Under Texas’ divorce law, the family house generally is part of the community property if the couple bought it during the marriage. Thus, the house (or its cash value) is subject to division.
But a house is much more than a piece of real estate and an asset on a financial disclosure. Depending on how long you lived there, it could be the place where you and your spouse first put down roots as a married couple. You might have raised your kids there. Both you and your ex created a lot of memories in that house. And it could be that neither of you is willing to give up the place to the other.
Would rather sell to a stranger than her ex
A woman locked in a divorce battle over her marital house recently made the news for turning to the internet to tell her story. According to the woman, she and her husband were married for 12 years. Problems conceiving a child led to her husband having an affair, the woman wrote. Now, her ex-husband wants to buy out her share of the house for him and his girlfriend to live in as part of their property settlement. She is refusing, at least partly due to “spiteful” feelings. “I’d sooner sell my half to a random [person] on the street than him,” the woman wrote.
Disputes over the house can be tough to resolve
These kinds of disputes can drag out property division negotiations. And it could be difficult for a couple like the one in this story to use alternative dispute resolution methods like mediation. If both sides are still in the midst of highly charged negative feelings toward each other, mediation is very unlikely to succeed.
A situation like this might only be resolved at trial. You would need tough legal counsel from a divorce attorney who knows what to do in high-conflict cases.