Opinion ID: 2087134
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Real Estate Related Expenses and Rents

Text: As noted above, one of the items of marital property in this case is a trailer camp which yields approximately $100 per month in rent. In her cross-appeal, wife asserts that she is entitled to one-half of this rental income. She contends that the court should not have given husband an exclusive credit for one-half of any payments for real estate related bills paid by him without giving wife a similar credit and that rents received by husband and the fair rental value of the properties should be accounted for to wife. This issue is poorly framed and difficult to understand. Apparently, the wife is arguing that the trial court abused its discretion by both permitting the husband to keep the total monthly rentals from the trailer park and also giving the husband one-half credit for certain unspecified real estate related costs that he bears. The wife also suggests that the court abused its discretion by not awarding her a credit for any real estate costs she might bear. The credit to the husband to which the wife refers is presumably the credit the trial court allowed to the husband at the time the properties are sold and distributions of the proceeds are made to the parties. Finally, wife also argues that this credit to the husband is overbroad because it has no time limits. The record reveals that the husband has been primarily responsible for real estate related expenses since the parties separated. It is apparent that the purpose of the court's order was to establish that each party was entitled to one-half the value of the real estate from the time of separation. In order to maintain that ratio, the court directed the husband to take credit for one-half the expenditures he makes on the real estate after separation. We do not find this credit overbroad since it is limited in time to payments from the date of separation to the date of sale. We find no abuse of discretion. We further find no abuse of discretion in the trial court's award of rental income to the husband until the date of sale of the properties. This award was employed by the court to counter-balance the alimony award to the wife. Since under the peculiar facts of this case both the rental income and the alimony will terminate upon the sale of the properties, we find no abuse of discretion in the trial court's award of rental income exclusively to the husband for the short period of time prior to sale of the properties.