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Divorce Question in a Falling Housing Market...
Hi! I'm a lurker here with a quick question for my DH's friend:
He was divorced in the State of NY earlier this year. He signed an agreement re: the sale of their jointly owned home whereby he agreed to take the house at a profit or a loss. It will most likely be sold at a loss of 100,000.00
He did have an attourney of his own rubber stamp the divorce documents which he got for free... though the mediator they worked with was hers - and he just sort of went along with everything because I think he was stunned and frankly also believed that the house would sell at a profit. BTW - he put the down payment on the house which was 50,000.00
Anyways - long story short. Even though the divorce is done - can he sue her for the difference? Can he re-open the divorce settlement? Can he claim he was not of "sound mind and body" when he signed the divorce?
Re: Divorce Question in a Falling Housing Market...
no
And there are tons of couples winding up in similar situations
I doubt it would fly but he could consult a psychiatrist. Who will probably laugh him out of his office.
i know you're trying to be a good friend but if all he got stuck with is $100,000 debt, he's lucky.
A mediator by definition does not work for one party or another - they work to resolve the issues as amicably and fairly as possible. Some mediators even require both parties to pay even amounts of their fee to prevent trouble.
Long story short - no he cannot re-open his divorce decree. The court doesn't care if he was of sound mind and body - they would care if he was "under duress" as if he was being threatened to make the decision.
With regards to the down payment, since NY is an equitable distribution state, it's likely his ex got the equivalent of what her half of the house would have been. He apparently wanted the house. The decrease in value was not related to the divorce so it doesn't really matter.
What exactly would his claim be if he sued her for the difference? She didn't have anything to do with the depreciation unless she flooded the basement and set it on fire on her way out.
why dosen't he just ask his lawyer?
and he may be able to re-open. something like that happened with my parents.
that 'sound mind and body' sure sounds like a shovel-full though.....
the down payment clearly doesn't matter as he agreed to the agreement. he was stupid, in this economy and with this housing market, to believe house would sell at a profit. in order for them to reach an agreement they had to have it appraised. at that time he wouldn've been surprised-not when he was signing a mediators agreemetn. I think he FOS.
If they were married when they bought the house then I believe he is SOL, as the money is considered marital funds. DH and I signed a document prior to purchasing that if we sold the house due to divorce, we would first re-coup whatever money was put in as down payment money (i put down nearly 80% of our down payment, and we put down 40% of the value of the house) because our downpayment came from pre-martial funds, and afterwards, we would evenly split the proceeds as those came from post-marital funds.
Unless they had something in place, he's stuck with the debt.
RIP Dr. Irving Fishman - 10/1/19-7/25/10 - thank you for holding on for me.
You made my wedding day complete.
Sorry, all the information I have to go on is your thread. I don't know him. He might be the greatest guy in the world and her a total witch. But I don't know that. It sounds like his shock is from not making the profit he though he would.
I don't think he can sue her but even if he could ...I agree, totally lame and he needs to take his lumps. If he was so concerned about the 50K equity he put in the house, I assume prior to marriage, then he should have requested 25K from her at the beginning of marriage (haha that would have saved her and showed her the light before getting deep in). If it wasn't important then - it isn't important now.