Washington appeals court lets wife keep home despite ex-husband's mortgage concerns

Representative Image (AI-generated) A divorce involving a Washington couple with seven children has highlighted how courts can divide family property and mortgage obligations without requiring a spouse to refinance a home. The Washington Court of Appeals, Division Two, ruled on October 27, 2026, that a lower court acted within its discretion when it awarded the family’s Sequim home to Megan Mae Coelho and assigned the remaining mortgage debt to her without requiring her to refinance the loan or sell the property within a specified period. According to the unpublished opinion available on Justia, her former husband, Benjamin A Mavy, challenged the arrangement, arguing that he remained financially exposed to a mortgage on a home he no longer owned.Couple transferred property into a trust before divorceMavy and Coelho married in 2002 and had seven children during their marriage. Before moving to Washington, the family lived in Wyoming, where the couple received $1,518,103 in September 2021 for their interest in a business in which Mavy had been involved. In November 2021, the couple established an irrevocable trust under Wyoming law for asset protection and estate planning. They trans...