What are my rights on a house that my husband and I bought together?

Generally speaking, since the house appears to be community property the judge can either confirm an agreement that the two of you reach regarding the house, or will order the house to be sold. Are you represented by counsel? If you are asking about exclusive use of the house pending the final decree, then that is something that must be requested through the court. There is no substitute for consulting with an experienced family law attorney to at least discuss these types of issues.

So long as you remain married, absent a court order to the contrary, you each have equal rights to the house. As part of the divorce, the court must award the home to someone. You can continue to own it jointly, or one of you can own it outright (which will exclude the other person), or it can be sold. If you keep the house, with exclusive use and possession, he does not get to "access" the house whenever he wants and you will be given some period of time within which to refinance to move his name from the mortgage. You would do well to consult with an attorney before proceeding with any divorce process, as there are many considerations and the "do-it-yourself" paperwork is woefully deficient in covering all the bases.

You can keep the house but you will need to refinance the loan into your name or assume the loan. You can ask your husband to give you time to do that and if you cannot succeed within that time frame, the house will be sold.

You can request exclusive use and possession of the home. Because of his name being on the loan he can request that you be required after a reasonable amount of time refinance so you can get his name off the loan. Of course this is not possible as of right now.

The goal of equitable distribution is to effect a fair and just division of marital assets. To accomplish this goal, the trial court must consider several factors, which include, in part, the length of the marriage, the standard of living established during the marriage, the economic circumstances of each party after the divorce, the income and earning capacity of each party, and the present value of the property. In determining an appropriate distribution, the court must also consider the liabilities of the parties. The distribution of property between divorcing spouses is subject to the trial court's discretion.

You both own the house equally and have equal rights to access until a Judge says otherwise. For you to keep the house you will need to pay him his equity in the house.

The general rule in Michigan is that each party is entitled to 50% of the house's "equity," which is calculated by subtracting the balance of the mortgage and any other liens (like a second mortgage or a home equity line of credit) from the fair market value of the home. You will likely have to re-fi to remove your soon-to-be ex's name from the mortgage - if you can do that, he certainly has no claim to have access to the house once the divorce is finalized. Even if you work out a "deal" with your ex, whereby you have 12 months (or whatever) to re-fi, you have the right to live in your home without him having completely unfettered "access."