You may be going through a divorce and find yourself thinking that you just don’t want to have to move. You hope that you’ll at least be able to keep the family home. That will give you some sense of stability and make the transition out of your marriage a bit easier.
You’re not alone in this, and a lot of people have keeping the house as their goal. However, this can be difficult, and you need to know about some of the potential hurdles that you could face.
Your partner may also want it
First off, if you and your spouse bought the home jointly, you both have a right to it. This means that your partner may have the same goal as you and also want to keep the home. Unless you’re willing to do so together, something that is very rare but does happen, then a solution will have to be found.
It can be very expensive
One solution is often to buy your partner‘s equity in the house. However, this can be very expensive. Some people find that they would like to keep the home, but they can’t afford to pay off their ex, so they have to sell it in order to divide the money that they earn jointly.
You’ll need a new mortgage
Finally, if you bought the home with a mortgage, you’re probably going to need to get another one in order to keep it yourself. Refinancing is a stipulation that a lot of people have in this situation because your ex doesn’t want to be liable for any missed mortgage payments in the future. They want to get their name off of that paperwork if you are going to be the only one who keeps the house.
None of these things are insurmountable, but you just need to know about all the options you have and the legal steps you can take during your divorce.
