Inheritance money used to pay off house. Does house become part of inheritance?

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skholtglass

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The house we have been paying on for the last 27 years was finally paid off by my husband with money he inherited. Now that we are going through a divorce, his lawyer is implying that the property is a part of his inheritance since he used inheritance money to pay. Is that true or is that some kind of legal trick?
 
Many states do not include an inheritance received by one spouse in the property that will be equitably divided. However, the funds must be kept separate. Mixing them with marital property may be presumed to transform them into marital property.

If your husband had received the inheritance and put it in a separate bank account, he would likely be entitled to the whole thing when you divorce. Since he put it into the house, the inheritance may have become marital property, and may be subject to equitable division.

So actually, in your case, putting the inheritance into the house probably did NOT turn the house into his property. If anything, it might have turned his inheritance into marital property. Instead of getting your share of a partially-paid house, you would get your share of a fully-paid house.
 
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