Every question, by stage

No. Once the case is filed and served, the automatic temporary injunction bars either spouse from selling, transferring or borrowing against marital property without the other’s written consent or a court order. And both owners have to sign a deed regardless. What the injunction covers.

Whoever the temporary orders say; until then, whoever has been paying. The lender does not read the decree: a missed payment lands on both credit reports. Protecting your credit.

No. Neither spouse has to leave unless a court orders exclusive possession. Leaving does not give up your share of the house. First steps.

If the gain is over $250,000, closing before the decree and filing jointly keeps the $500,000 exclusion. If one spouse stays under the decree, the other’s $250,000 can be preserved for later. The timing rule.

Sometimes: a HELOC for the buyout, or an assumption if the servicer will release your spouse (FHA and VA are built for it). Whether you qualify alone is the real question. The buyout math.

Build two budgets, the household as it is and yours alone. Colorado’s maintenance guideline gives a starting number for marriages of three years with combined income under $240,000; child support is a separate worksheet. Then price housing honestly at today’s rates. The formula.

No. Colorado divides marital property equitably, which means fairly after weighing the factors, not necessarily equally. How the house is decided.

Yes. The only ground is that the marriage is irretrievably broken. Nobody has to prove wrongdoing, and misconduct does not affect the property division.

One spouse must have been domiciled in Colorado for 91 days before filing. For orders about children, the children need 182 days here.

No. Filing does not require anyone to leave, and leaving does not give up your share of the house. Talk to an attorney before you move; it affects who stays during the case and means paying for two homes.

Its value on the wedding date is yours. The appreciation since, and principal paid with marital money, is marital and divisible. Separate versus marital.

An inheritance to one spouse is separate property, but its growth during the marriage is marital, and mixing it into joint accounts or the house can make it hard to trace.

Same process and forms, but you stay legally married, which some people choose for health insurance or religious reasons. Either spouse can convert it to a divorce after 182 days.

Yes. Many agreed Colorado divorces use the court’s forms and the free self-help centers. With a house, retirement accounts or children, at least one consultation is worth it, and limited-scope representation lets you hire a lawyer for one task.

Use a private window on your own device, and do not wipe your whole history. Nothing here requires an email to read. Browsing safely.

Yes: the live workshop, in person and on Zoom one Saturday a month, and every talk online here. The virtual workshop.

Write down the date. File your response within 21 days (35 if served out of state). Do not move money, sell anything or cancel insurance. Keep paying the mortgage. Gather documents. Get one consultation. This week, in order.

The court order that takes effect on both of you when the case is filed and served. No selling, transferring, hiding or borrowing against marital property; no disturbing the peace; no taking the kids out of state; no cancelling insurance, without consent or an order.

No. Not under the injunction, and not without your signature on the deed regardless.

Ordinary living expenses are allowed. Draining or hiding money is exactly what the injunction forbids, and the sworn financial statements will show it. Document balances the day you are served.

Nobody, unless a court grants exclusive possession under temporary orders, usually on a showing that harm would otherwise result.

Whoever the temporary orders say; until then, usually whoever has been paying. A missed payment lands on both credit reports. Protecting your credit.

JDF 1111, the form both spouses file within 42 days listing income, expenses, assets and debts, with three years of records exchanged under Rule 16.2. Get a written valuation before you fill in the house.

Most Colorado districts require it in cases with minor children and want the certificate filed. It costs about $50 to $100 per parent.

The judge cannot enter the decree until 91 days after the respondent is served or the joint petition is filed. Agreed cases often finish soon after; contested cases take much longer.

The court can enter a default and grant what the petition asks for. File the response even if you agree with everything.

Sold and split, one spouse buys the other out, the sale is delayed for the kids, or one spouse assumes the loan. Which one depends on value, payoff and what each of you can carry alone. The four options.

Equitably. Often half each, but the judge can weigh contributions, separate-property claims and each spouse’s circumstances. Equity is value minus every loan against the house, minus selling costs if it is sold.

Value minus payoff equals equity; the leaving spouse’s share is their equitable percentage of it, sometimes reduced by estimated selling costs. On a $649,500 home with $350,000 owed, half the equity is $149,750. The math.

A HELOC for the buyout keeps the first loan but leaves your spouse on it; an assumption keeps the rate and can release your spouse if the servicer agrees, which FHA and VA allow and many conventional servicers do not. Assumptions.

Yes, with the decree, six months of receipts (three for FHA on court-ordered support) and three years of continuance from closing.

Colorado allows a deferred sale, with every term in the decree: who pays what, how paydown is credited, the trigger, who sells it. What has to be written.

The judge can order a sale at permanent orders. Before the decree, courts rarely force a sale unless there is real financial distress.

If the gain is over $250,000, closing before the decree and filing jointly keeps the $500,000 exclusion. The timing rule.

Both of you, in the stipulation. A neutral agent who gives both spouses the same numbers at the same time is what keeps the sale out of court. What a divorce realtor does.

A written CMA or an appraisal, dated. The Zestimate is not evidence. Which one you need.

Yes, in Colorado. The wedding-date value is separate; the growth since is marital.

No. It changes title only. Only a refinance, a sale, or a written release from the lender removes a name from the loan.

Pay it if you can to protect your credit, then enforce the decree in court. Call your attorney the week the first payment is missed.

By a Qualified Domestic Relations Order for employer plans; IRAs transfer under the decree; Colorado PERA uses its own order with a 90-day deadline. Retirement and pensions.

40 percent of combined income minus the lower income, times 80 or 75 percent, for 31 to 50 percent of the marriage length. Advisory, not mandatory. The formula and the table.

Divorce is a COBRA event allowing up to 36 months on the plan at full cost. Some couples choose legal separation to keep coverage; check the plan document.

$75 per party per hour through the court’s Office of Dispute Resolution ($15 with indigency); private mediators commonly $200 to $400 an hour. Mediation, collaborative or court.

Go back to court to enforce the decree; the judge can order the signature or sign in the ex’s place. Title companies will also accept a certified copy of the decree in many cases.

The decree usually says the house is then sold. Ask your attorney to enforce it promptly; every month of delay is a month of your name on a loan you do not control.

A quitclaim or bargain-and-sale deed from your ex, recorded with the county clerk. The mortgage is a separate step. The three ways off the loan.

As soon as the decree is entered and you can document income and the old loan’s treatment. The six-month support history and any recent lates set the real timeline. Buying again.

Rent if income or support is still settling, credit has a fresh late, or you do not know where your life will be in a year. Buy when the numbers work at 43 percent of income or less with room for repairs.

Your own account and card, on-time payments, utilization under 30 percent, joint accounts closed or converted, and a monthly check on any loan still carrying your name. Six to eighteen months of that usually does it.

Up to half of their full benefit if the marriage lasted 10 years, you are unmarried, and you are 62 or older, and only if it beats your own. It does not reduce theirs.

Ask for name restoration in the decree, or file JDF 1824 within 60 days for free. On a later deed, recite “Mary Smith, formerly Mary Jones.”

Your status on December 31 controls: single or head of household if the decree was entered by then, married filing jointly or separately if not. Head of household needs a qualifying child and more than half the cost of the home.

There is no age. The question is whether two households can be funded from what you have, which depends on the house and the retirement split. Gray divorce in Colorado.

The marital portion by a QDRO (or PERA’s own order), usually as a share of each payment, or its present value is offset against other assets.

Divorce is a COBRA event allowing up to 36 months on the ex’s plan; Connect for Health Colorado treats the loss as a special enrollment event.

Run the cost of carrying it alone for 20 years, with a roof and a furnace in the budget. If it strains retirement, downsizing on your own timeline beats a forced sale later. Downsizing after divorce.

At 62 or older a HECM can fund the buyout as a lump sum with no monthly payment; interest compounds and equity declines. It fits some cases and not others. When it fits.

Same as any house: one buys the other out (HELOC, other assets, or a reverse mortgage after 62) or it is sold and split. No mortgage does not mean no buyout.

It can be. Over 20 years the court may set a term or order maintenance indefinitely, with written findings if it goes below the guideline term.

Yes, if you meet the age rule. Kenna keeps the current list of Colorado 55+ communities on the main site. The list.