buying a home when divorce is not final

I live in NY. I file for divorce 6 months ago(married 18 months).Husband very abusive..verbally and physically. Order of protection against him. I have a home which I purchase years before the marriage..If I sell it and buy a new home, is he entitle to any of the new home. He has been served with the divorce papers as well. Can I purchase a new home....Do I have to put my life on hold until the divorce is final. Help!!!

I can answer only in terms of Indiana law, which is where I practice. If you lived in Indiana:

Any value or equity that you had in the home before you married him would be yours. However, half the equity that accrued during the marriage would be his. However, you could possibly trade this for something else, leaving you w/all the equity.

If you sell your home and use the assets (which the court may decide are partially his), then you are possibly using assets of the marital pot and could have to "buy out" his portion of the equity.

If possible, I would work on getting the divorce final and THEN worry about a new home. Your life will be much less complicated.

Again, the laws in your state my differ from those in Indiana.....

Its a shame that a person with nothing is entitle to something. I mean he has nothing/no job. A job that lasted 30 days. So basically I would have to keep my life on hold until the divorce is final. thank you

Its a shame that a person with nothing is entitle to something. I mean he has nothing/no job. A job that lasted 30 days. So basically I would have to keep my life on hold until the divorce is final. How do you find out the equity for 18 months on a home

Sorry I didn't have better news for you.

If I were you, I'd still talk to an attorney there because the laws may be different, but that's generally how they work, as far as equity goes.

Usually folks trade off something of value -- or you simply may be able to get him to agree not to take any of the equity.

A lot of times people don't want to fight for something that's probably not going to be worth a lot of money anyway.

As far as calculating an amount, your mortgage company statements could probably help -- you can look at your statements from BEFORE the marriage to the time of the split -- and offer him half of the equity that accrued during that time period. Chances are the home didn't appreciate that much on its own in that short period of time, so it would probably just be the amount of the principal that you paid off during that 18-month period, divided by two.

Chances are, it's not going to be much. And, as I said, you might just get him to sign off on it as not worth pursuing from you.

In the meantime, go after him for the child support. He's going to owe you a lot more there than you would possibly owe him from the equity. OK?