After holiday festivities conclude, divorce filings tend to spike. If you have been putting off ending your marriage, you may use the first part of 2020 to begin a new life. Fortunately, you likely do not have to start from scratch. That is, Florida law allows you to receive an equitable share of marital wealth.
If you and your soon-to-be-ex-spouse own a vacation home, you may wonder what happens to it after your divorce concludes. Like other types of marital wealth, you and your partner must divide your vacation home’s ownership equitably. Here are a few options:
Sell the property
Commonly, divorcing spouses choose to sell vacation homes and split the profits. While this may seem like the easiest solution, you may have to overcome certain obstacles. For example, selling a vacation property may be tough during certain times of the year. Also, if your vacation home is far away, you may have to entrust a third party to stage and sell it.
Keep the property
If you love your vacation home, you may want to keep it after your marriage ends. Still, because your property is likely valuable, you may have to give up many other assets in exchange for exclusive ownership. Furthermore, if the vacation home has a mortgage, you must be certain that you can secure independent financing for it.
Share the property
Even though you no longer wish to remain married, you may not have a bad relationship with your current spouse. If that is the case, you may be able to work out a visitation schedule that allows you and your partner to continue to own and use the vacation home. Before taking this path, though, you should proactively address maintenance and upkeep responsibilities.
If you and your spouse cannot reach an agreement about how to deal with the vacation property, you may need to ask a judge to intervene. Nevertheless, by exploring all possible options, you increase your odds of negotiating an acceptable outcome.