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North Carolina Property Division
(provided by The Rosen Law Firm)
1) Who will divide our property?
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If you and your spouse are able to agree about the division of your
property, then your arrangement will be documented with a separation
agreement. If you are unable to agree, it will be necessary for you to go to
court. The court will not decide your property distribution case for a
period of time as the litigation process moves forward. During that time,
the individual with possession of the property will have the use of that
property unless a judge issues an order directing otherwise.
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In North Carolina the process of dividing the property and debts of a
marriage is called Equitable Distribution. Equitable Distribution is a three
step process conducted by the court when spouses are unable to divide
property on their own. The first step in the process is "identification". The
court must determine which property is marital and which is separate.
Separate property is property owned before marriage, inherited property
and gifts. Separate property used to purchase jointly held real estate
becomes marital property. Most of the remaining property is designated as
marital property. The second step is "valuation". This is the assignment of a
fair market value to each piece of marital property. Frequently, appraisers
and other experts assist in this step of the process. The fair market value is
the amount that would be paid by a willing buyer to a willing seller. The
final step is "distribution". The court will distribute the property equally
unless there are factors present in your case which indicate that an equal
division would not be equitable.
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Among the factors considered are:
1. The income, property and debts of each party,
2. Support obligations for prior marriage,
3. The length of the marriage and age and health of the parties,
4. Custody of children,
5. Expectation of retirement benefits which are separate property,
6. Efforts made by each spouse to acquire the property,
7. Contributions of one spouse to the education of the other spouse,
8. Direct contributions to increased value of separate property,
9. Liquid or non-liquid nature of property,
10. Difficulty in valuing interest in a business,
11. Tax consequences,
12. Actions taken by either party to preserve or waste marital assets, and
13. Other factors.
The Rosen Law Firm located at
http://www.rosen.com/
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