Q: Hello I am reaching out here to enable a divorce to end an 17 year marriage with a 13 year kid. Need some insight

A: In a divorce, the court will make orders for the division of your community property that are "just and right." In most cases in which the parties own a community property marital residence with substantial equity, if the parties do not agree otherwise, the court will most likely either award the residence to one spouse and award the other spouse assets like a larger share of the savings and/or retirement accounts to compensate for the value of the residence, or the court will order the residence to be sold with the net proceeds divided equally between the parties.

But the legal standard requiring a "just and right" division gives the court considerable discretion to consider all of the facts that may be relevant to the division of property. A court sometimes can be persuaded not to disrupt a child's primary living environment by compelling a sale immediately at the time of divorce. But courts are very conscious of the fact that as long as both spouses' names are on a mortgage, it can be very difficult for either spouse to obtain a new mortgage for a new residence. It is not uncommon to postpone a sale of a residence until the end of the child's school year.

Your payments on a community property residence may impact the court's ruling particularly if you used your separate property to make those payments. It will be much less impactful if you used community property, such as wages you earned for personal services during the marriage.