Filing for Divorce in Florida with Property but no children

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Introduction

a pair of gold wedding rings, a judge’s hammer on a wooden table background. family law

In this post, I’m going to show you how to file for dissolution of marriage or divorce in Florida. Divorce is never easy, but by following these steps you can achieve good results.

Part #1: Filing your paperwork for dissolution of marriage in Florida

Step #1: Entering your complete name

The first step on the petition is to enter your full legal name. Then you will certify or promise that all the following information or statements on the petition are true.

Step #2: Proof of residence

You must state that either you or your spouse has lived in Florida for at least 6 months before filing for divorce. Under Florida law, you or your spouse must have been a resident for six months or longer.

Step #3: Statement of military service

Next, you must disclose whether you or your spouse are in the military. This is required because different laws sometimes apply to active military.

Step #4: Your marriage history

The law requires that you disclose the date of your marriage and the location of your marriage-county, state and country.

Step #5: Statement of no children

Next you must state that you have no minor children common to both parties. Also, neither spouse is pregnant.

You need to provide a notice of social security form. You can find a blank notice social security number form here. (Opens PDF, 812K).

Step # 7: Reasons for the divorce

In the next section of your petition you will have state that your ivorce should be granted because either:

The marriage is irretrievably broken-can’t be saved.
Either you or your spouse has been legally declared “adjudged” mentally incapacitated for a period of three years before filing the petition.

Part #2: Marital Assets when you file for divorce in Florida

In this next part of your petition, you must tell the court what to do with all your marital property and liabilities (bills)

Option #1: When there are no marital assets or debts

This is the easiest situation. No need to divide property and bills if there are none! More than likely though there will be some assets and liabilities. This is covered below.

Option #2: Dividing up assets and liabilities

There are a few different ways to approach this issue. You can ask the court to divide up your assets and debts, but this seldom makes you or your ex-spouse happy. You can come to a marital settlement agreement with your spouse and submit it to the court. This is probably the best way if you and your spouse have the ability to come to an agreement, Lastly, if you and your spouse can’t agree on how to divide up your assets, then you will both end up submitting separate property proposals and the court will make the final decision.

Part #3: Alimony or Spousal Support.

First, if neither spouse wants spousal support, you must state that in your petition for dissolution of marriage. On the other hand, if a spouse does request alimony you must request it and specify the type of alimony you wish as well as the amount and frequency.

In Florida, there are specific types of alimony:

temporary
permanent
bridge the gap,
durational,
rehabilltative
and lump sum.

You will have to explain to the court what type of alimony you want and why you qualify. I discuss the types of alimony in a different post.

Conclusion

Filing for divorce is never easy. I discussed several steps that explain the requirements of filing for divorce when you have property, but no minor children. There is a lot of information that must be included in your petition.

Questions or Comments? Please contact attorney Joel Lipinski at 727-643-8964 to discuss your case or complete the form below.