Man Allowed His Ex-Wife To Live With Their Daughter In His Family Home Until She Turned 18- But Things Didn’t Exactly Go To Plan

Divorce can be a messy experience. Sometimes it works out peacefully, but a solution caused by problems is always hard to keep civil. Once finances and property get involved, things can get even more hectic. 

A post to the subReddit “Am I The A-hole?” brought to light the results of a rather messy divorce. A man allowed his ex-wife to live with their daughter in his family home until his daughter turned 18. They had an agreement that once she reached the age of adulthood, his ex and daughter would move out of his house and he would return and take his place in it once again.

Well, things don’t always work out the way we want them to, and the day after his daughter turned 18, OP (u/RunLive1056) showed up ready to move back in- only to find out the home’s present tenants had no intention of moving out, and in fact, had made a few changes to the estate.

Read the full story below about this divorce turning into OP’s ex-wife and daughter living in his house and see how things turned out! 

viviandnguyen_ (not the actual photo)

The main character of this story, OP, divorced his wife 15 years ago when their daughter was a mere 3 years old. Before the divorce, they had been living in the husband’s family house that he inherited and paid the bills on during the marriage. OP thought that the relationship was true love, so he wasn’t hesitant to put his wife’s name as an official owner of the house along with his own. 

Unfortunately, the marriage didn’t go as he planned, and when the couple decided to split, OP’s ex-wife fought to get the house for herself. The house was remortgaged twice and OP was earning more than his ex-wife, so he had a good chance of winning. However, she wouldn’t have had anywhere to go, and she was also sharing custody of their daughter. So, OP’s attorney believed that both of them had equal chances of winning.

So OP asked:

So OP and his ex agreed on a compromise, which allowed the ex-wife to live in the house until their daughter turned 18 and then the OP would get it back. The agreement included inhibition of his ex-wife to make any modifications to the house without a written permission but all the utilities, maintenance, and property taxes were still the OP’s responsibility, since in the end the house would be his.

OP showed up to his house after not hearing anything from his ex or daughter and was shocked to see what they had done with the place.

As he inspected the house, nothing seemed to be in boxes, and his ex-wife and daughter didn’t look like they had been preparing to move out. But what he found in the living room was even more shocking.

After seeing what they had done to his family home, unprofessionally and without the required written permission, OP threatened to sue and left his family in tears.

The ex-wife went crying to their daughter about what her dad was planning to do and the 18-year-old asked him to give her mom more time to find a place to live. Being caught in the middle of a messy divorce surely wasn’t ideal for her, but of course she would vouch for her mother given that the two had been living together for 15 years. 

Man Allows His Ex To Live In His House Until Their Daughter Turns 18 After Divorce, But She Doesn’t Keep Her Side Of The Bargain
 Massachusetts Office Of Travel & Tourism (not the actual photo

OP added a few edits to the post to answer some questions in the comments:

And then he added a few more for extra clarity:

It seems the lack of conversation about his ex-wife with his daughter was OP’s way of trying to not talk badly about her mother, but it also seems that he is now determined to have a conversation and explain why he wishes to have his daughter’s mom out of the house.

Do you think that OP using his legal right to evict his ex-wife and sue her is moral? Do you think the dad should take his daughter’s opinion into consideration? What do you think of the ex-wife’s behavior? Let us know!

Redditors had a few opinions on the story, but most deemed OP as “Not the A-hole.”

h/t

Jason Mustian

Jason is a Webby winning, Short-Award losing humor writer and businessman. He lives in Texas with his amazing wife and four sometimes amazing kids. All opinions are mine and very dumb.