There
is no greater waste of money in a divorce than fighting over divisionof small personal property owned by a couple. The attorney fees
spent to argue over beds, sofas, kitchen table, tvs, and other
household items usually exceed the value of the items. A dining room
set purchased for $5,000.00 may be valued in a divorce at $300.00.
As used furniture, the set may only be sold at a garage sale. Most
household furniture is valued based upon what can be realized for the
asset at a garage sale. It is simply cheaper to go out and buy an
equivalent item than to pay attorneys to fight over it. Of course,
higher value items such as house, retirement accounts, investment
accounts, and collections are worth the cost of paying for appraisers
and attorneys. I suggest that the parties approach division of
household items with consideration of the following issues.
If
there are children, the children should be given priority. The
children's furniture should remain with the parent who has more
parenting time than the other. The rest of the furniture in the
house should also take into account the children. If there is only
one tv it should remain in the house with the children. If there are
two tvs then the parent with the children should get the better tv.
Most
households currently have a car for each parent. Unless a car is a
collector's item, each party needs a car to function in today's
society. In almost all cases, judges award the cars to the party who
primarily drove each car prior to separation. Cars are generally
viewed as a necessary tool and not as an asset.
Both
parents should try to be fair about division of household items. Any
unfairness is usually met with a large increase in attorney fees.
The problem is that the parent who doesn't get the household items
needs to go out and purchase new items. The need to make such
purchases as well as a rental security deposit and last month rent
should be recognized and money should be set aside for these
expenses. Treating each other fairly means that both parents end up
with adequate furniture and living arrangements. This can be
accomplished by possession of existing items or money to buy
replacement items.
Parties
need to identify items of sentimental value to the two parties and
cooperate to allocate the sentimental items to the appropriate party.
Family heirlooms should go to the party who broguht the item into
the marriage. Again, the countervailing value is money set aside to
purchase a replacement item.
Items
that are only used by one party should be offered to that party. A
riding lawn mower that had been used exclusively by the husband may
never be used by the wife who intends to hire a service to mow the
lawn. If the wife sells the mower without the husband's permission
it will be a violation of the automatic restraining order and have
the effect of a declaration of war that will cause the husband to
fight over trivial matters. Giving the husband opportunity to take
the mower or have both parties sell the mower and divide the proceeds
will result in a better attitude from both parties.
Pictures
and videos are frequently the subject of litigation. It will save
money if the parties pay to have the pictures duplicated so that each
party can have a set. Sometimes the parties will agree to purchase a
scanner so that one party can copy all pictures and give the
originals to the other.
Division
of personal property can be a huge drain of financial resources if
the parties choose to fight over the assets. This large expense is
seldom worth the money required to have the judge resolve the
division. An experienced divorce attorney should be consulted to
learn how the law applies to your case and to look for an inexpensive
logical solution to property division.
