23 Feb Equitable Distribution Florida: Property Division Guide
Summary
Equitable distribution under Section 61.075, Florida Statutes, requires a court to classify each asset as marital or nonmarital, value the marital estate, and divide it starting from a presumption of equality. This guide covers the classification cut-off date, commingling and the burden of tracing, enhancement of nonmarital property, closely held business interests under the 2024 amendment, dissipation, and the written findings a court must make before ordering an unequal division.
Equitable distribution Florida law governs how a court divides everything a married couple built together when the marriage ends. If you are facing a divorce in Miami-Dade or Broward County, this is the part of the case that determines what you walk away with: the house, the retirement accounts, the business, the debts, and everything in between. Florida is not a community property state. Courts here do not simply cut the marital estate in half and hand each spouse a check. They follow a structured statutory process under Section 61.075, Florida Statutes, and the outcome depends heavily on how well each side documents and proves its position.
This guide explains that process in full: how Florida courts classify property, when the clock stops for classification purposes, how assets are valued, what happens when separate property gets mixed with marital property, when a judge will order something other than a fifty-fifty split, and how the rules apply to the specific assets that come up most often in South Florida divorces.
The Three-Step Inquiry Florida Courts Follow
Equitable distribution is not a single decision. The Third District Court of Appeal described it in Noss v. Noss, 423 So. 3d 946 (Fla. 3d DCA 2025), as a three-step inquiry. First, the court identifies and classifies every asset and liability as either marital or nonmarital. Second, the court assigns a value to each marital asset and liability. Third, the court distributes the marital estate between the spouses.
Each step is separate, and each is a common source of appellate reversal. A judge who classifies correctly but values improperly will be reversed just as surely as one who gets the classification wrong. Understanding that the steps are distinct helps explain why divorce lawyers spend so much time on documents that seem, to a client, like paperwork. Classification and valuation are proved with records, and the party who cannot produce records generally loses the argument.
The starting point for the third step is equality. In Robertson v. Robertson, 593 So. 2d 491 (Fla. 1991), the Florida Supreme Court confirmed that the statutory scheme rests on the theory of marriage as an equal partnership, which means the court must begin from the premise that each spouse is entitled to an equal share of the marital estate. Anything other than an equal division requires justification, and that justification must appear in writing.
Classifying Marital and Nonmarital Assets
Classification decides whether an asset is on the table at all. Nonmarital property is not divided. It stays with the spouse who owns it. Marital property is divided. Everything in a Florida divorce that involves money begins here, and the distinction between marital and nonmarital property is worth understanding before you sit down with a lawyer.
What Counts as a Marital Asset
Marital assets include assets acquired and liabilities incurred during the marriage, whether the spouses acquired them individually or jointly. Title does not control. An account in one spouse’s name alone, funded with earnings during the marriage, is a marital asset. So is a vehicle titled to one spouse, a brokerage account opened by one spouse, and a credit card balance run up by one spouse for family expenses.
Retirement benefits deserve particular attention because they are frequently the largest asset in the case and clients frequently assume they are untouchable. They are not. Marital assets include all vested and nonvested benefits, rights, and funds accrued during the marriage in retirement, pension, profit-sharing, annuity, deferred compensation, and insurance plans and programs. Section 61.076, Florida Statutes, addresses these benefits specifically. What matters is when the benefit accrued, not whose name is on the plan document.
Section 61.075(8) creates a rebuttable presumption that everything acquired by either spouse after the date of the marriage is a marital asset unless it is specifically established to be nonmarital. That presumption does real work in litigation. It means the spouse claiming that something is separate carries the burden, and a spouse who cannot carry that burden will see the asset divided. The Fourth District applied that principle in Davis v. Davis, 245 So. 3d 810 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018).
What Remains Nonmarital
Nonmarital assets include property acquired and liabilities incurred before the marriage, and property acquired in exchange for such property. If you owned a condominium before the wedding, sold it during the marriage, and used the proceeds to buy a replacement in your name alone without mixing in marital money, the replacement generally retains its nonmarital character.
Nonmarital assets also include property acquired separately by noninterspousal gift, bequest, devise, or descent. An inheritance received by one spouse from a parent is the textbook example. Income derived from nonmarital assets during the marriage is likewise nonmarital, with an important exception: if the parties treated, used, or relied upon that income as a marital asset, it loses its separate character. A spouse who deposits rental income from a premarital property into the joint account that pays the mortgage and the groceries has, in practical terms, converted it.
Some transfers resist easy classification. The engagement ring is the recurring example. Florida treats it as a conditional gift, and the condition is satisfied by the marriage itself, so the ring generally becomes the recipient’s separate nonmarital property rather than an asset subject to division. We work through the exceptions in our discussion of who gets the engagement ring in a Florida divorce.
The Tenancy by the Entireties Presumption
Real property and jointly titled personal property held by the parties as tenants by the entireties is presumed to be marital, and this is true whether the property was acquired before or during the marriage. The presumption exists because Florida law treats the act of retitling into joint ownership as an interspousal gift.
The burden of overcoming that presumption is heavier than the ordinary one. A spouse who wants to prove that entireties property is actually nonmarital must do so by clear and convincing evidence, not merely by the greater weight of the evidence. This is why adding a spouse to a deed is one of the most consequential and least considered financial decisions people make during a marriage. It is easy to do at a closing table and very difficult to undo in a courtroom.
The Cut-Off Date, and Why It Is Not the Valuation Date
Under Section 61.075(7), the cut-off date for classifying assets and liabilities as marital is the earliest of three events: the date the parties enter a valid separation agreement, such other date as that agreement expressly establishes, or the date the petition for dissolution of marriage is filed.
Florida courts treat this as a bright line rule. A trial court has no discretion to classify an asset purchased after the petition was filed as marital, even where marital funds paid for it. The rule cuts both ways, and it explains why the timing of a filing sometimes matters as much as its content.
One qualification is easy to miss. The cut-off date governs cases prosecuted to a final judgment. If a dissolution action is dismissed without a final adjudication on the merits, the parties are left as though the suit had never been filed, and the classification clock resets.
The more common and more costly confusion is between the classification date and the valuation date. They are not the same, and treating them as the same is reversible error. While classification is bound by the bright line, valuation is highly discretionary. The trial judge may value different assets as of different dates, choosing whatever date is just and equitable for each asset under the circumstances. A retirement account might be valued as of the filing date and a closely held business as of the trial date, in the same judgment, and both choices can be correct. What a court may not do is use its valuation discretion to move the classification cut-off backward to an earlier date of separation.
South Florida produces a recurring version of this problem. A pre-construction condominium contracted for during the marriage but delivered months or years later sits directly on the seam between the classification date and the valuation date, and deposits, contract assignments, and closing costs all have to be traced through it. We work through that sequence in our guide to how a pre-construction condo is handled in a Florida divorce.
Valuing Marital Assets
Value is proved, not assumed. For bank and brokerage accounts, statements settle the question. For real property, an appraisal generally does, though the parties can stipulate to a value and often should when the cost of competing appraisals would exceed the amount in dispute. For personal property, the standard is fair market value rather than replacement cost or sentimental worth, which is a distinction that disappoints clients almost universally. Nowhere is that harder than with the family pet. Florida classifies animals as personal property, and a trial court has no authority to award custody of or visitation with a dog, so the court assigns the animal to one party and values it like any other chattel. Bennett v. Bennett, 655 So. 2d 109 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995). Our discussion of pet custody in a Florida divorce explains how parties work around that rule by agreement.
Some assets require a professional. Closely held businesses, professional practices, pensions with survivor benefits, restricted stock, deferred compensation, and unusual collectibles all tend to need a valuation expert. So do assets located outside the country, which raise their own evidentiary and enforcement problems addressed in our guide to divorce involving international assets.
Because the trial court must justify its selected valuation dates with written findings, a party who wants a particular date should ask for it, support it with evidence, and be prepared to explain why that date is equitable for that asset.
Commingling and the Burden of Tracing
Commingling is where most nonmarital claims fail. Nonmarital assets can lose their separate character entirely when they are mixed with marital assets, and the rule applies with particular force to money. Because money is fungible, once nonmarital funds are commingled with marital funds they lose their separate identity. The Third District addressed this in Gromet v. Jensen, 201 So. 3d 132 (Fla. 3d DCA 2015), and returned to it in Rivera v. Rivera, 404 So. 3d 442 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023).
Depositing an inheritance into an account that also holds marital earnings will generally convert it. Depositing the proceeds of a premarital home sale into an account used to pay joint household expenses will generally convert those proceeds as well. The transformation does not require intent, and it does not require the other spouse to have done anything.
The corollary matters just as much. Nonmarital funds do not lose their character if they are kept genuinely separate and never commingled. Rivera confirms that funds held apart retain their nonmarital status even where other funds from the same source were previously withdrawn and spent for marital purposes. Segregation works. Mixing does not.
Where funds have moved between accounts, the spouse claiming a nonmarital interest must trace them. Tracing means showing, transaction by transaction, that the money claimed as separate is the same money that came from the separate source. Where the transactions can be specifically traced, the nonmarital character is preserved and only the proven enhancement in value is subject to distribution. Where they cannot, the presumption of marital character controls.
Tracing is also the mechanism by which the other side’s conduct comes to light. When account histories do not reconcile, the explanation is sometimes commingling and sometimes something worse. Our discussion of what happens when a spouse hides assets in a Florida divorce covers the forensic and procedural tools available when the records do not add up.
Enhancement and Appreciation of Nonmarital Property
A nonmarital asset can generate a marital interest without ever becoming marital itself. By statutory definition, marital assets include the enhancement in value and appreciation of nonmarital assets resulting from the efforts of either party during the marriage, or from the contribution of marital funds or other marital assets.
The Third District has held that the enhanced value of separately owned property becomes a marital asset when the enhancement is attributable to marital labor, effort, or funds, and that marital labor can include active management and decision making regarding the asset. Yitzhari v. Yitzhari, 906 So. 2d 1250 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005). The Fourth District reached consistent conclusions in Bernstein v. Bernstein, 374 So. 3d 8 (Fla. 4th DCA 2023).
The distinction the statute draws is between active and passive appreciation. Active appreciation, the increase attributable to somebody’s work or to marital money, is marital. Passive appreciation, the increase attributable to market forces alone, generally is not, with one significant exception for real property.
The line is hardest to draw when the nonmarital asset is an operating company, because the owner’s ordinary workday is precisely the marital labor the statute captures, and almost every increase in value can be argued either way. That problem has developed its own body of law, which we address in our guide to premarital business appreciation in a Florida divorce.
Where marital funds paid down the principal of a note and mortgage secured by nonmarital real property, the statute makes both the principal paydown and a portion of the passive appreciation marital. The marital portion of passive appreciation is calculated with a coverture fraction. The numerator is the total principal paid from marital funds on all notes and mortgages secured by the property during the marriage. The denominator is the value of the property on the later of the date of marriage, the date of acquisition, or the date the property was first encumbered by the note on which marital principal was paid. Passive appreciation is multiplied by that fraction, and the marital principal paydown and any active appreciation are added to the result. The total marital portion cannot exceed the net equity in the property at the valuation date, and a court must apply the formula unless a party shows that doing so would be inequitable on the facts.
This is the framework that governs the common Miami situation in which one spouse owned a condominium before the marriage and the couple lived in it, paid the mortgage from a joint account, and renovated it together. The unit stays nonmarital. The paydown, the qualifying passive appreciation, and the value added by the renovation do not. The interaction between improvements and equity is covered further in our guide to divorce and home renovations in Miami.
Closely Held Business Interests After the 2024 Amendment
A business built during a marriage is a marital asset, and valuing it is among the most contested exercises in family law. The central question is usually goodwill. Florida defines goodwill as the advantage or benefit a business enjoys beyond the value of its property and capital, often described as the expectation of continued public patronage. Thompson v. Thompson, 576 So. 2d 267 (Fla. 1991).
Goodwill is divided into two categories, and only one of them is divisible. Enterprise goodwill exists separate and apart from the reputation and continued presence of the owner spouse. It reflects the tendency of clients to return to and recommend the business regardless of who is running it, and it is a marital asset that must be valued and distributed. Personal goodwill is inseparable from the individual. It is not a marketable asset distinct from that person, and it is excluded from equitable distribution, though it remains relevant to alimony. Held v. Held, 912 So. 2d 637 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005).
The Legislature amended Section 61.075 in 2024 to codify these principles for closely held business interests. The amendment directs courts to value a closely held business interest using the fair market value standard, confirms that goodwill separate and distinct from the owner is enterprise goodwill and therefore marital, and provides that the court must consider evidence that a covenant not to compete or similar restrictive covenant would be required on a sale. Critically, the existence of such evidence does not by itself preclude a finding of enterprise goodwill. For owners of professional practices and family businesses in South Florida, that amendment changed the shape of the argument, and any valuation opinion prepared under the old framework should be revisited.
The framework also reaches assets the 2024 amendment did not have in view. Income from a social media following looks like business revenue but is frequently inseparable from the individual who generates it, which pushes much of its value toward personal goodwill rather than enterprise goodwill. We take up the characterization and valuation questions in our discussion of social media influencer income in a Florida divorce.
Owners who want to limit this exposure generally have to act well before a dispute begins, through shareholder and operating agreements, documented reasonable compensation, and a clean separation of business and household finances. Our guide to protecting a business in a Florida divorce collects those measures.
The Marital Home
The marital home is subject to equitable distribution like any other marital asset, and where it is held as tenants by the entireties it carries the marital presumption regardless of when it was acquired. On dissolution, the parties become tenants in common by operation of law under Section 689.15, Florida Statutes.
A court may depart from an equal division by awarding one spouse exclusive use and possession of the home. Ortiz v. Ortiz, 315 So. 3d 149 (Fla. 2d DCA 2021). Section 61.075(1)(h) directs the court to consider the desirability of retaining the home as a residence for a dependent child when doing so is equitable, in the child’s best interest, and financially feasible for the parties. Feasibility is the factor that most often defeats the request. A judge who believes neither party can carry the mortgage, taxes, and insurance on a single household income will order the property sold no matter how much the children love the house.
Where the parties cannot agree and the court does not award exclusive use, sale and division of the net proceeds is the ordinary outcome. That threshold question is common enough that we address it on its own, in who keeps the house in a Florida divorce.
Condominiums add a further layer. Regular and special assessments, and the structural integrity reserve requirements adopted after the Surfside collapse, affect both the carrying cost a court weighs in its feasibility analysis and the price the unit will actually bring on a sale. We cover that in our discussion of how Miami condominiums are divided in a Florida divorce.
Marital Debts and Liabilities
Equitable distribution divides liabilities, not only assets. A debt incurred during the marriage is presumptively marital even if only one spouse signed for it, and the analysis mirrors the asset analysis: classification first, then amount, then allocation.
Two practical points recur. First, an allocation of debt in a final judgment binds the spouses to each other, but it does not bind the creditor. A lender that holds a joint obligation may still pursue both signatories regardless of what the judgment says, which is why indemnification language and refinancing deadlines matter. Second, debts incurred after the cut-off date are generally not marital, subject to the same qualifications that govern assets. Our guide to debts in a Florida divorce addresses allocation and post-judgment exposure in more depth.
When Courts Order an Unequal Distribution
The premise is equality, but the statute permits a court to distribute the marital estate unequally where justification exists. Section 61.075(1) sets out the factors a court must consider, and they are worth understanding because they define what evidence is worth gathering.
The court considers the contribution each spouse made to the marriage, including contributions to the care and education of the children and services as a homemaker. It considers the economic circumstances of each party, the duration of the marriage, and any interruption of a personal career or educational opportunity. It considers the contribution of one spouse to the career or educational opportunity of the other. It considers the desirability of retaining an asset, including an interest in a business, corporation, or professional practice, intact and free from claim or interference by the other party. It considers each spouse’s contribution to the acquisition, enhancement, and production of income, and to the improvement of or the incurring of liabilities as to both marital and nonmarital assets. It considers the desirability of retaining the marital home as a residence for a dependent child. It considers the intentional dissipation, waste, depletion, or destruction of marital assets after the filing of the petition or within the two years before it. And it considers any other factor necessary to do equity and justice between the parties, a catchall the appellate courts have long recognized. Kyriacou v. Kyriacou, 173 So. 3d 1111 (Fla. 2d DCA 2015); Beers v. Beers, 724 So. 2d 109 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998).
The procedural requirement attached to these factors is as important as the factors themselves. Any distribution, and especially an unequal one, must be supported by explicit factual findings based on competent substantial evidence. The Third District has held that a trial court’s failure to make specific findings referencing the Section 61.075(1) factors is reversible error apparent on the face of the judgment. Rojas v. Otero, 399 So. 3d 1160 (Fla. 3d DCA 2024). For litigants in Miami-Dade County, Rojas is the case to know. A judgment that divides property unequally without written findings is vulnerable on appeal regardless of how sensible the division may have been.
Dissipation and Intentional Waste
Dissipation is the factor clients ask about most, usually in the form of a question about a spouse who has been spending. Under Section 61.075(1)(i), intentional dissipation, waste, depletion, or destruction of marital assets is a recognized basis for an unequal distribution, and the court may hold the responsible spouse accountable by charging the dissipated asset against that spouse’s share of the estate. David v. David, 58 So. 3d 336 (Fla. 5th DCA 2011).
The standard is intentional misconduct, and the court must make a specific finding to that effect. This is a genuinely high bar, and it defeats most dissipation claims. Financial mismanagement is not dissipation. Poor investments are not dissipation. Spending that the other spouse merely disapproves of is not dissipation. What the case law describes is the use of marital funds for one spouse’s own benefit, for a purpose unrelated to the marriage, at a time when the marriage is undergoing an irreconcilable breakdown.
The statute frames a two year lookback, reaching conduct after the filing and within the two years before it, though courts retain equitable authority to consider older conduct where justice requires. The practical lesson is documentary. A dissipation claim succeeds on account statements, transfer records, and a timeline, not on a narrative about a spouse’s character.
Interim Partial Distribution
Section 61.075(5) allows a court to enter an interim partial distribution order while the case is pending. A party seeking one must file a sworn motion establishing a specific factual basis and demonstrating good cause why the distribution should not wait for the final hearing.
The court must find that the partial distribution will not cause inequity or prejudice to either party’s claims for support or attorney’s fees, and any interim distribution must be credited appropriately in the final judgment. This tool is underused. In cases where one spouse controls all liquid assets and the other cannot fund the litigation, an interim distribution can restore a functional balance long before trial.
Financial Disclosure and Proving Your Case
None of the foregoing matters if the assets are not on the record. Florida requires mandatory financial disclosure in dissolution proceedings, and compliance is not optional. The disclosure obligation is the backbone of equitable distribution because it produces the account statements, tax returns, deeds, and plan documents that classification and valuation depend on. Our guide to mandatory disclosure in a Florida divorce explains what must be produced and when.
Where disclosure is incomplete, the remedies are procedural: motions to compel, subpoenas to third parties such as banks and employers, depositions, and where appropriate, sanctions. A spouse who stonewalls disclosure often creates a worse outcome than the one the disclosure would have produced, because a court that cannot value an asset may draw inferences against the party who controls the information.
Resolving Distribution by Agreement
Most Florida divorces settle, and equitable distribution is settled along with everything else in a written agreement. A well drafted marital settlement agreement allows the parties to allocate assets in ways a court might not order, to trade categories of property against each other, and to set their own valuation dates and deadlines.
Agreements also allow the parties to resolve questions the statute would otherwise leave to a judge, including who refinances what and by when, how a business interest is bought out over time, and what happens if a sale does not close. Precision at this stage prevents post-judgment enforcement litigation later.
How Equitable Distribution Interacts With Alimony
Property division and support are separate determinations, but they are not independent. The assets a spouse receives affect that spouse’s need, and the assets the other spouse receives affect ability to pay. Personal goodwill excluded from distribution as a business asset can still be considered in evaluating income for alimony purposes.
Florida’s alimony framework changed substantially in 2023, and the interaction between an equitable distribution award and a durational alimony award is now a central strategic question in longer marriages. Our analysis of Florida alimony after the 2023 reform addresses that framework in detail.
Equitable Distribution in Miami-Dade and Broward Courts
The statute is statewide, but practice is local. Cases in Miami-Dade County are heard in the Family Division of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, and cases in Broward County in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. Each has its own administrative orders, its own scheduling practices, and its own expectations regarding financial disclosure and pretrial submissions.
South Florida cases also carry a distinctive asset mix. Waterfront condominiums, foreign accounts and foreign real property, closely held businesses in construction, hospitality, and professional services, restricted stock from public companies, and collectibles appear here more often than the statewide average. Each raises classification and valuation questions that a general familiarity with Section 61.075 does not answer on its own.
Related Reading on Dividing Property in a Florida Divorce
Equitable distribution touches nearly every financial question in a dissolution. These articles go deeper on the issues that come up most often:
- Cryptocurrency in Florida Divorce
- Three Big Financial Mistakes Made During a Divorce
- How Does Divorce Affect Your Taxes in Florida?
- Divorce & Health Care Insurance in Florida: Coverage After Divorce
- Second Marriage Divorce Florida: What Is Different?
Speak With a Miami Divorce Attorney About Your Property Division
Equitable distribution is decided on documents and on the record you build. The spouse who arrives with organized statements, a coherent tracing history, and credible valuation evidence is in a materially better position than the spouse who arrives with a story. That advantage is built in the months before trial, not at it.
The Law Firm of Jeffrey Alan Aenlle, PLLC represents clients throughout Miami-Dade and Broward Counties in divorces involving significant marital estates, closely held businesses, real property, retirement assets, and complex tracing questions. If you are considering a divorce or have been served with a petition, the earlier you understand what is marital and what is not, the more options you have.
Call the firm at +1.786.309.8588 to discuss your case with a Miami divorce attorney.
Conclusion
Florida’s equitable distribution framework asks a court to do three things in order: classify, value, and distribute. Classification is governed by a bright line cut-off date and a set of presumptions that place the burden on the spouse claiming that property is separate. Valuation is flexible and asset specific, and it must be supported by findings. Distribution begins from equality and departs from it only where the statutory factors justify the departure and the judgment says so in writing.
The recurring theme across all three steps is proof. Commingled funds become marital because they can no longer be traced. Enhancement claims succeed where marital effort and marital dollars can be shown. Dissipation claims fail where intentional misconduct cannot be established. Understanding equitable distribution Florida law is useful, but building the record that applies it to your marriage is what determines the result.
TLDR: Equitable distribution Florida law requires courts to classify property as marital or nonmarital, value the marital assets, and divide them starting from a presumption of equality under Section 61.075, Florida Statutes. Property acquired during the marriage is presumed marital, the classification cut-off is generally the date the petition is filed, and any unequal division must be supported by written findings referencing the statutory factors.
Is Florida a fifty-fifty state for property division?
Not exactly. Florida is an equitable distribution state, which means courts begin from the premise of an equal division but may divide the marital estate unequally where the statutory factors justify it. In practice many Florida divorces do end in a roughly equal split, but that is the starting point rather than a rule, and a court that departs from it must explain why in writing.
Is my inheritance safe in a Florida divorce?
An inheritance received by one spouse is nonmarital, but it is easy to lose that protection. If the inheritance is deposited into a joint account, used to pay marital expenses, or invested in jointly titled property, it can be commingled and converted into a marital asset. Keeping inherited funds in a separate account in your name alone, and being able to trace them, is what preserves their character.
What happens to a business I started before the marriage?
The business itself generally remains nonmarital, but any enhancement in its value during the marriage that results from either spouse’s efforts or from marital funds is marital and subject to division. If you worked in the business during the marriage, some portion of its growth is almost certainly marital. Following the 2024 amendment to Section 61.075, courts value closely held business interests at fair market value and treat enterprise goodwill as a marital asset.
Can my spouse take half of my retirement account?
The portion of a retirement account that accrued during the marriage is a marital asset regardless of whose name is on the plan. Contributions and growth from before the marriage are generally nonmarital if they can be identified. Retirement assets are commonly divided by a qualified domestic relations order rather than a direct transfer.
What is the cut-off date for dividing property in Florida?
Under Section 61.075(7), it is the earliest of the date the parties sign a valid separation agreement, another date expressly set in that agreement, or the date the petition for dissolution is filed. Assets acquired after that date are generally not marital, even if marital funds were used. The cut-off date for classification is separate from the date used to value assets, which is left to the court’s discretion.
What can I do if I think my spouse is hiding money?
Florida’s mandatory disclosure rules require both spouses to produce detailed financial records, and where the production is incomplete you can move to compel, subpoena banks and employers directly, and take depositions. If funds were intentionally dissipated for a purpose unrelated to the marriage during the breakdown of the marriage, the court can charge those funds against the responsible spouse’s share of the estate.
Who gets to stay in the house during the divorce?
A court may award one spouse exclusive use and possession of the marital home, and Section 61.075(1)(h) directs it to consider whether retaining the home for a dependent child is equitable, in the child’s best interest, and financially feasible. Feasibility is usually decisive. If neither party can carry the mortgage, taxes, and insurance alone, the court will generally order the property sold and the net proceeds divided.
