If the divorce judgement determined that the use of the family residence was attributed to your children (minor by then) and your ex-spouse since her/him has their custody, you need to know that, once the children are of legal age, that use of the family house is no longer valid.
Why the Court attributes the use of the family house to one of the parents?
The use of the family residence can be assigned to the parent that has the custody of the children, despite he or she is not the owner of the house.
The key reasons to attribute the use of the family residence are:
1.- The children are minors.
2.- The parent that has the use has the custody of the children as well.
What has changed to consider that the parent can no longer stay in the house?
The Court assign the use of the family house to the minors because their interest has to be especially protected, and this is one way of protection. The attribution to the children has a direct consequence and is that the parent that has their custody has the use of the house as well.
However, when the children are no longer minors, special protection is not needed. Therefore, the parent that had the use because of them loses it too.
Are there any exceptions?
Nevertheless, there can be some exceptions to the prior said. Some of it could be, for instance, when the children are disabled; therefore, he/she needs special protection, and the Court can extend the attribution of the use period for some more years. Another one could be when the parent who had the use, can not afford to rent a new house or to buy a new one.
In these cases, we might find some difficulties to pursue our aim.
Even though, these possible exceptions, each case has its particularities that affect the result and the possibilities to recover the full use and domain of the family residence.
What should I do?
For recover the use of the family residence, the appropriate proceeding has to be started.
Our team of professional attorneys in Espadas & Vivancos with many years of experience in the Family Law field will kindly assist you during the proceeding providing you complete information of everything that happens in the process and answer to all your questions regarding it.
