I Want to Keep the House After My Divorce. What Should I Do?

A problem regarding the division of the marital home? Unfortunately, divorce is a common but painful process. In addition to the separation itself, other aspects must be considered, including making a decision about the family home.
You would like to keep the family home, but your former spouse does not agree. What can you do?

Request preferential allocation

To avoid a public sale, you can ask the notary to allocate the property to you as a priority. This means that, even if your former spouse does not agree, you can request that the former family home be allocated to you. This arrangement is often granted to one of the parties for economic or social reasons: who has the most children? Who needs the property to carry out their work?

If the preferential allocation is approved, your property will need to be valued. The spouses may either agree on the price or appoint an expert. Each spouse may also appoint their own expert.
At that point, you will still have the choice of whether or not to purchase the property, based on the value proposed by the valuer.

Naturally, the person taking over the property will have to compensate the other party by paying them a certain amount. The formula most commonly applied is as follows:

• determine the current value of the house;
• deduct from this gross value all costs and repayments relating to the house, such as the outstanding capital balance of the mortgage loan and the repayment of personal funds invested in the house by either party, etc.
• the difference represents the net value, which must be divided equally. The person taking over the property will pay the other party half of this net value and will be responsible for the aforementioned repayments.

Be mindful of the costs

Bear in mind that you will have to pay registration duties (1% in Brussels and 2.5% in Flanders). However, in the event of separation or the termination of legal cohabitation, there is an allowance of 50,000 euros, plus an additional 20,000 euros per child.

For example, if you buy out a property valued at 400,000 euros and have 3 children, you will only pay registration duties on an amount of 400,000 - 50,000 - 3 x (20,000) = 290,000, resulting in registration duties of 2,900 euros. Remember to add the notary’s fees.

Since 2018, this procedure has also been available to couples who married under a separation of property regime.

If you would like to learn more about the property market, visit our blog. It is packed with interesting articles on the subject. Or browse and dream among our available properties.