Any special rules for the marital home?
If you jointly own your house, you cannot force your spouse to leave. If you change the locks, you spouse can hire a locksmith and change them again, or call the police who will probably make you let your spouse back in. There are two exceptions. The court can order a spouse to leave for up to a year for domestic violence. And the court can give exclusive use and possession of a house, furniture and automobile, to a parent with primary custody of the children, for up to three years after the divorce.
Although there are no “special rules” regarding the marital home in a divorce, it is extremely rare for there to be anything but an equal division of the equity in the house. The courts can either order the marital house sold immediately, or, when there are children, the courts may order the house sold upon the emancipation of the children, or graduation from high school. The party with “custody” of the children will generally have the use and possession of the marital home until the sale. The court will take into account (1) whether the custodial parents living expenses would be less in the home, and (2) whether the children had lived in the marital residence all their lives. (3) whether other suitable housing in the same neighborhood was available at an affordable price. Again, the goal is to make an equitable distribution of the marital property. So, the courts may even grant one party the marital home, and grant the other party something else. Nothing is ironclad.
