Q: If a security deposit check is mailed to you, in your name, but you lived with another person. Is that check yours?
So, I was living with my husband (we were renting an apartment/house) but a divorce has been filed were waiting on the judge.
I moved out of the house and asked the landlords to take me off the lease but they refused for their own reasons. After that my husband moved out. Now I paid the security deposit with my bonus check (so my husband didnt have any part in paying the deposit), A couple of months later my landlord emails me asking me for my new address, so I emailed back my address, they said that I will be receiving a security release (I didnt know what that was at the time.) About two weeks later I get a check from them (security release a.k.a. security deposit check) under MY name, NOT my husbands. Now hes claiming that the money is his and not mine. I feel that it is mine since I was the one who paid the deposit from MY bonus check. Am I correct? I strongly believe I am. Now let me add that the check came under my name not his.
A: Actually, it would be up to the divorce judge to decide, together with who is entitled to the rest of the marital property. You paid the deposit with your bonus check, true, but (assuming you were living together as husband an wife when you paid the deposit), the bonus check would have been marital property. Everything else being equal, it looks like he is entitled to half of it.
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