Expert: Equality in Marriage Institute - 1/12/2006

Question
My husband says we separated on May 5th. This is the day he changed his mailing address to the house next door, his sister's. He camped on a friends property in a different county for 3 weeks then came back home. When he came back home he started to fix up the shed at his sister's which is about 10 feet from the house. He told us it was for storage. But then he threw in a twin mattress and when he didn't feel like sleeping at the house, he would sleep in the shed. He enjoyed full access to the house.Laundry, showers, meals, tv, sex. October 15 he took our bed, refrigerator and his entertainment system to the shed. It has no water or plumbing so he still willfully accessed the home for laundry and showers until November 1 when I moved out. He tried to sell one of the 4 cars left at the house this entire time in October and the ad states our home phone as his residential phone. In our state, separation occurs when you no longer live together. I interpret this to mean November 1. Your comments would be appreciated. Thank you

Answer
Dear Cheri,

The date of separation varies from state to state. You did not happen to mention what state you live in so I will do my best to include some information regarding your question.

1. The best person to ask would be a family lawyer in your area/ state. You could also visit your state bar assocations's website to see if they have the information on line.

2. http://www.legalzoom.com/law_library/divorce/property.html- according to this site, the date of separation is when one moves out. Which in your case is a little suspect. There is more info at this link that may be relevant.

3.http://www.dsol.com/Separation.html- asks the same question you are in a few different ways- worth the short read.

I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful.