Who gets the house in Scandoval?

In the seventh season of Vanderpump Rules, Tom Sandoval spins Ariana Madix in his arms in the driveway of his newly purchased $2 million Valley Village home while she holds a bottle of champagne. The happy couple checks to see if they can use two appliances at the same time, unlike their cramped old apartment (they can), and enjoy their newly built five-bedroom, 4,453-square-foot home.

Five years later, the only thing the bitter exes can agree on is that neither of them are willing to move on. Although Madix ended her nine-year relationship with Sandoval in March 2023 after news of her long-term affair with Vanderpump Rules His co-star Rachel “Raquel” Leviss broke up, the two somehow continued living together under the same roof.

The tension between the two is palpable this season. In their current “no contact policy” arrangement, they each have separate living areas and only communicate through their respective assistants. Sandoval places a white noise machine outside his room so Madix can’t hear his conversations. When Sandoval proposes having a birthday party at the house, Madix tells his assistant that he will call the police.

“I feel like the house is the last thing that brings things together,” Madix says in the season 11 premiere, hinting at a possible plot for the season. “But what I think is psychotic is that he wants to buy me and keep me here.”

“If you have that kind of money, go buy something else,” Katie Maloney responds.

Madix says he flatly rejected Sandoval’s offer to buy him out, because his move? “I don’t believe it.” Instead, Madix tells Sandoval that her lawyer will be in touch to deal with him, the house, and their “damn kids,” probably referring to Mya Moon, a gray and white mix that the then-couple adopted April 2020and Kitten, the cat he rescued from a New Jersey parking lot. She made good on that threat by filing a lawsuit on January 5, 2024 in Los Angeles County asking a judge to intervene and order the sale of the house.

Madix and Sandoval’s first court hearing on the home, which has been valued at $800,000, was set for June 3. With the fate of Madix and Sandoval now in the hands of a judge, legal experts assess everything that went wrong with the Scandoval home and how this potentially complicated court battle could have been avoided if they had first reached a cohabitation agreement.

What does Madix ask for in its legal documents?

On the show and in his court papers, Madix was adamant that he wanted the property sold as soon as possible and the proceeds divided. He has asked the court to order a “partition by sale” and not “a division in kind,” which would essentially involve dividing the property in half.

“You can’t sell the house unless both people agree to sell it, but Tom wants to buy me out and stay there,” Madix said in a confessional on the show on February 6. “And I’m not going to pack. I took my clothes and hitchhiked because Tom offered me a paltry sum of money. The fact is that he trashed the house. He ruined all of this. He can’t do that and, I don’t know, keep it.”

Sandoval has not yet responded in court documents, but if he wanted to continue living in the house with the property somewhat divided, Don Schuck, an attorney for Pryor Cashman, said that such an agreement, called “division in kind,” is almost impossible to make in a single-family home.

“You can’t just put up a wall to divide the property or run a line of duct tape through the house,” Schuck said. “It’s completely impractical.”

Under the circumstances, Madix appeared to have no choice but to ask the judge to intervene and order a sale, Schuck said.

“’He’s not going to budge, he’s not going to budge, he’s not going to buy me out, and he’s not going to let me buy him out,’” Schuck said. “’So I have to bring this action to bring it to a head.’”

How will a judge decide who gets what?

Unlike married couples, who may be at risk of losing their home if they move and establish separate residences, unmarried couples have fewer legal protections and less strict guidelines. Ultimately, a judge will consider what is fair and what, if anything, was agreed upon when the home was initially purchased.

“I think the judge would look for, Have you tried to buy the deal and no one budges?” Schuck said. “Have you tried to get someone to move and have the other person cover the transportation costs? That does not work. So you have left me no choice but to order the sale of this house or the purchase of one of the party interests.

“And I think she’s rightly taking the position that it’s inhumane for this to continue,” he said.

Will the fact that Sandoval had an affair be a factor in the judge’s decision?

As confirmed in the show’s dramatic three-part reunion, Leviss and Sandoval began a seven-month affair in August 2022 when she crashed a guys’ night out. They later admitted that they hooked up several times at Scheana Shay’s wedding to Brock Davies. Leviss confessed that she even slept at Sandoval’s house when Madix left town to attend her grandmother’s funeral. Madix learned about the affair when Sandoval’s phone fell out of her pocket at a Bravo event and she saw a FaceTime screen recording of Sandoval and Leviss.

“She was ride or die for you, and she had her back too,” Madix told Sandoval on the show in the season 10 finale after learning about the affair. “The fact that she kept smiling at me in her face while she was also smiling at you on FaceTime is one of the most appalling and disgusting things I’ve ever heard.”

Now, back to the courtroom: While deception was once a factor judges looked for in determining who was to blame for the breakdown of a marriage, which weighed on the division of assets, it has since rarely been a factor. factor in divorces. Now, most states, including California, have moved to “no fault” divorce laws. These laws are even less important in non-marital relationships.

While Sandoval and Leviss hooked up several times at Shay’s wedding in August 2022, a fact Leviss confirmed during the season 10 reunion part 3, it took almost six months for Madix to find out about their affair.

“She can certainly mention it, but I don’t think it has much relevance,” Schuck said. “They must hear that 40 times a day in a divorce section, and the fact that they are not married makes that statement even less relevant… People break up all the time, and judges are not surprised at all when someone has had an affair. “

Madix has insisted she will take custody of Mya Moon, a pit bull mix, and her cat named Kitty, but could a judge intervene if there was a custody fight over the pet?

Devon Quinn, an attorney at Pryor Cashman, explained that historically pets were considered chattel and their custody was treated like a work of art. But since then New York and California, along with other states, have adopted laws that recognize pets as something more, and courts consider what would be best for the pet.

“They look at each party’s home environment and who is really involved or not involved in the pet’s daily life,” Quinn said. “Who takes the pet to the vet, who spends time with the pet, who is most involved, and who will create the best life for the pet.” The court could then grant Madix, who appears on the show as his primary caregiver, possession of Mya and Kitty.

While we wait for the June 3 court date, is there anything else viewers should take away from this mess?

Legal experts agree that if you are an unmarried couple, you should consider establishing a cohabitation agreement before purchasing a home with a partner. The advice holds true for friends buying real estate together.

“It doesn’t have to be a 40-page agreement,” Schuck said. “It could be a three-page agreement of, We live together, I put X, you put Y, and if we ever break up, we get our money back and split the difference, and then we sell it immediately within 30 days of us deciding to do so. divided, unless someone decides to buy out the other person. If you are going to invest this amount of money, it is like any investment you make; “You want to have an get-out clause in case things don’t work out.”