Divorce Process Complications
In a community state, community property is shared equally between spouses upon divorce. However, each spouse keeps his or her separate property (Kaul, 2018). The vehicle was purchased during marriage and as is a marriage/community property and ought to be shared equally between the spouses. The said vehicle was retrofitted to support one spouse’s business activities, losing value through use, thus benefiting one partner to the other spouse’s expense. Typically, the vehicle depreciated by serving the interest on one spouse by generating income for separate property, rather than marriage property. Further to that, the retrofitting cost was courtesy of marriage income. It is important to note that separate properties are not shared, but after retrofitting and at the time of divorce is calculated. The retrofitted value is divided equally between the spouses. For example, assume that the value of the vehicle after retrofitting was $30000 and has depreciated to $20000 at the time of divorce, and then each spouse is entitled to $15000. In this case, the benefiting spouse would get $5000 from the vehicle upon divorce while the other spouse takes $15000
The value of depreciated s thus deducted from the share of the spouse who has benefited from using the vehicle for his or her business activities. To ensure equitable sharing of the property, the spouse who used the vehicles for his or her benefits bears the cost of depreciation in such an event. However, if the spouse can prove that income from the business supported by community vehicle generated revenue to benefit the marriage, then the current value of the automobile is calculated and shared equally between the spouses (Hersch, & Shinall, 2019). The process is designed to ensure that justice in dividing the property. The same principles would apply in the event of debts incurred to support the separate property.
References
Kaul, M. (2018). US Law: Legalities Surrounding Division of Assets Post Divorce. Ct. Uncourt, 5, 39.
Hersch, J., & Shinall, J. B. (2019). When equitable is not equal: experimental evidence on the division of marital assets in divorce. Review of Economics of the Household, 1-28