Fair is fair

[Desperate one]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? VT My divorce was finale 2 years ago. At that time we still had a 15 yr, so the judge decided that instead of selling the house and uprooting our daughter my ex could keep it and I got to keep my retirement. They estimated that if she sold the house she would get about $50k profit and my retirement was worth a little less than that. Well, now my ex is about to sell the house, before my daughter has graduated high school, and stands to make about $100k in profit while I'm still stuck with a little less than $50k on my retirement. Plus, she gets close to 1/2 my salary in spousal support for the next 13 years. I realize that the courts most likely are not going to make her split the extra profit with me, so I wondered if I have a leg to stand on if I try to take her back to court to reduce the spousal maintance based on the extra $50k she's getting from the sale of the house??

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by Desperate one

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? VT My divorce was finale 2 years ago. At that time we still had a 15 yr, so the judge decided that instead of selling the house and uprooting our daughter my ex could keep it and I got to keep my retirement. They estimated that if she sold the house she would get about $50k profit and my retirement was worth a little less than that. Well, now my ex is about to sell the house, before my daughter has graduated high school, and stands to make about $100k in profit while I'm still stuck with a little less than $50k on my retirement. Plus, she gets close to 1/2 my salary in spousal support for the next 13 years. I realize that the courts most likely are not going to make her split the extra profit with me, so I wondered if I have a leg to stand on if I try to take her back to court to reduce the spousal maintance based on the extra $50k she's getting from the sale of the house??

Who has been making the house payments since your divorce? If she is the one who is doing it, you don't have a leg to stand on regarding getting any of the additional profit.

Is the almost 1/2 of your salary child support and spousal support combined, or just spousal support? That would made a big difference in whether or not you had a decent chance at a reduction.

[Desperate one]

The child support is only a fraction of the total amount I pay right now, so even when that is done I will still be paying nearly 1/2 of my salary to her for the next 13 years. Since the divorce she has been making the payments on the house, but with all the money she gets from me every month! And what about the 18 years I spent living there making all the payments and paying all the bills? Shouldn't I get some kind of compensation???? All I want is what is fair, and if she gets $100k profit from the house I spent most of my life paying for and I only get close to $50 from my retirement AND still have to pay her almost 1/2 my salary for the next 13 years - how is that fair????? Would the courts consider reducing the spousal maintance based on the huge profit she will make from selling the house?

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by now-hereman

The child support is only a fraction of what you pay??

If the alimony was based on the division of the property, you might have a leg to stand on. But it doesn't appear that this was the case.

How was the grand wizard that decided your case to know she may get a windfall from his/her ruling?

The decision was made to favor HER under almost any circumstances that could arise post divorce. That's what is considered "fair" in divorce so try to accept the things you cannot change, because it ain't worth trying to make it "fair" at this point.

Dude...you missed this one entirely.

It was ordered that she keep the equity in the house...and he get to keep his retirement account. They were roughly equal.

If the real estate market had "tanked"...she would have been the loser. Instead, it "boomed" and she lucked out. It could have easily been the opposite. If the market had tanked and she was the one coming back on here "singing the blues"...I wouldn't have any sympathy for her either.

In about 4 or 5 years we are going to see lots of people "singing the blues" because they got equity in the house and their ex got equity in things like retirement funds or other conservative investments....because the market IS going to tank eventually.