By Donald A. Hayes, Attorney at Law
The downturn in the real estate market has created new legal issues concerning what the divorce court will do to divide distressed real estate using lawyers for family law in Newport Beach. One type of distressed real state comes to mind: “upside down property” where the mortgage balances exceeds the fair market value.
The question becomes should a party requesting that he or she be awarded an upside down property in the division of community property receive a credit for the property’s negative equity, or only receive the property at zero value.
When the entire estate is positive, but the real property is upside down, the Court is required to make a mathematically equal division of the parties’ community property assets and liabilities pursuant of the mandates of FC §2550. Continue reading