Marital Home

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In an action for the partition of real property owned by an ex-wife, her ex-husband and his parents, the Court granted the defendants’ motion to confirm the report of the Referee that recommended that the ex-husband’s parents (“the in-laws”) receive the first $1,078,710.20 from the sale of the property. Such represented the parent’s direct monetary contributions to the acquisition and construction and improvement of a house on the subject property. The balance of any proceeds are to be paid to all four parties in equal 25% shares.

Such was held by Richmond County Supreme Court Justice Wayne M. Ozzi in the November 13, 2025, decision in Mersimovski v. Mersimovski, 2025 N.Y.L.J. LEXIS 3502.

Two years earlier, Justice Ozzi had awarded the ex-wife summary judgment declaring that she was is seized and entitled in fee to an undivided one-quarter 25% interest in the premises. Mersimovski v. Mersimovski, 2023 N.Y..Misc. LEXIS 23846 (November 28, 2023).Continue Reading In-laws Win Credits on Partition-Action Sale of Shared Home

Drafting divorce settlement agreement provisions to dispose of the marital home is not easy. Anticipating how things will play out can be very difficult.

In some cases, one spouse may be remaining in the home with the children for a stated period of time, or until a stated event (such as the children’s graduation). How are bills to be paid in the interim? Will either spouse be entitled to credits?

What will be the procedures when the time/event happens? At the end of that period of “exclusive occupancy” (or perhaps immediately), the parties will be selling the home. Alternatively, one party may want to buy out the other. If the home is to be sold to a stranger, how is the broker to be selected, if there is to be one? How is the initial listing price determined? Must a certain bid be accepted? What happens if there are no bids?

If one spouse wants to buy out the other, how is the other’s interest to be valued? Should the amount of a broker’s commission be factored in? May one spouse have a “right of first refusal,” the right to match a bid from a third party? How will that work?

Take the April 28, 2022 decision of the Appellate Division, Third Department, in Martin v. Martin. There, the parties’ 2012 divorce settlement agreement granted the husband the right to buy out the wife’s interest. The agreement provided that if the husband elected that option, the parties would obtain three appraisals, The husband would pay the wife half the “mean” (average) of those three appraised values minus a commission.Continue Reading Agreements to Dispose of Marital Home Interests