During a divorce, it’s tempting not to get a lawyer and opt to represent yourself instead. However, divorces are highly complex processes that could emotionally and financially drain the parties involved. Most divorcing couples meet the high cost of divorce by placing their home on sale.
Selling your house during divorce is much more complicated compared to ordinary sales. However, divorce lawyers can offer involved couples the legal help they need to sell their homes faster. They also provide them with the continuous support they need to go through the difficult moments arising from selling a home.
Essentially, an attorney looks out for your interests during the sale of your marital property. These aren’t the only ways divorce lawyers help these couples. If you’re selling your house during the divorce, there are various ways your lawyer can help, below are five of them.
1. Identifying Legal Pitfalls
When selling your house during divorce, both parties need to deal with every legal and financial issue before placing the property on sale. Parties that list their houses without addressing impending issues risk attracting buyers who pull out of a purchase contract after learning about those issues.
Divorce lawyers can help couples by taking them through potential legal problems they’re likely to encounter as they sell their homes. Furthermore, the lawyer can advise couples on overcoming those hurdles and selling their house faster.
2. Providing Legal Alternatives
Divorces are challenging, mainly when the parties involved aren’t civil about it. Where couples agree on selling their house during a divorce, cooperation is critical in moving the process forward. However, there are situations where one party prefers not to get involved in the selling process while the other remains interested in the sale.
A lawyer could help ease the process by advising couples to take advantage of the divorce lien legal options to legalize the sale. Divorce lien allows the interested party to control the selling process during divorce by giving decision-making power.
The less interested party gets a deed of trust to secure their share after the sale. Such a party cannot influence the selling process. For instance, the party cannot object if the interested party chooses to sell the house to the property as it is to a house buying company in Dutchess County NY. Once the two parties agree to the lien, the process of selling your house during divorce is fast-tracked significantly.
3. Mediating Between Couples
As people go through a divorce, it’s normal to experience feelings of resentment and anger that make it challenging for them to discuss details about the sale of their homes. This not only makes the divorce messy, but it also slows down the process of selling their matrimonial home.
In such situations, attorneys come in handy in mediating issues between the two parties involved, particularly in facilitating communication between the two parties. For instance, if the divorce is acrimonious, parties can primarily communicate through their lawyers. When couples want to sell their houses, lawyers can help ensure they agree on many issues before placing them on the property market.
Such issues may include:
- The property’s selling price, with a precise minimum cost.
- Identification of the real estate agent.
- Undertaking repairs and keeping the house clean.
- Staying in contact with the agent.
- Mortgage repayment.
- Handling property showings and whether or not one of them remains in the house.
4. Negotiating Debt And Asset Sharing
A lawyer would also come in handy in helping you negotiate debt responsibilities between couples during the sale of a family house. If a mortgage was used to acquire marital property and payments are still pending at the time of divorce, couples must agree on how to repay the balance.
Often, the responsibility of mortgage repayment lies with both parties. Before selling their home, couples need to agree on how to delegate the items in the house. Ideally, the couple should prepare an inventory showing those items to clarify who would be responsible for what.
Working with a lawyer can ensure the debts relating to the property are divided fairly. Furthermore, a lawyer can safeguard your share of assets by getting restraining orders. This is necessary if there’s a demonstrable risk that one party may transfer or change beneficiary designations for the property.
Final Thoughts
A divorce not only drains parties involved emotionally, but it’s also a costly process that drains couples financially. Most couples choose to sell their marital home to raise money for court proceedings. However, this isn’t always easy.
Selling your house can be challenging when both parties aren’t on the same page during a divorce. Listing the home in the property market should only happen after both parties have resolved any impending legal or financial issues.
Where couples are not in talking terms or have different interests, lawyers can play a critical role in facilitating communication, negotiating debt and asset sharing, and providing legal alternatives to divorcing couples. By offering these services, divorce attorneys can relieve couples the stress that comes with selling their house during a divorce.
