Today is Valentine’s Day, and our firm extends best wishes to all the happy couples celebrating. However, an unfortunate truth is that sometimes couples, whether they are man and woman, or of the same sex, will discover differences and break up. When such a couple is legally married, they usually would consult a divorce attorney to negotiate the terms of the divorce and a fair division of their jointly-owned property.
However, what happens when a couple are not married? Marriage as an institution is in decline, and many couples stay together for years, even decades, have children together, purchase property together, but never take the legal step of getting married. In such situations, how is their property to be divided once they decide to break up? They cannot bring a divorce action in Supreme Court, as divorces are only available to married couples.
As this blog deals with real property issues, we will discuss the legal issues of how an unmarried couple can divide jointly owned real estate. Of course, the parties should negotiate, using experienced attorneys to represent their interests. It is possible that one party wishes to retain the real property in question, and has sufficient funds to buy out the other person. In such a case, a buyout price must be agreed upon. The individual retaining the property must have sufficient funds to purchase the one-half interest of the other party. Possibly the funds will need to borrowed through a mortgage on the property. There may also be an existing mortgage on the property that needs to be satisfied.