Pre-Marital Assets in Divorce

eshroom

HPoirot wrote: »

It is not just when divorce happens but rather who owns / has responsibility for the asset / any rights to it during the lifetime of the marriage and beyond. As I said I would be looking into incorporating the dispositions of that jurisdiction into a prenup with regards to that asset.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but we're trying to reach a conclusion and as this involves two jurisdictions haven't had much luck with legal professionals.

The property is Greece, where marital stipulates that pre-marital asses are not divided after divorce, unless the spouse contributes to an increase in value of said asset. As the property pus for itself and we don't intend to inject cash or pull income I think it is quite easy to prove this part.

However, can you stipulate in a pre-nup or other which juristiction a divorce will take place in, or at least which juristiction will be responsible for the disposition of a particular asset?

Our fear is that in be UK even with a prenup, this asset would be brought into divorce proceeding on the basis that it would constitute 90-95% of our combined wealth - hence if a judge were to exclude it the assets divided would be proportionally tiny.

Greece unfortunately doesn't recognise trusts.

justme111

Ok. So by Greek law on divorce it will be yours anyway and in dealing with English law see a solicitor.

In any case - how do you see your future divorcing ex partners going about claiming part of an asset to which they have no paperwork , proof of existence, in another country with different laws. If it gets to that I am sure you could get a valuation from Greece saying it is worth 5 thousands pounds and pay your future ex half of it. If he will cause problems with it I think you will have enough far more distressing matters to deal with in a case of that hypothetical divorce.

TBagpuss

In England, you could each ensure that you have pre-nups which explicitly state that the property will not be considered part of the matrimonial assets. It isn't cast iron, as a court always has discretion to vary such agreements, but it is a good start.

You could also consider having a discretionary trust set up - while it might not be recognised in Greek Law, it would be recognised by *English* law, which would be relevant if any divorce were taking place in England.