How will Shared Property be Divided in Divorce? (Part A)

When going through a Virginia divorce, the division of your assets is likely to be one of your major concerns. Since Virginia is not an equitable distribution state the process of dividing property and debt can be somewhat complicated. All final decisions on the division of property and debt are made by the court. The best way to understand the manner in which the court comes to this decision is to understand the meaning of, and differences between, marital property, separate property and part marital part separate property.

Marital Property

According to Virginia divorce laws, marital property is exactly what it sounds like. Marital property is any property that is jointly owned by a married couple; this includes both physical property and accumulated debts.

Virginia divorce laws define marital property as the following:

• All property titled in the names of both yourself and your husband.
• In property the court classifies as part marital and part separate, the part of that property which is designated as marital.
• All other property acquired by either yourself or your husband during marriage that cannot be classified as separate property.

By these standards of division of property, any property acquired before your final separation, even if the decision to separate is already final in your mind, is presumed to be marital property if there is not sufficient evidence to the contrary.

Separate Property

Separate property is also relatively self-explanatory; separate property is all property that belongs to either you or your husband that is in no way connected to the other party by marriage. Again, this includes both physical property and accumulated debts.

Virginia divorce laws define separate property as the following:

• All property acquired by yourself or your husband before marriage.
• All property acquired during the marriage by bequest, device, decent, survivorship, or gift from some source other that the opposite party.
• All property acquired during marriage that is maintained as separate property.
• In property the court classifies as part marital and part separate, the part of that property which is designated as separate.
• Income received from separate property, if not attributable to the efforts of either you or your husband

Thus, in division of property under Virginia divorce laws part marital and part separate property is property which may have once been either purely marital or purely separate but is now more complicated. Such complication is accounted for in various ways depending on the property in question.

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