Divorce and Joint Ownership of Investments

[Bradley T.]

Hello BP folks,

My wife and I are going to be filing for divorce.  We have a duplex and a single-family home with mother-in-law apartment that we currently own together.  She is living in one of the units of the duplex and I am living in the mother-in-law in the single family.  The other spaces are rented out.

The issue is that these deals were largely made possible by her income.  I contributed just as much money to the deal, but the taxes show her income as much higher than mine.  I'm worried about how to proceed with the situation.  I'm certain there are some pretty good opinions here on BP to help me know what to expect.

One more thing: the duplex was refinanced into a VA loan which is my perk, since I'm the veteran. Does this complicate things?

Is joint ownership viable in this case?  Other ideas I'm not thinking about?  We'd both like to keep joint ownership.

Thank you for reading and thank you for contributing.  Apologies if this is in the wrong section.

[Bob Norton]

@Bradley T. From a tax standpoint, if you and your wife want to keep the property as a rental, then you will simply be partners in the property.  If your divorce is amicable, then this will work.  If not, then you may want to consider other options as the rental partnership may be unstable.  In either case, I would recommend that you have your attorneys draw up a partnership agreement pertaining to the property.