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Shel77

Member
What is the name of your state? Florida
My mother has a question, My father and her have been separated for about 4 years now (they live at different residences) My father recently purchased a home lived there for about 9 months and now has it up for sale. The question is if my mother has any ownership in this house. I said no because he purchased it and is now selling it while they are 'legally separated' but she thinks that there is no such term as that, they are either married or divorced and until they are divorced everything is still 50/50 between them. Is this true and does this work the same with newly incurred debt. I heard that he should not have even been able to buy this house without my mom’s signature.
 


BelizeBreeze

Senior Member
If they have a legal separation agreement then you are right. If this was simply a separation without the court's being involved or without an agreement between the two of them, then it is a matter of fact for a judge to determine.
 

Shel77

Member
No courts have been involved yet. She just wante to see if something happend and this house got forclosed on for some reason if it would be her problem as well.
 

BelizeBreeze

Senior Member
huntersmommy06 said:
Sorry, FL Senate website is down right now, but I will post back when up. :)
Even when it is back up you will not find what you are seeking.

Florida is an equitable distribution state. Simply put, marital property is defined by statute. Also, non-marital property is defined by the same statute which limits the definition to property acquired before the marriage and/or before the legal separation of the parties if such was not purchased utilizing assets acquired with marital property funds.

The statute also goes on to define the options to legal separation including the filing of an agreement between the parties or adjudication by the courts that, absent a formal agreement, an implied separation occurred.
 
BelizeBreeze said:
Even when it is back up you will not find what you are seeking.

Florida is an equitable distribution state. Simply put, marital property is defined by statute. Also, non-marital property is defined by the same statute which limits the definition to property acquired before the marriage and/or before the legal separation of the parties if such was not purchased utilizing assets acquired with marital property funds.

The statute also goes on to define the options to legal separation including the filing of an agreement between the parties or adjudication by the courts that, absent a formal agreement, an implied separation occurred.
Now my curiosity is piqued, my attorney stated that I could not file for a legal seperation, as there is none in Florida. My spouse was advise the same from his attorney as he wanted to protect a lump sum w/c settlement.
 

BelizeBreeze

Senior Member
huntersmommy06 said:
Now my curiosity is piqued, my attorney stated that I could not file for a legal seperation, as there is none in Florida. My spouse was advise the same from his attorney as he wanted to protect a lump sum w/c settlement.
While you cannot "FILE" for legal separation, you CAN file a separation agreement between the two of you which serves in Florida as the partition between marital and non-marital assets.

As to your specific issue, it would depend entirely on when the WC claim was filed as to whether or not it would fall within the marital asset category.

I think you are both misunderstanding the situation here. What I believe they were telling you is that filing a separation agreement would NOT affect the distribution of the WC claim
 
BelizeBreeze said:
While you cannot "FILE" for legal separation, you CAN file a separation agreement between the two of you which serves in Florida as the partition between marital and non-marital assets.

As to your specific issue, it would depend entirely on when the WC claim was filed as to whether or not it would fall within the marital asset category.

I think you are both misunderstanding the situation here. What I believe they were telling you is that filing a separation agreement would NOT affect the distribution of the WC claim
Thank you for clearing that up for me. I did misunderstand. :) To the OP please disregard what I posted.
 

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