Equitable Distribution or Inequitable Loss?
Video Transcribed: Good day everybody. This is Dustin Peterson and I am an OKC attorney. Several times a month I’ll bring to you the answers to the most commonly heard questions from my consultations, and I hope you can use that information to make better decisions in your own situation.
Today’s question comes from a spouse who is getting divorced and they would like to know whether the house that they live in will be subject to equitable property division even though the spouse owned that house prior to the marriage. So in this case, he owned the house, he then married his wife who moved into the house with him and they lived there for 10 years. Now his wife in divorce is claiming an interest in the house. And will that house be subject to property division? It very likely will be for the following reason. Oklahoma uses the source of funds approach in property division and much of this is left up to the judge to decide. Our statutes on property division are threadbare. And so there is a very great amount of judicial discretion.
In this case, what the judge is likely going to look at is the value of the home before the marriage, and then the value of the home as it increased during the marriage. Other factors that may come into play are the funds used to maintain and/or improve the property. It is very likely then that at least the value increase from the time before the marriage to the time of the divorce will be subject to equitable division.
Once again, I’m Dustin Peterson, a divorce lawyer in Oklahoma. If you have any questions about property division and divorce in Oklahoma, give me a call at (405) 888-5400 or simply look me up online at theoklahomacityattorney.com.