Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: Ownership of Home

As a prelude to this response, I cannot emphasize enough your need to seek a local attorney to help you through this case. With home ownership on the line you ought to invest wisely and get professional help.

That said, I am going to make an assumption that both you and your husband are on the deed and that it was either purchased during the marriage or refinanced and that's when his name was added to the deed.

On that basis, yes, your husband has a right to part of the home's value. There is a rebuttable presumption that he is entitled to one half the value, and that he is responsible for one half of the remaining mortgage. Typically with homes, you have two choices. 1) Sell it and divide the proceeds or 2) one of you refinances the home completely into their name and pays the other off for their interest in the home.

If you want to maintain your current situation, you will need to do #2 above to remove your husband's name from the deed and depending on knowing more facts from your case, you may also need to give him some value for his community property share of the home.