If two people get a divorce, because one of them cheated on the other... Is it possible for the 'cheater' to get the house? Even though it was bought by the person that was cheated on?
Texas is a community property state. Unless you have a prenuptual agreement, everything is divided 50/50. The judge can provide for spousal or child support as well. But, yeah, if there is an equal division of assets and the cheater gets the house as part of his/her 50 percent, they can. Blame is mostly irrelevant in Texas and other community property states.
man that sucks, I heard though in some cases without a prenup, cheating means that the cheater basically loses out on alimony and part of the split of assets? Is this true in other states?
Jeff, I agree with the community property and child support but spousal support may not necessarily be the norm. There is no alimony law I am aware of in the State of Texas. I should know, I have been divorced twice. As for the original question, it is a 50/50 split and that is the law.
Except that if I marry, my wife will probably make more than me. So if I got a divorce, I'd probably come out a few bucks ahead.
its actually a just and right division but if the house was bought before the marriage, it could be one's separate property and will not be included into community property
It is more complicated than that if it is bought before marriage. The equity you built before marriage will be yours. Then the payments you made after marriage is considered community money, so the equity you build after marriage will be 50/50. For example, suppose you bought a house for 150k with 50k down with 30 yr fixed. Then you marry immediately. After 6 years of payments (for simplicity, assume this builds up 20k of the remaining 100k debt), the house doubled to 300k. Then you are entitled to 200k and your wife is entitled to 100k. I suppose a divorce lawyer can do the math for you. So the rule of thumb is, build up as much wealth as possible before marriage. This will put you in a better position when it comes to divorce.
There is no penalty from the state but it might affect asset distribution if the party who committed it gave money/asset to his/her lover.
Cheating will absolutely play into the property split, if you go to trial. But most likely you will resolve these issues before you get there. In which case, any property split you agree to will, for the most part, be approved. But the person who was cheated on will use it as leverage to negotiate a bigger piece of the pie.
They can use it as a factor, but there is certainly no guarantee. And FYI, kids, live with a girl for 6 months in Texas, she can take half your stuff, too.
i hear ya. it's not an absolute. but in conservative harris county, if you're cheating on your spouse you're gonna pay for it in front of a judge and jury.
My understanding from my law partner is that even if they have pictures of her/him having groupie threesomes with the crib in the background, the worst he/she will do is a 70/30 split. False. Totally and completely false. While Texas has common law marriage, it is a common misconception that living with somebody for 6 months makes you married. That is not true. You can live with somebody for 20 years and not be legally married in Texas. On the other hand, you can live with somebody for 1 month and be legally married. Cohabitation is only one of the components of a common law marriage. If it is alleged, the person claiming a common law marriage must show that the parties (both of you) had a present intention to be married. Did you introduce her at cocktail parties as your wife? Did you have joint bank accounts with both of you sharing a last name? And...my favorite...did you file joint tax returns?
Wait... uhhh back the f*ck up.... This sh*t can't be true. I thought that common law mariage crap was folklore. Please, tell me I don"t have to get any potential girlfriend to sign a pre-pre-nup just to date and test the waters of cohabitation? PLZ much older memebers, tell me there's no boogy man "common law marraige" spector!!!
