An Uncontested Divorce When Spouses Still Live Together and Need a Parenting Schedule

This couple had been married for almost twenty years and had one daughter in high school. They had decided to end the marriage, but they were still living in the same home, in separate bedrooms, and planned to keep doing so for the child's benefit for a few more years. Their case shows how an uncontested divorce can work when the spouses are not separating households yet, and what happens when the judge wants the parenting plan to cover the day they do.

The first parenting plan described the arrangement as it actually was. The parents shared parental responsibility, the child lived with both of them, and each parent covered part of her school-day pick-ups. Because there was no two-household schedule yet, the plan did not say what would happen after one parent moved out. At a short video hearing, the judge approved the overall package but asked for a permanent post-separation time-sharing schedule so that the plan would work on the day the parents stop living together.

The parents agreed on a schedule and the firm amended the documents. If either parent moves out, one parent has the child every Friday through Sunday evening plus every other Tuesday overnight, and the other parent has all other time. That works out to roughly 235 overnights with one parent and 130 with the other. The firm reran the child support guidelines worksheet using those overnights. While the parents live together, nobody pays child support, and the agreement explains that both parents directly pay for the child's housing and expenses. Once the post-separation schedule starts, the parent with fewer overnights pays a fixed monthly amount that the worksheet produced, with no further court action needed. The parents also split the child's school costs, activities, and unreimbursed medical expenses equally, and one parent carries the child's health coverage and claims her on taxes each year.

The home was handled in a way that fit their plans. It was titled and mortgaged in one spouse's name only, but both spouses agreed each owns half of its equity. Either spouse can start the sale-or-buyout process by giving six months' written notice. The home is then appraised, and the spouses either sell or the titled spouse refinances and buys out the other half, with a sale as the automatic default if no decision is made. The spouse on the mortgage stays responsible for it and for the family car loan, and no one has to refinance today. They kept their own bank accounts, there were no retirement accounts to divide, and alimony was waived by both.

Both spouses signed before a Florida online notary over video. After the packet was filed and the judge raised the time-sharing issue at the hearing, the parents signed the amended agreement and parenting plan before the notary again, the firm filed them on the existing case, and the proposed Final Judgment was resubmitted with the amended documents attached. The judge entered the Final Judgment the same day.