Property in divorce

monty-doggy

RAS wrote: »

Hi

What you have both got to understand is that right now, you need an agreement with the ex as to what happens when the youngest is 18 or leaves school.

Leaving it to trust is very risky; there is nothing to say that she will not just walk out and leave it to be repossessed for example.

A consent order would state that either she buys him out (via a remortgage) or they sell up when the youngest leaves school. It would state his right to insist on a sale if she stops paying the mortgage.

We were planning on doing a consent order, hence why I'm trying to get as much info as poss to limit time needed for a solicitor

But it can only do this IF he gets a financial settlement agreed by the courts.

Is that not a consent order? Problem with any other 'settlement' is she walked away from the relationship debt free and with the house and contents. He took out a loan to get a new rented house and furnish it, plus had to pay £3k in court/solicitors fees for access to kids in hardly days. His debts were £10k.
She has since took out every payday loan and store card etc and built up about £15k of debt. We have just finished paying his debts off and I'll be damned if we are paying hers too! I know that sounds harsh but he has never missed a maintenance payment and her debts are purely down to her old selfish ways of partying and neglecting the kids. I could go on all day but that's in the past now. She hasn't asked for him to pay her debts, she says they were taken out after the split and she now has a dmp to pay them.

Right now if he dies, she gets the house as the sole provider. If she marries bloke number 2 (or 3 or 4) then regardless of whether the house is in her name or joint names with the new spouse, they have a claim on the property when she dies. So OH's kid's get nothing.

I will make sure is gets addressed, didn't think about that.

And have either of you thought about his will etc? Has he considered life insurance (cheap term ones will be fine) which might pay out to you? And to the kids perhaps with you are trustee?
neither of us has a will at present but we are planning on doing one in the next few weeks. We both have life insurance that pays to each other as I have a mortgage on our house. I would want the house to be left to him in the event of my death. We will make provisions for the children in our wills.

Does he have life insurance to cover the mortgage? Or to cover her death, considering that he might end up caring for the children and have an interest-only mortgage with no repayment vehicle?

No there is no insurance to cover her death. If that did happen we would either sell the house or switch it to a btl and pay it off while renting it out.

We would be financially ok if we had the children full time in the event of her death. It wouldn't be great money wise but we would manage. We can't afford a third insurance premium.

Thank you for your advice. We will see a solicitor and get a consent order, but short of trusting she will pay the mortgage, and forcing a sale if she doesn't there isn't much more we can do.

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James

Mojisola

As I understand it, if he gets the divorce but not the financial settlement, they remain linked. If he inherits or wins money in the future, she could come back for a share of it. If you die and leave the house to him, do you want her to try to get a share of it?

DS4215

At the moment, if the ex dies then your OH will get the house, but her new partner will potentially be made homeless...

If things are still amicable, then you all need to sit down and discuss this together - decisions taken now will potentially have long-term affects on the lives of all four of you (and the kids) to come up with a mutually accepted agreement that covers what happens in the worst case, and what happens when the kids reach 18 (just your OHs or all of his exes kids?).

monty-doggy

DS4215 wrote: »

At the moment, if the ex dies then your OH will get the house, but her new partner will potentially be made homeless...

If things are still amicable, then you all need to sit down and discuss this together - decisions taken now will potentially have long-term affects on the lives of all four of you (and the kids) to come up with a mutually accepted agreement that covers what happens in the worst case, and what happens when the kids reach 18 (just your OHs or all of his exes kids?).

If his ex died, we wouldn't want her new partner and baby to be homeless no, but at the same time can't afford to keep them! I think you are right about sitting down and discussing the what ifs. Once we have come up with an amicable plan, can we put that into something legally binding? Is that the consent agreement?

FBaby

Something doesn't sound right. If her partner works, she can't claim IS nor help with the mortgage payment, so it sounds like she has been committing fraud since he moved in with her. Also, if she was receiving help with the mortgage, why was your OH paying it?

However, if they have now declared themselves as a couple, things will change much as all they will be able to claim is tax credits. They will have to pay the mortgage.

I would definitely seek legal advice. Now that she is in a partnership with someone, the whole situation will be different and a judge could possibly support the sale of the house.

mountainofdebt

How is a mortgage paid by housing benefit? I thought HB was for rented properties

When_the_going_gets_tough

I agree with Fbabys helpful post. As a couple with one party working they would only be entitled to tax credits not any mortgage payment. If she is relying on this the wheels are about to come off once the benefit offices get up to speed with her current position.

monty-doggy

I think she wasn't declaring him living there but she said the other day now the baby here they want to go official and have sorted it.

We were giving her money towards the mortgage not knowing she had switched it to interest only and put a stop to it when she moved her bf in. Plus when we were giving her money for the mortgage the interest rate was higher, and I have no idea what benefit she was claiming.

I don't think it's in anyone's best interest to sell the house, his children won't get a house like that to live in if they rent privately. We will seek legal advice but I don't think there is an easy answer.