Woman Asks If She's Wrong For Refusing To Sell Her Half Of ‘Dream Home’ To Her Ex And His New Girlfriend After He Cheated
Would you sell your home to your cheating ex-spouse?
Lance Reis / Unsplash In a since-deleted Reddit post, a woman asked people whether she is wrong for not selling half of her house to her ex-husband. The couple decided to get divorced after 12 years of marriage after the husband cheated.
"We are joint owners on the House and he is demanding I sell my half to him so he and his girlfriend (23F) can live together as they want to start trying for children,” the woman in her 30s wrote.
Her ex-husband asked her to sell him her share of the house so he could live there with his new family.
The woman further explains that since both of them own the house, the husband wants to own the entire property as he wants to start having kids with the mistress, but she's reluctant to give up her share of the property.
The woman refused to sell half the house to her ex-husband for obvious reasons, however, another reason was that it is her dream home. She explained that she cherishes the house and doesn’t want to sell it to her cheating ex-husband.
“Maybe it's spiteful of me but i'd sooner sell my half to a random on the street than him,” she wrote.
In their 12 years of marriage, they never had any kids. The woman wrote that there was a fertility issue from her side. However, over the years, she suggested alternatives.
“I suggested we try adoption or a surrogate but he was against both options, adoption because the kid wouldn't be his biologically and surrogate as he didn't like the idea of a stranger carrying his child,” she said.
After not being able to reach a mutual decision, the woman accepted that they wouldn't have kids. However, the husband had a hard time processing it which led him to cheat on her. Now, after getting a divorce, the ex-husband decided that he wanted to start a family with his girlfriend and needed the house for that. Therefore, demanded that the woman sell half of the home to him.
Even then, she offered suggestions to reach a common ground with him, writing, “I've suggested that I buy his half instead or that we just sell it and split the money.”
But that didn’t please the husband as he insisted on him and his girlfriend living in the house.
People were quick to put the husband in the wrong.
The fact that the husband cheated on the woman didn’t sit well with anyone.
One user wrote, “Even if he didn’t cheat and the marriage broke apart for a different reason, him saying 'I need this for my potential new family' seals the deal on how terrible this man is.”
Photo: Reddit
Another user wrote, “Cheaters deserve absolutely nothing. He should sell his half to you. He cheated on you how DARE he try to move in his little mistress to have and raise kids in the house that you picked! It's your dream home.”
As some people pointed out, the property should've been decided in the divorce settlement.
“I very much doubt the house has anything to do with his ability to get his gf pregnant, so I say he can have a kid and be a family without it," one person wrote. "But if it was settled in the divorce that you should sell to him,” to which the woman replied, “The divorce decided we either buy the other out or sell it fully, I refuse to sell to him and he refuses to sell to me, but he is also refusing to sell to a third party, he is refusing every option that doesn't end up with him owning the house.”
Unfortunately, cheating is one of the most common reasons people get divorced. And sadly, Massachusetts Divorce & Family Lawyer Bill Farias, Esq. explains that in most circumstances, judges typically don't carr whether or not a spouse's cheating led to the divorce, meaning it won't be taken into account when deciding who "deserves" certain pieces of the marital property.
"There is no financial compensation for a broken heart," Madana Hermiz, Esq. said in a YouTube video. However, she noted that a court may decide that while the "innocent spouse" may receive more assets in the divorce settlement "if they discover that the cheating spouse clearly led to the breakdown of the marriage," this typically doesn't amount to the cost of a home.
Oftentimes, divorce is messy and requires the courts to make final decisions when exes can't come to an agreement. In this case, people on Reddit suggested the woman let the house go up for sale — and then secretly buy it.
"I would work with a secret realtor to buy the house as well," they said. "So that they 'sell' the house but she ends up with it."
Sanika Nalgirkar, M.F.A. is a YourTango contributor who writes on entertainment & news, lifestyle, and pop culture topics.