Recently Separated - advice needed please...

justme111

It should be relatively easy to work out. What part of your payments gone to billsvand what part to mortgage ? Only you know as you know what were the bills and whether you were meant to cover 50% of those or less.
Paddys mum, have you thought for a moment that op can not afford anything but the bedsit because she does not earn enough and it does not make op entitled to what her ex earns , he is not under obligation to provide for her just because she earns less . Not getting silly is an excellent idea op , congratulations. You may want to google wikivorce and indeed talk to solicitors , to get info , not to get into war. Good luck

BitterAndTwisted

If you separated while merely cohabiting you would not be entitled to that much. Marriage changed all that. "For better, for worse. With all my worldly goods I thee endow" and all that.

You are entitled to claim half of the equity in the property and a proportion of his pension. Just because you didn't physically and proveably cough up half of the mortgage-payments does not mean your contribution to it was zero. I doubt that that would equate to a mere ten grand.

"Not getting silly" probably means not asking for what is rightfully yours combined with both of you spending hard-earned money on solicitors doing the negotiating. It's money I'd spending if only to confirm what my real position might be. Armed with that you could go back and agree a settlement which is much fairer.

paddy's_mum

justme111 wrote: »

not to get into war

I couldn't agree more!

However, I repeat that it cannot be equitable for the husband to keep the lion's share and his wife to walk away with hardly enough to keep her head above water.

I think that it is a rare divorce court judge who will say that a wife in this position is not entitled to some part of the matrimonial pot, even if the husband earned/earns more money than the wife.

My experience has shown that judges quite like to apportion things fairly and give relatively young wives support for a year or so while they re-train or aim for promotion or otherwise get themselves back on track.

Having facts at her command and the ability to negotiate may actually prevent a subsequent hostile relationship. Who likes to feel that they were bilked?

justme111

Of course. I was just pointing out that the mere fact of her having her lifestyle far worse than his is not a ground to go for his , we are not living in a communism where all have equal lifestyle. Hope they will be able to get some numbers from solicitors / wikivorce and find a compromise . May be if he returns her mortgage contributions plus some more to ease off the adjustment it would be right.

Caz3121

quoted from another site (plenty similar if you search on "divorce short marriage no children"
If there has been a short marriage (usually less than 5 years) and no children are involved, it is unlikely that an equal division of assets will be ordered by the Court, especially if one spouse brought substantially more assets to the marriage. In this instance, normally assets acquired prior to the marriage will be retained, or returned to the spouse who originally had them, and assets accumulated during the marriage will be divided on an equal basis when the parties divorce.
The question will be is whether the court would consider your time before marriage and turning it into a "long marriage"

RAS

My understanding is that a short marriage is less than two years and if there has been a protracted period of cohabitation prior to that, then they often count the marriage as "long" anyway.

I would not expect the OP to come out 50:50 but would expect a decent contribution that allowed her to put down a deposit on a small property.

Thegirl

Have a look at wikivorce, it's a very helpful website. Read, research, digest.

After a four year marriage and cohabitation of five years prior to this yours would be classed as a long marriage. The starting point would automatically be 50:50 of all assets. That is 50% of the current equity in the property, 50% of savings, 50% of pension pot (at a minimum 50% for the nine years you were together).

What you choose to accept under that value is your choice. If you choose to accept an offer that covers 50% of the equity rise in the last nine years and not touch his pension, then you choose that. But it's a choice, legally your entitlement starts at 50:50. I suspect his offer is well short of that.

Plus a forces pension is worth a lot. I'll add here I'm not telling you to go after it, I just think you need to understand the full scope of the figures and what he's offering. You are clearly trying to be resonable and morally not take more than you believe you are due and I applaud you for it, but I strongly suspect once you find out how much you are actually entitled to you will soon realise his offer is low and his is not being reasonable nor morally fair.

Do your research, then decide what you are happy with. Then speak to a solicitor, tell them the figures and what you want and check you are within reason. Best money you will ever spend.

Ivrytwr3

She is not entitled to 50% of his service pension. She is entitled to parts per year of been together (can't remember whether it is married or not). So if they had been married 9 years, she would get 9 years worth of pension - and that is from when HE starts to claim it. If he stays in until 55yrs, it could be a long wait.

Hence she needs solicitor advice as to prevent waiting and he will most likely wish to keep his full pension, she could get a larger lump sum should she leave his pension alone.

Cannot recommend legal advice enough and with someone who has Service experience.

Ivrytwr3

It is a sad sign of modern society that in the past four years the Service
Personnel & Veteran’s Agency (SPVA) has administered over 10,000 requests
for a valuation of pension for divorce purposes.


The destruction of a marriage through divorce is often traumatic in itself.
The division of the marital assets as a consequence of divorce usually compounds
the misery, and if the issue has made an individual miserable, it often makes
them angry, and sometimes bitter, at this point too. So much so, that there is
often a desire not to co-operate and comply with legal requirements that need
fulfilling in terms of considering the value of your pension as part of the
marital assets. Such anger and belligerence needs to be controlled, because if
it is not, as was witnessed in a recent divorce involving a Royal Marine
Sergeant, you could find that you don’t lose 50% of your pension as he expected
to lose but, after the judge had decided to trawl through the whole matter with
a fine tooth-comb he lost 80%! So what should you do to ensure you comply with
the law and try and get a fair settlement?


First, instruct a solicitor who has a good track record in dealing with
divorces involving Armed Forces personnel. Don’t be frightened to ask them how
many cases involving Service personnel they have taken on to a successful
conclusion.


Next, you must obtain a Cash Equivalent Value (CEV) of your pension. The
reason why you need one of these is because the Armed Forces Pension Scheme is a
non-funded scheme, and so in order to obtain a realistic value of your pension
you have to obtain an actuarial valuation of it in a format that is recognised
as acceptable by the legal fraternity. You apply for a CEV by calling SPVA in
Glasgow; they will send you a form to complete and return. A note of caution
here: the form used by SPVA for CEVs is the same form on which you request a
pension forecast. Pension forecasts are free (if you only ask for one in any 12
month period); full CEVs cost £180.00. Please do not think you can get away
with just asking for a forecast, because you will not; and by trying to do so
unnecessarily delays matters and you could be viewed as ‘obstructive’. So, send
your cheque with your application form for your CEV as soon as you can. SPVA
have recently improved their system to provide CEVs within 10 working days as
opposed to taking 3 months under the old system. Please be aware that CEVs can
take, on average, 3 months.


Upon receipt of your CEV you will, once you have a valuation of all other
assets within your marriage, be able to negotiate for a fair division. At this
point I should stress that there a couple of common misconceptions about
‘entitlement’ when it comes to pension sharing. To begin with, unless your
divorce is being administered in Scotland, please don’t think that because you
have been married for only (say) seven years of your (say) 18 year career, that
you only need to share seven year’s worth of your pension. The full value of
your pension is considered in England & Wales; just as the full value of any
pension your (ex)spouse owns is considered too.


Second, you do not necessarily have to divide your pension. If there are
other marital assets within your marriage that have a value that matches, or
exceeds, the value of the portion of pension likely to be allocated to your
(ex)spouse, then it often makes sense to ‘off-set’ one against the other. For
example let us say that the value of your pension is £130,000 and you have
agreed to share everything 50/50, then ordinarily your (ex)spouse would receive
£65,000 of your pension share. However, if you jointly own a house which has a
capital value of £130,000 after any outstanding mortgage etc has been deducted
from its market value, it would probably make economic sense, in terms of
reducing legal costs likely to be incurred, for you to keep your pension intact,
and your (ex)spouse to have the house. Either way, your solicitor is best
placed to advise you on this, given your particular circumstances – after all,
it is what you pay their fees for.


If, as is the case in most divorce petitions, a Pension Sharing Order is
issued by the court, as soon as it is administered by SPVA your ex-spouse
becomes a member of the Armed Forces Pension Scheme in their own right; they are
what is termed a ‘Pension Credit Member’. ‘Pension Credit Members’ are, since
6th April 2009, paid their share of the pension from their 55th birthday, or the
date the sharing order was issued if they were older than that, regardless of
the age you receive your pension. ‘Pension Credit Members’ who have their
pension share administered before their 55th birthday, have to apply to SPVA for
their pension share to be put into payment; SPVA will not come looking for them.



Once a Pension Sharing Order is administered to divide you single pension
into two separate pensions, those two pensions never come back together again,
even if your ex-spouse dies before you do. The only time your original 100%
pension figure would ever feature in a calculation again is if, on your date of
death, you leave any children from that marriage who are deemed eligible for a
child’s pension. Then regardless of whether they were resident with you or your
ex-spouse, they will be entitled to child’s pension calculated as if the Pension
Sharing Order had never been administered, so the innocents are not
disadvantaged because their parents could not get on with one another.

...............................

Ivrytwr3

Also have a read here: (try to to focus on the important bits and forget the other crap they are ranting about!)

http://www.arrse.co.uk/training-wing/185920-my-pension-whats-she-entitled-when-i-get-divorced.html