Dividing Household Furnishings during Divorce

When a couple divorces, they must decide how to divide household furnishings. In Arizona, other than property received by one spouse through gift or inheritance, each spouse is legally entitled to a 50% equitable value of all household furnishings. However, there is no requirement that spouses equalize this value, or that attorneys or judges be involved in these decisions; the couple can try to work out an equitable division themselves. When dividing household furnishings, keep the following in mind:

1. Don’t involve attorneys.
Typically, it does not make sense to involve attorneys in the division of household furnishings during a divorce. First, there is likely not enough value to the furnishings to make attorney fees for this issue worth the time and expense. Furthermore, you and your spouse know the best way to divide up your household furnishings.

2. Make a List.
This is a sensible first step, particularly if you can not easily agree on how to divide the household items. Together, or separately, do a walk-through of your home and create a list(s) of all the items of value in your marital home. You may want to list items that stay together (such as a bedroom set) as one single item. Once you have made the list, go through the items and decide who will keep which. You can do this by assigning values to each item, and dividing the list as equally as possible, or by the “alternate pick method” in which each spouse alternates picks until all the furniture is divided. Or, you can itemize everything in each room, and then the parties alternate picks for the contents of the entire room. Alternatively, you can choose to sell some or all of the furniture, and then split the proceeds.

3. Don’t forget anything
Remember items in the garage, and off-site storage units. Sometimes furnishings and property have surprisingly high value, such as tools, or collectible items.

4. Involve a third party if it helps.
If you can not agree on the value of furnishings, involve a mediator who can help you talk through these decisions amicably and sensible. If you need to be more informed on the value of higher-priced items, involve a professional appraiser, who can inform you of the value of each piece of furniture. Less expensive items should be valued “as-is;” that is, in their current condition and thus what they would currently sell for. The best way to value such household goods is to look up comparable items on websites such as eBay and Craigslist. Establish what they are actually selling for, which is not necessarily the price the seller is asking.

5. Equalizing assets
Once you established values for your household goods, and have decided who keeps what, decide if you want to equalize the value for these goods. For example, if the household furnishings you are keeping add up to $10,000, and the value of what your spouse is keeping totals $16,000, she would owe you $3,000, or half the $6,000 difference. You can achieve this with a cash payment, or by swapping items on your individual lists until the totals come out more evenly. She can also relinquish $3,000 of another asset in your favor, such as part of a savings or investment account.

Tamara Hirsch, JD, LCSW