Who Earned the Property. That can be a factor in favor of the party who worked hard to acquire or maintain the property. When courts apply this factor to a family business, it is common for a court to award all the interest, or a majority of the interest, in the family business to the spouse who operates the business. In that circumstance, the court not only is considering who earned the property, but also is seeking to disentangle the husband and wife from each other's future financial affairs. If the value of the business is approximately the same as the value of the family home, it is common for the court to give the business to the spouse who primarily operates the business and give the home to the other spouse Services as a Homemaker.
Courts recognize that keeping a home and raising children are work.
In addition, those services often enable the spouse who is working outside the home to earn more money. Thus, services as a homemaker are a factor in favor of the homemaker. Some courts also apply a related concept of considering whether one spouse had impaired her or his earning capacity because of working as a homemaker. If a party can show his or her work as a homemaker resulted in missing the opportunity for training or job experience that could have resulted in higher income, that factor can favor giving more property to the homemaker-spouse. Waste and Dissipation.