Q: Can my husband force me to reimburse him for mortgage payments he made during separation?
My husband moved out of our home in January 2018 with the intention of filing for divorce in January 2019. I just bought another house and am moving out of our jointly-owned home in a few weeks, after which my husband will move back in.
He has been paying the mortgage and health insurance payments all this time from our joint bank account, and I have been paying the utilities, car insurance, etc., from my own bank account, which has always been how we’ve handled the finances. He is now insisting that I reimburse him for the mortgage and health insurance payments going back to January 2018, even though we have no verbal or written separation agreement. He assures me that the court will force me to reimburse him after he files in January 2019.
Is that true/likely to happen?
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- North Carolina
- (910) 333-9679
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- Answered
A: It is possibly but highly unlikely. Of course you, buying a house while separated with no formal separation agreement in place was not a smart thing to do as he will likely have a small marital interest in your new house that he can use as some bit of leverage against you. Bottom line here is this can be fairly easy, quick and relatively cheap or it can be bitter, drawn out and expensive - the choice is up you to you guys. Either come to a fair agreement yourselves or pay strangers often quite a lot of money to make decisions for you that you likely could have make yourselves for free or at very low cost.
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