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Originally Posted by JB808  What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Hawaii
My wife filed for Divorce in May and also filed a motion for Temporary Relief claiming I was a danger to my family. We have a 2 year old son together. The judge ruled in her favor on the motion and I was evicted from my home. I was ordered to pay half of the mortgage of our jointly owned home and child support during the divorce preceedings. It has been seven months and I was wondering why I did not receive any word or mail regarding going to mediation. I recently learned that my wife did not go thru with the entire divorce preceedings. My wife still refuses to allow me to return to our home. I was wondering if legally I can still be kept from returning to my home? I'm assuming I must file a motion to go before the judge to asked to be allowed to return to my home? Can I still be legally forced to pay half the mortgage when my wife will not let me return home. I also have a few other questions. If I decide to file for divorce what are my options with our jointly owned home. I can no longer afford to pay half my mortgage, child support, and rent for a place to live. If my wife can not afford to buy me out of half the equity and I can not afford to buy her out what would happen? Can I demand the house be auctioned or do we have to put it for sale on the open market? Homes are not selling at all on our island right now so I think it would take a considerable amount of time to sell and as I stated before, I can not afford to make payments on the home very much longer. What are my options?
Thank You in advance for any advice!
JB808 |
A court order is valid until it either expires or is rescinded by the judge. If there is no expiration date, you need to go back to court to have it rescinded.
Assuming that you took out the mortgage while you were married, the mortgage is a marital debt, so you're going to have to pay half. In any event, the bank doesn't care what your status is, so they're going to want their money. Now, after the divorce is complete, if she gets the house, she will take on the mortgage. In the interim, it's not always so clear - but in your case, you have a court order saying that you have to pay half, so you have to pay half.
If she can't afford to keep the house after the divorce, then one of two things has to happen. Either the house must be sold or else she will have to find somewhere else to live and you will keep the house (assuming that you can afford it). But that's not going to happen until the judge makes a final divorce decree which will take a while. If you owe more than the house is worth, you could talk to the bank about a short sale - ask ing them to take whatever you get for the house in payment for your loan, even if it's less than the loan amount. Not all banks will do it, but if there's serious concern about them having to foreclose on the house, they might - although you can't force them to do it. The court has a great deal of discretion in disposal of the house. The most likely is that they will order the house sold, period. This can create a problem where one party has unreasonable expectations and refuses to sign the documents. Or, the court can order the house auctioned (this is probably much less likely). Or, if there is evidence that one party is refusing to cooperate in the sale of the house, the court can order the house sold and give sole authority to the other person. They probably won't do that until after you demonstrate that she refuses to sign a legitimate purchase offer, though.
In any event, you need to take action. If she stopped the divorce process, you need to either go back to the judge and have the order removing you from the home removed, or file for divorce on your own to complete the process. Or both (make sure you ask for new temporary orders on support, visitation, custody, etc). Otherwise, you'll continue paying half of the mortgage and child support indefinitely.
12-09-2008, 02:48 AM
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