Family Law or Real Estate Law

[sister1]

What is the name of your state? Kentucky

I am looking for some advice for my sister who lives in Kentucky.

Because she and her husband could not agree on who got the house (she wanted to buy him out, but keep it) and the fact that her ex now wanted 50% custody, the decision went to the judge. The judge ordered he would like "try something he'd heard of" and that she and her ex- "bird-nest." That is, the children stay in the house, and mom and dad move in and out every week. My sister was opposed to this, stated it in the original divorce, and is since appealing.

This is unworkable on various levels, from a financial standpoint of maintaining two homes, to being forced to basically continue to share a home/property and be financially tied to a man she cannot get along with, which is why they divorced in the first place.

The only money she has is in the value of the equity of the house. Without this, she cannot even afford a downpayment on an apartment, and is living with friends here and there (she is also required to continue to pay part of the bills on the house as she lives in it every other week.) If she had access to this money, she could afford to buy another home, where the children could live with her while she has custody, so they in no way would be harmed by separate households again. However, the judge told her in court that he didn't care if she could not afford the situation, she could just live in a motel room.

Normally, if home ownership was an issue between two non-married parties, one could partition the court for forced sale of the home.

However, we are trying to determine in this case if family law would take place over traditional real-estate law.

Any advice is appreciated!

[nextwife]

A agreement of one to refinance the mortgage and buy out the other would be real estate law. Your sister DOES realize that whomever keeps the house needs to buy out the other's interest AND refinance them off the mortgage?

An order of a judge either awarding possession or ownership as part of the divorce decree, would be family law.

FYI - My aunt and uncle did this when they seperated, back in the early eighties, for about a year, so it's not THAT new, or THAT experimental. Only they obtained one apartment and alternated staying in the house and staying in the apartment every two weeks They did eventually reconcile, and the fact that they both were always there and never disrupted the kids allowed them to stay very close to them. As adults., they now vacation with their kids and grandkids. So, in their case. it was a very good arrangement.

[FarmerJ]

seems likely that this plan keeps the childrens lives from being disrupted. Im sure the parents can learn to tolerate each other and each have a separate locked room as bedroom space, They would have to learn to tolerate each other to pass off the children if they had to move the kids every week like my sister does with her son, If she cannot afford a place to live then I suggest going to the nearest group home firm and ask if they have any overnight asleep positions that she can do on her free week. She will make money at 2 rates one if she needs to be woke up to assist awake staff with behaviours and other rate asleep rate, either wich way its money on top of what ever regular job she has wich will increase her income. If this was ordered by a judge I kind of doubt that its worth fighting. The judge acted in the best interest of the children.