Often, married couples choose to put both of their names on the title of their shared home. Sharing a title means that both spouses can use their income to qualify for a loan, allowing for a larger budget when shopping the competitive housing market. If one spouse passes, a shared title also makes for a much easier transition.
What if a spouse isn’t so keen on sharing the house title with their partner? That was the case for one wife whose husband was the sole owner of the house they lived in. When drafting his will, he refused to leave the home to his wife, instead opting to give it to his daughter from a previous marriage.
When the wife took to the internet to complain, people had strong opinions about who was in the wrong.
This is how the story played out:
Backstory
The wife, or original poster (OP), is 47 and has been married to her husband for 10 years. OP is well aware that she will likely outlive her husband for several years.
The couple is in an age-gap relationship—he is 65 and just retired from his job. He is wealthy, and she is a housewife. Before getting married, she worked in customer service and was an emergency phone line operator, making minimum wage.
OP’s husband has a daughter from a previous marriage, who is 30. Her mother passed away unexpectedly at a young age. She didn’t have a will, so OP’s husband inherited the house that his daughter’s mother had inherited from her parents. OP and her husband now live in this house.
What happened?
After OP’s husband’s retirement party, the couple started talking about their wills and inheritance. During this conversation, OP’s husband announced that he would be leaving the house to his daughter instead of OP.
How did OP react?
OP was livid. She claimed that after he passed, she would be kicked out and homeless if the house was not left to her.
In her words, “As his wife, I have a right to my marital home. It’s not fair that I will be kicked out of our home after I spent so much time and effort redecorating it and making it my own.”
Doubling down on the idea that she would be homeless, she continued, “I am a housewife and have nowhere else to go. He has an obligation to ensure my financial safety after his death.”
Did OP’s husband respond?
OP’s husband explained that OP knew the house belonged to his late wife, who received it from her parents. He claimed that it would be unfair if OP did inherit the house, as his late wife would not have wanted that.
He emphasized that OP will receive his entire life insurance payout and will split any remaining savings with his daughter, which will ensure her financial stability.
Did OP take his solution well?
According to OP, “This is where, unfortunately, our argument escalated, and we started yelling at each other.”
She claims that the money will not be enough for the rest of her life because “He plans on having expensive cruises and holidays for the rest of his retirement.”
OP’s choice words got more intense as she responded, “I told him he is screwing me over after everything I have done for him after I gave up my job and my career for him to look after our home, and that I deserve to be compensated.”
Did OP’s husband change his mind?
OP’s husband stood firm in his decision to allow his daughter to inherit the house. He didn’t ask OP to be a housewife. He claims that she did that on her own accord and that OP “knew the risks and benefits and made an informed choice.”
OP’s husband feels as though the inheritance he’s leaving his wife is reasonable and that she could always go back to work if she feels differently.
Is OP willing to go back to work?
OP feels that it’s too late for her to return to the workforce as she hasn’t worked in 10 years. She lashed out again at her husband for the suggestion, saying that he was a horrible person for putting her in this position. She feels unrecognized for what she contributed to their family.
OP’s husband doesn’t feel like OP made any significant contribution. She didn’t contribute financially, and the couple hired housekeepers to do most chores. If anything, in his eyes, she was guzzling the couple’s money because of all the spending she did.
At that point, OP says that she screamed at her husband one last time before locking herself in the guest room.
Is OP in the wrong for wanting to inherit the couple’s marital house? People didn’t hold back their opinions. Here’s what the internet thought:
It’s not OP’s house at all
“IT IS NOT YOUR HOUSE. He explained it to you. It was his first wife’s house, and his reasoning for giving it to his daughter is sound (it was her grandparents’ house, for goodness sake, it SHOULD stay in the family).
“Would you leave it to her when you died? Or would she lose out on the property HER mom inherited?”
A different person agreed, asking, “Is it really a marital home if you didn’t acquire the property after marriage? Sounds like it’s his late wife’s house, now his, and you never had much of a claim to it anyway. Especially if he can leave HIS house to his daughter, and you have no say in the matter.”
OP isn’t too old to go back to work. She just doesn’t want to
“She easily can work. She doesn’t want to! According to her, the ‘contributions’ she makes are looking good for him and redecorating the house?! They have someone who cooks in the morning and cleans the house. This is ridiculous.”
What contributions?
“‘Housewife’ who does no housework and is apparently not raising any children either? Well, well, well,” judged one individual.
Another mocked, “Well, she DID redecorate the house, though.”
Ridiculed a third, “Such back-breaking work. That poor woman.”
“To be fair, it is really hard to tell ‘the help’ where to put the new furniture,” snidely said a final responder.
OP is a gold-digger
“You sound like you married him solely for money and are now enraged you aren’t going to get as much as you had hoped for. You quit your job cause you didn’t wanna work. Admit it. You just wanted a long, comfy life financed by him.
“The daughter has all rights to the house. It was her mother’s. How to dictate his will is the sole right of your husband.
“So sad he saw through you and called you out.”
What OP’s husband does in retirement is his choice
“How the husband chooses to spend his money (on expensive vacations and cruises) for the rest of his life is his right. He earned the money. He doesn’t have to leave it to her. OP is wild.”
Agreeing, another individual said, “And it’s likely that she’d be going on those holidays with him and has been on a few since they married, all paid by him.”
OP didn’t even help raise her husband’s daughter
“You left your job to do what exactly? You mention your ‘contribution’ to the family – but what was it?
“You had housekeepers and cleaners, and it sounds like you didn’t raise his adult daughter….so without some concrete ‘contributions,’ it’s unclear what you’ve been doing for ten years.”
One person joked, “She ‘contributed’ by using his money to decorate his house.”
This article was written and syndicated by What the Fab.
This husband wanted to retire without his wife
This husband cut his wife out, but in a different way, at least in her eyes. He wanted to retire to South America for seven months out of the year, leaving behind their parents, children, and young grandchildren.
She wanted to spend more time with their young grandchildren instead of jetting off to South America for the majority of the year. To her surprise, he was perfectly okay with going alone and leaving her behind.
Is retiring without your spouse okay?
This is what people have to say.
This wealthy husband thought his wife’s housework was so easy he could do it better
Unlike OP, this housewife made major contributions to her household. The stay-at-home mom dropped out of an Ivy League engineering program before completing her bachelor’s degree so her husband could complete his master’s degree and secure a job in finance.
Do stay-at-home parents do hard work? Her husband didn’t seem to think so.
Does her husband have a point? This is how it happened.
Would you divorce a spouse who refused to do chores?
Some commenters thought that OP’s husband should divorce her for her utter lack of contributions—financial or around the house. Like OP, this wife wanted the best of both worlds: to lounge around all day and have to do no housework at all.
Is this husband wrong for yelling at her to get a job? Decide here.
Elise Armitage is an entrepreneur and founder of What The Fab, a travel + lifestyle blog based in California. At the beginning of 2019, Elise left her corporate job at Google to chase her dreams: being an entrepreneur and helping women find fabulous in the everyday. Since then, she’s launched her SEO course Six-Figure SEO, where she teaches bloggers how to create a passive revenue stream from their website using SEO. Featured in publications like Forbes, Elle, HerMoney, and Real Simple, Elise is a firm believer that you can be of both substance and style.
