Please help re:divorce

RAS

The OR will assess the benefical interest in the house. You need to argue that since you paid the mortgage and he has allowed the house to fall into disrepair his BI is less than 50%.

The OR may or may not be sympathetic.

divorceishard

Thanks again for the advice, im a bit confused as to when i should approach the trustee with regards to claiming more than 50% of the house. Should i wait until he is actually evicted before making any further claim. Also where would this leave me legally with regards to him, if i claim more of the house am i in anyway liable to a damages claim. Am i making him intentionally homeless by trying to claim more?

If im honest i dont really want or need to go after more than 50% of the house i just want the matter dealt with ASAP.

He is trying to appeal the bankruptcy on a few grounds, 1 that he was too unwell to prepare an appeal, even though he was making complaints here there and everywhere so the judge discredited that, the other being that a date on the petition paper may have been wrong, but the judge ruled that this was a very minor mistake and did not effect the validity of the petition. He has been told by numerous judges that he has no chance of winning but he keeps appealing, and my fear is that even if the court of appeal refuses his appeal on the bankruptcy issue, he will probably appeal the eviction order, even without grounds, just to prolong everything. As its taken 4 years to date how can i be sure it wont be another 4 years before anything happens, which is why i wanted to find out about the divorce route.

The trustee knows my situation and is very sympathetic to it, always keeping me informed of any developments and also is letting me have a say in what i think the house should be sold for. It isnt being repossessed and sold at auction it is being sold by an estate agent so we will be able to assess offers then either accept or refuse them, but obviously there is an agreed price with the trustee and if someone offers that then the house will be sold. The trustee doesnt seem to want to just let it go for peanuts.

Would the fact he is a violent man not be influential on any decision made by a divorce court. Also when he was served with papers by a council official (60 year old man) he attacked him resulting in the man losing all his front teeth, and also resulting in him being convicted and sentenced to community service. The council official has subsequently sued him for the cost of dental work (10k) which is also added to the bankruptcy.

I have a queue of people willing to testify in court about his violence and domestic abuse, does this not count in my favour in anyway?

I feel like im the victim here ive worked hard brought up my 2 kids almost single handedly while he has messed up his business and life, and he still has a claim to anything of mine....this country is ridiculous......

RAS

The vbackground is precisely why you need a settlement. The issue being that given his past history and that (at the moment anyway) he would get legal aid for the divorce, you risk ending up with huge legal bills and he just laughs.

I think legal aid for divorce ends this year, which would help you.

Go over to the wikidivorce web-site as they have loads of support. Yu may want a McKenzie friend as they are a lot cheaper than a barrister.

NAR

OP unfortunately, whilst the violence will give you grounds for divorce, it will not in any way affect the division of the marital assets. Yes OP very often the system seems very unfair and ridiculous.