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It’s My Pre-Marital Home, So Shouldn’t I Receive All of Its Value in the Divorce?
February 5, 2013
Parties to a divorce are often faced with the quandary where one spouse moves into the other’s spouses home, which was purchased before the marriage; yet, during the marriage, the parties use marital monies to pay down the mortgage, and at the time of the divorce, the premarital home has increased in value as a result of passive market fluctuations. This has been problematic in the past, because passive increases in a non-marital asset are not subject to equitable distribution.
There is an excellent Florida Bar article in this month’s Florida Bar Journal titled “The Marital Share of Passive Appreciation of Nonmarital Property: Deconstructing Kaa for a Better Solution” by David L. Manz, which discusses the equitable distribution statute and the case law on this issue, and in particular, the recent Florida Supreme Court case, Kaa v. Kaa, 58 So. 3d 867 (Fla. 2010) and the problems associated with same. In addition, the article outlines the Florida Bar Family Law Section’s proposed solution to calculating what amount the non-owning spouse should receive when this dilemma is present in a dissolution. The article is attached for further reference.