When Should A House Be Appraised In A Divorce?
A house should be appraised as close to trial or settlement as possible. This is due to Family Code Section 2552, which requires assets to be valued as close to trial as possible to accomplish an equal division.
The purpose of this code section is to assure that one party isn’t awarded a property at an incorrect value. For instance, if the real estate market is increasing rapidly and an initial appraisal was done before the increases, one party could be awarded the house at a price that is actually far below value. The same thing can happen in markets where prices are dropping. The intent is to make the property division fair and equitable at the time of the division.
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