Fair division upon separation

heyboo

I'm just wondering if I'm being a bit daft agreeing to something so am hoping you good people will put me straight.


I'm separating from my husband and am in the position of having to move out of our family home - I know the advice generally isn't to do this but I don't have a choice.


We've been together 10 years, married for 18 months with a 14 month old LO.


We have a house, joint mortgage with about £50K equity which is going up for sale this week.


I also own a house which I bought about 10 years before we got married and I have a pension through work which I've paid into for about 13 years.


The LO will be living with me - am I being a bit naïve to accept a 50/50 split on the house as long as he doesn't ask for any of my other house and pension? I know it's classed as a short marriage but I'm not sure how having the LO affects things.


I really don't want to involve solicitors so just wondered what's standard in these situations.

double_mummy

does he have a pension?
any other joint debts?
any joint savings?
any other assets (boat, holiday house etc)


also make sure he is paying CSA.

Tigsteroonie

It's not just the length of marriage, the court will also take into account the lengh of time cohabiting before marriage.

heyboo

He has no pension, savings have already been divided, no debt.

double_mummy

if he will agree to that i would grab it with both hands as long as there is an agreement that he doesnt go after your pension or other property

because of the length of time you were cohabiting before marriage your pension and house could be taken into account

peachyprice

If he's really willing to walk away with just 50% equity of the jointly owned house and no claim on your other house or pension, grab it with both hands and run like the wind (metaphorically obviously) But yes, get him to sign to that effect ASAP.

I didn't have a clean break agreement so I don't know if it's possible without a solicitor, but that is what you need.

heyboo

Thanks for the quick replies. We lived together for 5 years and have owned our house for 3.5 years.
Can I do this without starting divorce proceedings?

double_mummy

yup its separate from a divorce but would be best to get them both done quickly while he is still in such an agreeable mood

remember that just because you make an agreement it doesnt mean it's 100% as the judge has to agree that the agreement is reasonable

Person_one

If you were in his position, would you think this was a fair division of the assets?

heyboo

That's what I've been pondering.


We've always kept our money very separate so my house has never been contributed to by him. The only time when we've pooled our money is since LO came along and since we agreed to separate in January (when I had nothing) the money has been separate again.


Given that I'll be bringing up our LO (and he's self employed so CM will be the bare minimum even though he earns a decent wage) I'll be taking the hit financially by working part time (sums don't add up for me to go full time) and paying for childcare I'd say I need the extra more than he does! There's not actually much equity in my house right now and I'm hoping to move back into it once the current tenant moves out.


He's also getting to keep more of the jointly purchased large household items (mainly because I can't take them with me). And he's getting to stay in the family home until it's sold whereas I've had to fork out a fortune in fees to move to a different area.


Overall I do think he's getting a fair deal (but very much appreciate my contempt of him right now may be clouding that). There's a bit more to this but it's an extremely long story that it isn't necessary to go into here.


Thanks again.

BitterAndTwisted

Unless you get your separation agreement drawn up by a legal professional he could come back any time before your divorce goes through and make a claim on your assets. That it could be the roof over your and your child's heads makes this even more necessary. If, as you said, you've owned that property for ten years and you've been together as a couple for ten years you don't need a PhD to infer that it could be a joint-asset even though no wedding rings were on fingers until eighteen months ago.

It's all cordial now but who knows what might happen should his circumstances change at some point in the future. Half of your property, half of your pension. Meanwhile he's not earning enough to even pay you the bare minimum CSA says he should contribute in child maintenance.