Divorce settlement

croixdawg1

Hi all I'm getting divorced this year and wanted some advice please. My wife has around £65000 equity and she had that before she met me. I do not expect any of here equity as that wouldn't be fair. we've been married 8 years and i'm not on the mortgage but I've been contributing £500 per month for 8 years, ok maybe £200 was towards house hold bills but the mortgage was around £550 per month of which i paid half towards for 8 years and i figured i paid around £27000 towards that mortgage, not to mention everyone else i contributed. Am i being realistic to expect back only what I've put in? not house hold bills but just what i put in over the years towards mortgage?

Thanks in advance

PeacefulWaters

Rent is dead money. How much would you have paid in rent elsewhere ?

Your contribution might not even have covered the interest, so your ex may not have benefited from reduced debt.

croixdawg1

Not exactly what you mean but my point is, if i would have been at my parents all that money i contributed would've gone to a deposit to my own house. i was putting £500 per month into her bank account. Does anyone have any realistic figures, someone has has been in similar situation. We have no children.

jackieblack

croixdawg1 wrote: »

Not exactly what you mean but my point is, if i would have been at my parents all that money i contributed would've gone to a deposit to my own house. i was putting £500 per month into her bank account. Does anyone have any realistic figures, someone has has been in similar situation. We have no children.

Would it really? As an adult, would you not have contributed to your parents to cover your living expenses? Food, water, gas/electric etc? If you were in your own place it would have cost you way more than £500 a month.

If you and your wife can come to an amicable agreement it will save you a bundle in legal fees.

I think it's admirable that you are willing to ringfence the equity she had when you moved in, has the value of the house increased in the 8 years you were contributing? Would she be willing to consider giving you 50% of any increase in the value? Would you consider that fair? You are probably entitled to more as the house is (probably) a marital asset but it would be much better if you can come to an amicable agreement, it may not be possible in the end but definitely worth a really good try first.
I know people that have run up legal bills that cost them more than the amount of money they were fighting over - that's madness!

TBagpuss

OK, you've been married for 8 years which isn't a short marriage. You've been contributing financially, so it will be reasonable for you to receive something from the assets.

One way to look at it would be to consider what equity your wife had as a % of the house value when you moved in together, and what it is now.

What other assets are there? Pensions, savings etc? What earnings do you each have?

The aim is to come up with a split which is fair to you both - splitting everything 50/50 wouldn't be fair to you, splitting things so you have nothing is also unlikely to be fair.

mark5

I would ask her to make you an offer based on the 8 years you were together and see what she says. I doubt she expects to get out without paying a penny, I wouldn't anyway.

Ozzuk

As well as the excellent advice above don't forget it isn't just about equity (and you haven't said if there is enough to cover your split). You should put an agreement in place that covers everything, savings, pensions, house etc.

If everything is amicable this can be done without a solicitor, but you should consider legal advice.

jackieblack

Ozzuk wrote: »

If everything is amicable this can be done without a solicitor, but you should consider legal advice.

But if you want it made legally binding (and without this any agreement is not worth the paper it's written on) it's much better to get a solicitor to draft the order, many will do this for a fixed fee. The primary reason for a judge to throw a Consent Order out is because it has been done DIY.
The divorce, on the other hand, can be DIY'd quite easily

AndyBSG

If she had £65,000 equity in her property before you moved in what does she have now?

i.e. If she paid £265,000 for the property but had paid off £65,000 then the starting point should be £200,000.

Lets say during that 8 years you have paid off another £50,000 between you.

Chances are the property has also gone up in value, so lets say it is now worth 300,000, an increase of 35,000.

So, you've got the 65,000 she put in, the 50,000 you both put in and the 35,000 increase in value of the property giving you 150,000.

Take off her 65,000 equity and you're looking at 85,000 so it wouldn't be unreasonable to ask for half of that.

Remember, you were NOT renting from her, you were her husband and it was a marital asset so you need to work out what the property is worth now, how much of that is equity based on the outstanding mortgage then remove 65K from that figure and divide it by two for your share.

Coming to an amicable agreement is one thing but letting her just pay back what you put in is another entirely as you were contributing fully during those 8 years when you could just as easily have been paying off a mortgage of your own.

anna_1977

Hi,
I got divorced 3 years ago and I was in your wife's position. The house was purchased solely in my name with 70% deposit from my inheritance and with a mortgage in my name only. We have 2 kids together so it may be different. I sought legal advice; he didn't (you should)! We had £250,000 equity in the house and I paid him £40,000 as he had paid bills and mortgage for the 10 years we had been there - we were both earning full time.

Get some legal advice though.

mark5

Is there a legal precedent for this sort of thing?