for support up to 25 years later, the amount of time we were married. As a verbal agreement between her and I, I have been renting out these 2 houses and maintaining them all on my own. We had agreed that we would keep these houses for our 3 sons to give to them when we die. The rental of these houses has become too burdensome and so I suggested that we sell the houses and give the money to our sons now.
Since they are all starting their own families they could use the money now.
Of course I want to do away with the threat of her suing me for alimony, so
as a condition of selling the houses I have asked her to sign a paper to that
effect. She refuses to agree to that. She has always had no trouble finding
a job and she owns another house she inherited from her mother while we were married from which she makes $1500.00 a month in rent and she owns the house, no mortgage. That house is worth approximately $ 700,000.00 to one million dollars. I have been thinking about just handing over to her our 2 houses and she can do with them what she wants. My question is, if I do hand over the houses, both of which together are worth approximately
$500,000.00, will that make it harder for her to justify suing me for alimony?
After I give her the houses, legally, I am considering taking her to court to have the option of her suing me for alimony removed so that I can move on with my life and not have to listen to her threaten me with suing me every month

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by cindale

What is the name of your state? CA

I have been divorced for 3 years. In the decree my ex and I retained equal ownership in 2 houses that we owned at the time of the divorce. There was never any mention of spousal support except that jurisdiction was retained so that she could sue me for support up to 25 years later, the amount of time we were married. As a verbal agreement between her and I, I have been renting out these 2 houses and maintaining them all on my own. We had agreed that we would keep these houses for our 3 sons to give to them when we die. The rental of these houses has become too burdensome and so I suggested that we sell the houses and give the money to our sons now.
Since they are all starting their own families they could use the money now.
Of course I want to do away with the threat of her suing me for alimony, so
as a condition of selling the houses I have asked her to sign a paper to that
effect. She refuses to agree to that. She has always had no trouble finding
a job and she owns another house she inherited from her mother while we were married from which she makes $1500.00 a month in rent and she owns the house, no mortgage. That house is worth approximately $ 700,000.00 to one million dollars. I have been thinking about just handing over to her our 2 houses and she can do with them what she wants. My question is, if I do hand over the houses, both of which together are worth approximately
$500,000.00, will that make it harder for her to justify suing me for alimony?
After I give her the houses, legally, I am considering taking her to court to have the option of her suing me for alimony removed so that I can move on with my life and not have to listen to her threaten me with suing me every month

First, your idea of selling the properties and gifting the money to your children is not necessarily a good one. The equity in the homes could be seriously in excess of the yearly limitations of 11,000 per person. If the equity in the two properties is more than 66,000 (3 kids x 2 gifters x 11,000)
then its an issue.

In addition, these homes are obviously not your or your ex's principal place of residence, therefore you are both also facing capital gains taxes as well.

Since you are no longer married, gifting your share of the property to your ex wife would have the same potential problems as gifting money to your children. It would not have been a problem if it had been done at the time of the divorce, but it would be a problem now.

Therefore, before doing ANYTHING, you need to be consulting a tax professional.

As far as the "alimony is reserved" factor is concerned....it was rather silly to attempt to tie it in to decisions made about those properties. Its completely unrelated and since YOU are the one who wants to dispose of the houses, she had no incentive to agree to your demands.

Consult a tax professional and decide what to do about the rental homes in agreement with your ex.

Then either ignore her threats regarding alimony (and deal with it if/when she files) or consult an attorney to see about the possibility of having the clause removed from your divorce agreement. I kind of doubt its possible to do that...but an attorney is the best person to answer that question.

[BelizeBreeze]

Whether or not you can get out of the threat of alimony has nothing to do with the houses. It has to do with her legal rights.

If she has so much property and still has the ability to work, then why don't YOU file for alimony?