As Arizona family lawyers, we see many different scenarios when two people decide to legally end their marriage. Recently, we’ve seen a growing trend emerge: couples who want to get divorced but can’t afford not to live together after the divorce.
More and more couples who decide to legally separate from one another are still living together after the divorce has been finalized. Why would two individuals who struggled to live together as husband and wife want to continue to live with one another after a divorce? The simple answer is finances.
Because of this, it’s important to retain an Arizona divorce lawyer who can successfully extricate you from a marriage. Many times, we’ve discovered, these types of divorces end on an amicable note because both parties involved in the divorce still have to see each other when they get home. That’s where having an experienced divorce lawyer becomes very important.
A Calculated Move
After deducting the high cost of a divorce from the equation, couples who are already dealing with financial debt view living together as a way to salvage their personal finances. Many divorcees are faced with the burden of trying to maintain two households, so only maintaining one is more manageable financially.
Aside, from the overall expense of divorce, the housing market has been an additional contributing factor as to why couples remain living under the same roof. Homes are not worth what they used to be, and selling the home would only perpetuate the debt homeowners have accumulated. Living together is seen as the only option.
Hiring an experienced family law attorney can help you decide if this is the best option for you. As Arizona divorce lawyers, we have a wide range of professional contacts who can help you determine whether or not you will be able to finance your existing home in your own name. If it’s not possible, then it helps to know this so you don’t spend resources in court fighting for something you can’t keep.
It’s easy to see how this can become complicated very quickly. That’s where experience becomes a necessity. From our perspective, these cases differ greatly from most divorce cases and must be handled with a great deal of discretion. In some cases, one of the parties appears on the mortgage but both parties are being ordered to pay their half of the monthly payments, a scary concept for the one person on the mortgage who really has skin in the game if the payments aren’t made.
Will This Continue?
It appears it will for the at least the time being. Until the housing and financial markets start to make a comeback, we anticipate more couples arriving at this solution. Negotiating the divorce settlement amicably becomes that much more important.
Will the decision for divorced couples to continue living together payoff? Only time will tell.
