DVC & Divorce????

[totallyminnie]

My husband of 11 years has unfortunately decided to file for divorce. Have any DVC members in this forum undergone this, and if so, would you mind sharing how you resolved the DVC membership? I know I'll have to seek an attorney's advice on this, but any insights would help. Many thanks.

 

[DisneyJoe]

IMHO, the easiest way is to sell the membership and split the money.

 

[Monty]

The DVC membership is part of your community property and has to be accounted for in the division of such. If you can reach an agreement on dividing assets without selling everything off you're probably better off, selling things off tends to net less overall value than retaining them.

If you and your husband are both in a position to continue paying the fees and using the DVC, you might have a dispute as to which of you gets the DVC as opposed to other assets. Sadly, much will depend on how 'amicable' your divorce is.

I'm sorry to hear that you're headed that way, divorce is never a happy time for either party. I hope you can get through it relatively unscathed and move on to be happy, everybody deserves that.

 

[brkgnews]

My husband of 11 years has unfortunately decided to file for divorce. Have any DVC members in this forum undergone this, and if so, would you mind sharing how you resolved the DVC membership? I know I'll have to seek an attorney's advice on this, but any insights would help. Many thanks.

My condolences on your impending divorce.

I'm not familiar with any method in which you could officialy split the membership as far as official DVC paperwork is concerned. I suppose you could, in theory, transfer ownership back to DVD/DVC and then have them immediately redraw two new property deeds reflecting exactly half of the previous deed... but I'm not sure whether they would be willing to do so. At the very minimum I'm sure you'd have to pay another round of closing costs.

Further complicating matters would be whether or not the original "mortgage" on the property is paid off or not. If you're still making mortgage payments in addition to your dues, then you could in theory have to be reapproved for a new loan on the property, etc, should you split it.

One potential solution would be to sell the membership via the resale market, split the return money, and buy your own memberships that way. Perhaps you can call your DVC Guide or even member services and ask to speak to someone. Sadly, I'm sure you're not the first person to have this issue arise.

Best wishes.

 

[bradandsarabr]

As an attorney, the best advise that I can give you is to speak to an attorney in the state in which you live. Each state has different rules re: community property. You are also dealing with property in Florida. The Court will have to determine whether Florida law or the law of your home state applies.

Call an attorney.

Good luck.

 

[slappy magoo]

Sorry you have to go through this. I agree that you should really talk to a lawyer about it more than any of us. Let the lawyer know how you'd like to have it resolved, and the lawyer, if s/he's any good, will be able to tell you if it's feasible. If the DVC is something you'd like to keep, perhaps you can think about something, of comparable value, you're willing to let him keep to make that happen. A gesture like that, some give and take, might also lay the groundwork to make the rest of the process easier, which I'd recommend, even if there's currently any anger or desire to make the process painful. Sooner it's over, the easier it is to move on.

 

[brkgnews]

I'd echo the sentiment about bring a lawyer in... obviously my advice was on ways it might be possible once the lawyer was involved.

 

[Phonedave]

I bought my DVC after my divorce (also after 11 years, so I feel for you) so seperating that did not come into play, but I can tell you about other things.

If you and your ex are friendly, try mediation. That is where you can do a "give and take" type thing. We ended up selling our house and splitting the proceedes only because neither of us could afford the house on a single income, but there were a number of other things where it was "you take this and I'll take that".

Then when it's all done with the mediator, you take it to your lawyer to check everything over, and then you sign.

I know that I took my ex's name off of a variety of things (and she mine) pensions, car titles, etc. It's not that difficult. Mainly you need to fill out some sort of form, both sign it, and you send it to the proper place. Somtimes there is a nominal fee to do so, somtimes it was free. I suspect it's the same with the DVC. I did check with DVC when I bought it, and was told that when my kids turn 18, I just have to fill out a few forms to have them added as co-owners with me.

-dave

 

[Hidden Mikey]

Hey TotallyMinnie,

As an unfortunate member of club divorce since 2001, I understand and feel for your delima.
For myself and my ex, when we divorced my ex did not want anything to do with Disney. so all i had to do was have her sign a notorized bill of sale, pay a closing cost fee (i think at the time it was approx $350.00.) and in a few weeks it was all done.) don`t be afraid to call DVC for more info.
I guess it really depends on how well your soon to be ex will coooperate.
At the time I called DVC and they seemed to have all the answers already in place for divorce issues.
(i guess this is a frequent problem even in the land of the mouse.)

Good luck and hope you are still able to enjoy Disney.

 

[lilfritzy]

I just recently went through this myself. Fortunatly my ex was nice enough to give it to me because he knew how much I love it. All I did was called member administration and they sent me the change of ownership request which my ex filled out and faxed back to them. Then from there I had to change the title to my name which was about $350. They sent me other forms stating that my ex was transfering the ownership to my name which he had to have notorized. If you call DVC they can help you with the particulars hopefully your ex will be willing to do this for you I was lucky mine was. Good Luck I know what you going through and how you are feeling as does anyone else who has gone through this. It does get better I promise you take it one day at a time.:animwink:

 

[mikey531]

I just recently went through this myself. Fortunatly my ex was nice enough to give it to me because he knew how much I love it. All I did was called member administration and they sent me the change of ownership request which my ex filled out and faxed back to them. Then from there I had to change the title to my name which was about $350. They sent me other forms stating that my ex was transfering the ownership to my name which he had to have notorized. If you call DVC they can help you with the particulars hopefully your ex will be willing to do this for you I was lucky mine was. Good Luck I know what you going through and how you are feeling as does anyone else who has gone through this. It does get better I promise you take it one day at a time.:animwink:

So that is how it is done. We have been divorced for over 5 years and in our agreement I let her have all the points. We had an amicable divorce and I still haven't signed anything from DVC so I assume I am still liable for the mainteneance fees if she doesn't pay. I have now infected the new woman in my life with Disney and we are now going in April for our third trip !