As some may have read, I’m getting divorced; it’s fallen to me to prepare an inital estimate of the value of our personal belongings – the California form lists damn near everything, and offers no guidance on how to appraise – well, a couch, for instance, or tools, or appliances. Straight-line depreciation? Over how long? A couch has a shorter useful lifetime than tools, after all. Does anyone have practical experience with this?
I don’t have first hand experience, but I would think replacement value might figure into it. If one gets the couch, what would it cost to buy one of like value? I dunno. That seems fair to me.
Well, perhaps I’d better explain: The california form FL-160 – Property Declaration (Family Law) asks for “Gross Fair Market Value” – they don’t care how much it costs to replace it (not on the form, anyway), they want to know how much it’s worth. Jewelry, I thnk, always retains its value; cars have a published value; houses can be appraised; but who the hell appraises a table saw?
I just went through a California divorce. You don’t have to put a value for every thimble and tooth pick. You want to put down the fair market value for the items which is roughly how much you would get for it if you sold it. You can put a bunch of items into larger groups.
Living room furniture - $3500.
Kitchen appliances - $800.
For larger things like a house, get an independent appraiser.
I very highly recommend How to Do Your Own Divorce in California by Sherman. It breaks down each form in detail and explains how to fill them out as well as what is expected of you. Also, it has all of the up to date forms on CD-ROM.
One more thing. Email me if you want to discuss the forms in more detail. There are some things that aren’t so obvious and you can really screw yourself if you do things incorrectly. I did most of my paper work myself and paid a lawyer to spend a couple of hours looking things over just to make sure that everything was OK.
Thanks, hajario; I appreciate the advice and the recommendation (the book’s on its way!). I’ll keep doing research, and I’ll email you when I get to the “specific questions” point.
You probably won’t have too many questions after you read the book. In the mean time, keep in mind that the Preliminary Declaration can be a very rough estimate. As long as you don’t exclude anything major, you won’t get in trouble.