Many spouses going through a divorce may find themselves in the difficult position of having to live with their soon to be former spouse. Unfortunately, this arrangement does not work well for either spouse due to the stressors of the divorce process.
So what happens when one party decides that they can no longer handle the living situation and wants to exclude the other from the community property home that was purchased during the marriage?
In some cases, a spouse may try to start an eviction proceeding in the Landlord/tenant Court in the mistaken belief that they can evict the other spouse because he/she is not paying their share of the expenses for the house.
If this happens, you need to notify the Landlord/tenant Court as soon as possible of the existence of the Divorce case. Once the divorce case is opened, ONLY the family court has the ability to decide issues involving the family residence.
You should be ready at the earliest possible time to tell the Landlord/tenant Court the case number of your divorce case and bring a copy of the Petition (Form FL-100) and the Response to the Petition if that has been filed as well (Form FL-120 )
As stated above, only the family court, not the Landlord/tenant Court has the ability to make orders regarding who controls the family residence, who pays the household expenses, and what items from the house can be removed.
If there are third parties living in the family residence, a Landlord/tenant case maybe used to evict them. However, the family court also has the ability to deal with that issue.
In general, only if there is domestic violence in the home, will the court exclude one of the parties. Otherwise, both parties will remain in the home pending the divorce trial. The Court can also make orders on which party is responsible for paying the bills by filing a Request for Order (Form FL-300). It should be noted that because a party is excluded from the residence, that does not mean that the house is yours. The Court is simply giving you possession and control, not ownership of the home.
If the other party had interest in the house, being excluded does not affect that person community property rights.
If you would like help in protecting your community property rights or other family law matters, please contact an attorney from Castellanos & Associates, APLC at (323) 655-2105. We offer a FREE initial consultation. Your consultation is always confidential and we will help protect you and your rights.