It is far from clear that your husband is entitled to the equity in the house, since you bought it pre-marriage. At most, he may be entitled to the increase (if any) in equity during the time you were married in proporation to the amount of the mortgage, taxes, and other costs he paid (i.e. if you paid the house's carrying costs by yourself, he would likely be entitled to nothing). So using the county assessor's valuations, if it went from $94k when you were married to $112k today, if he paid (roughly) half the costs during that time, he'd be entitled to 1/2 the $18k increase, or $9k.You use them by presenting them: if you can, get certified copies of the appraisals, or at least something in writing from a county employee confiming they are accurate. (If you end up in court over this, you may need the employee to come to court and testify to confirm you have "true" and accurage copies.)