On behalf of Stange Law Firm, PC posted in Unmarried Couples on Friday, May 12, 2017.
It is fairly common in Missouri for couples to be involved in lengthy relationships without getting married. When people have been living together for extended periods, they might wonder how their property will be handled if they want to end their relationships.
The property that people acquire while they are living together is considered to be separate property. If you are wanting to end your relationship with your domestic partner, you’ll need to figure out how to divide the property that the two of you have acquired. It may be especially difficult for assets that you have acquired jointly and that you both have interests in.
It is possible for you to divide your interests in property through filing partition actions. These may be used to handle large assets such as the real estate that you own. In some cases, you may be able to use partition actions to divide your bank accounts, investment accounts and other items of personal property. Shared debts and taxes may also be divided by partition. You may continue to own a portion of the property in a partition or you may sell the asset in a partition.
The experienced family law attorneys at the Stange Law Firm understand the unique issues that unmarried couples face when they are separating after living together for long periods of time. We regularly help our unmarried clients to protect their financial interests through partition actions. In some cases, we are able to negotiate full property division agreements with our clients’ ex-partners short of litigating the matters in court. In cases that cannot be resolved outside of court, our attorneys advocate for our clients through court hearings and trials. If you are in a domestic partnership and have questions about your property division, you may want to review our page on the topic.
