The 50% law should have a statute of limitations. My spouse walked out on the family 43 years ago. Left me for a 23 year old. There were 4 children ranging in age from 7 down to 3. We never divorced because I couldn’t afford it since I never saw a penny from him. He said he would go to jail first before giving us any money. Years went by and I had to pay off several liens on our house because he had no job but sure knew how to rack up credit card debt. He finally got an under the table job but never filed for taxes. IRS caught up with him and I begged him to sign the house over to me. He had only lived there 3 years and I was the one paying the mortgage from day one. Fast forward to present day. My children went to private schools and did without a lot growing up. When I went to make out my will I was told he was entitled to half of my assets. Every male on here complains that they get a raw deal. Happens to women too.
Sorry to hear about your situation. Men complain that the courts favor women. Maybe my state is different, but, in fact, the courts here don’t favor women over men. Judges don’t care why a marriage ended, either. All that matters is the math. In divorce, whoever gets the house must cough up 50% of the equity to the other spouse. All the debt either spouse has, even if it was hidden from the other spouse, is split 50/50. Whoever earns more pays the alimony. Whoever earns less receives it. And it’s based on a calculation. The statistics say more men pay alimony. Probably because, overall, men tend to earn more. That trend seems to be changing as more and more women are the breadwinners now. I’ve known many divorced people, and of all of them, mostly the women pay alimony and the men receive it. I knew a woman whose cheating husband left her for a younger woman, and the court ordered him to pay alimony, but he never did. He found a way to avoid it. The wife and kids lost the house and everything. Also, I talked with another woman who was the breadwinner in her marriage. She became terminally ill, and one day her husband emptied the accounts and ran off with another woman. He left his wife and kids penniless. All her hard-earned money was gone. I hope you find a way around this situation.
Who told you that? A will is the decision of the person who owns the assets. Did he never sign the house over to you?