Chapter 17 - The Property Accounting
Divorce property analysis was boring enough to save us.
My house remained separate property.
But marital funds had paid:
Renovation.
Taxes.
Maintenance.
A major kitchen addition.
Some appreciation was passive market growth.
Some potentially attributable to improvements.
Mark had a legitimate claim to a portion of marital contribution/appreciation under state law.
We hired appraisers.
Forensic accountant.
No one “won the house free and clear because title.”
No revenge.
Settlement numbers:
I kept title.
Mark received an agreed credit from other marital assets for his share of recognized marital contribution.
I retained the property.
He retained his separate/inherited company interest subject to agreed treatment of marital appreciation/value accrued during marriage.
Retirement divided.
Savings divided.
No alimony because both incomes substantial and settlement structure.
No secret punishment.
Then the draft quitclaim deed.
Unsigned.
Legally meaningless.
The HELOC application never submitted because I had never authorized.
No bank fraud.
No forged signature.
The wrong was not a completed property crime.
It was that my husband had prepared to ask me for a life-changing transfer before telling me he was considering separation.
May you like
Some harms belong in divorce, not criminal court.
That distinction mattered.
