I need some legal advice here.

WH is attempting to go after a monetary pre-marital claim. The money he is seeking to be returned was used as a dwn pymt for our first house which we bought as 2 single people.

No prenup exists, however in our state, it can still be considered pre-marital. The amount he had b/4 marriage was around 20k, but the way he and atty. figured it out, I would owe him 75k.

Please, I need some advice on how to handle this. I am in touch with my atty. re: this, but I thought I would see if anyone has had similar claim and how they handled it.

I definitely see WH trying to financially ruin me and in the process, he is only going to end up hurting his kids more than he already has.

Thanks,
FF

Just doing a bit of math here.

I guess you could figure out what percentage of the house $20K was back then.
House was $100,000 and down payment was $20,000, so it's 20%.
Figure out what the house is worth now and use the same percentage.

Then you take what equity is left and split it.
You could try & say it was a common law marriage since you both moved in together (as a couple, correct? Not just as roomies?)
If this is the case then this is usually it could be construed as a common law marriage. Then it wouldn't be a pre-marital asset as it was put forward for the (common law) marriage.

I dunno. Just a thought.

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney.

Did you marry while you owned this house?

If not, what became of the equity when you sold it?

When you got your second house, were you married and was the equity from the first house used as down payment into the second?

Please just describe the sequence of events from start to finish for each buying/selling event and what became of the equity each time.

Thanks for replying. Sequence of events goes like this.

We bought 1st house as 2 single people w/wedding date set for 2 1/2 months later. We got married.

We owned 1st house for 2 years, and sold it. Bought 2nd house, yes used equity from 1st house as down payment for 2nd house. Had kids. 6 years later, we sold 2nd house and bought 3rd house. used equity from 2nd house as down payment for 3rd house. Then the A happened 1 1/2 years later. Weve been married for 10 years, but have lived together for 10 1/2 to 11 years.

I am headed out of town for holidays and will be meeting w/my atty. when I return. So you won't hear from me until I return. Thank you though for replying. I look forward to reading your next reply.

FF

Sounds like he's up a creek as far as the "pre marital assets" go, especailly since he used the money for a 2nd & a 3rd house.

Once he used it as a marital asset, it became a joint asset.

That is how inheritance works. It's your's as long as it is completely separate. Once it is combined (as in buying a house together), it becomes joint property.

I am not an attorney either, but I have to believe no judge would give any credence to such a financial claim. I suspect the rules governing distribution of marital assets would apply without modification. I also would think the close action of marriage would support the claim the house was meant to be a comingled asset. But like any legal action, you must be sure you have a good attorney who can properly refute this claim....be sure to also ask for legal fees if you can get the judge to agree this was not a good faith effort to decide on property distribution.

ditto ditto

Let this be a clue as to the selfishness that will be revealed during divorce proceedings.

Just keep thinking with reason and not emotion and you can even have some fun.

For example, my then-wife always went on and on about how she wasn't having an affair - that our marriage had been "over" for ten years! When it came time to calculating the marital portion of my retirement pension she would get:

Me: When was it you said our marriage was over? 10 years ago, right? Hmmmm, that means you only get about a third of what you would have gotten of my retirement if we stayed married until now!

Her: THAT'S NOT RIGHT!! WE'RE NOT DIVORCED YET!!!

Me: Oh, OK, I thought for sure you said our marriage ended 10 years ago.

Her: IT DID!!! EMOTIONALLY, NOT LEGALLY!! I NEED YOUR RETIREMENT TO LIVE!!!

Me: Is that an emotional need or a legal need?

WAT

Thank you everyone who replied to this one.

You all make very valid good points. Especially the one where once WH used the premarital money to buy the second house after we were married, it should have become marital joint money.

I will bring all of these points up w/my atty., and for your education, I will definitely let you know what becomes of it so that we may educate the poor souls that may go through the same sitch in the future.

Again, thank you.
FF