Written for the person who stayed home

The stay-at-home parent’s divorce

You left the workforce to raise the kids, the income was never yours on paper, and now the question is what you live on. Colorado law has answers, and they are better than the fear suggests. Here they are, with the house decision that comes with them.

Call the divorce team 303-955-4220 Written for women Maintenance in Colorado

Call or text 303-955-4220. A live person answers. Not a robot, not a phone tree.

Maintenance

There is a formula

40 percent of combined income minus your income, times 80 percent (or 75), for a term tied to the marriage length. Advisory, and the court uses it.

The house

Support counts toward the loan, with rules

Six months of receipts and three years to run. A lender will tell you if keeping the house is real. Ask before the deadline is written.

Insurance

COBRA up to 36 months

Divorce is a qualifying event; the marketplace with income-based credits is usually cheaper.

Work

Imputed income is a thing

Courts can assign you an earning capacity. A plan for retraining or part-time work helps the case and the budget.

The short answer

In Colorado, a marriage of three years or more with a large income gap produces maintenance under a guideline the courts use, plus child support under the worksheet, and both can be ordered on a temporary basis while the case is pending. Whether you can keep the house depends on whether that support, with the six-month history and three-year runway a lender requires, carries the payment on its own. Often it does not, and a smaller home in the same school area is the decision that keeps everything the kids care about.

What you are entitled to ask for

Temporary maintenance and child supportOrdered while the case is pending, on a motion. Do not wait for the decree to have income.

Maintenance at the decreeThe guideline: 40 percent of combined monthly income minus the lower earner’s income, times 80 percent (combined up to $10,000 a month) or 75 percent ($10,001 to $20,000). Term from 31 percent of the marriage length at three years to 50 percent at twelve and a half years. Not taxable to you for decrees after 2018.

Child supportThe Colorado worksheet, based on both incomes, overnights and costs like insurance and childcare. Ends at 19 unless extended.

An equitable share of everythingRetirement built during the marriage is marital regardless of whose name; a QDRO moves your share tax-free. The house’s equity is marital. Your years at home are a contribution the statute recognizes.

Attorney feesColorado courts can order the higher earner to pay some of the lower earner’s fees (C.R.S. 14-10-119). Ask.

Can you keep the house?

Run it in this order: equity, affordability, desirability. The affordability piece is where stay-at-home parents get hurt. A lender counts maintenance and child support only with the signed decree, six months of receipts (three for FHA on court-ordered support) and three years left to run. If the decree gives you 60 days to refinance and the support has no history yet, the deadline fails. Options that work: a longer refinance window in the decree, an FHA or VA assumption, or the leaving spouse staying on the loan for a fixed period with every term written. The buyout math and what counts as income.

The two-year plan

Now: temporary orders, your own account, health insurance sorted, the house valued in writing.
By the decree: the house decided on the numbers, support terms that survive a lender’s three-year rule, retirement split by QDRO, a retraining or work plan in writing if you want one.
Year one: one income, housing under a third of it, an emergency month saved, credit in your own name building.
Year two: buy again if the numbers are real (CHFA counts you as first-time after three years without ownership), or keep renting without apology.

Questions people ask

How long will I get maintenance?

The guideline term runs from about a third of the marriage length at three years to half at twelve and a half years and beyond; a 20-year marriage suggests about 10 years. The court can deviate. The formula, worked.

Will I have to go back to work?

Courts can impute income based on what you could reasonably earn, considering your age, the children and time out of the workforce. A realistic plan of your own is stronger than one imposed on you.

Can I stay in the house until the kids finish school?

A deferred sale is common: you stay, both stay on the loan and title, and the house sells at a trigger date. Every term goes in the decree, and one missed payment hits both credit reports. Staying in the house with the kids.

What about health insurance?

COBRA on your ex’s plan for up to 36 months at full cost, or Connect for Health Colorado with income-based credits, which is usually cheaper. Decide it before the decree; the decree can require the paying spouse to carry the children.

Hard times, handled quietly

We have sold underwater houses, negotiated short sales and stopped foreclosure clocks for divorcing owners. Quietly.

A divorce with no equity, two incomes that just became one, and a lender who does not care about the decree is the file we see most in a down year. The Kenna divorce real estate team, led by Damon L. Chavez, Certified Real Estate Divorce Specialist, runs the numbers first and tells you the truth: sell, short sale, hold, or fight the foreclosure.

Your information stays with us. We will not contact you without your permission, and nothing here is logged to an account.

A written net sheet with the house sold, short-sold and kept

The Colorado foreclosure timeline against your court dates

A lender who will tell you the truth about a refinance on one income

The hotline, legal aid and fee-waiver numbers, free

Talk to the team, free

Where to go next

Plain-language education, not advice. Divorce Decisions is published by The Kenna Real Estate Group at Keller Williams DTC, a real estate team. Nothing here is legal, tax, lending or financial advice, and reading it does not create any professional relationship. Colorado law and lender rules change; confirm anything that matters to your case with a licensed Colorado attorney, a tax professional, and your lender. See our full disclaimer.

Call your Colorado divorce agent

Questions about the house, the deed or the decree?

Call us today to talk through your situation and how we can help. A live person answers. Not a robot, not a phone tree.

Call today 303-955-4220 Download the free divorce-home guide

Ask about the house, and the plan

Tell us how long you were married, what you think the house is worth, and whether you want to stay. We will show you the numbers a lender will use, free, and we will not contact you without your permission.

Call or text 303-955-4220

A live person answers. Not a robot, not a phone tree. Prefer email? homes@kennarealestate.com