Property after divorce

pphillips

If you want to prevent your wife having a claim on your property in the the event of divorce you will have to gift your house or put it into trust.

Danny333

Her house is bigger than mine she has a 22 year old daughter living there & she works from home. My flat couldn't accommodate either of these things. Nor could I afford to buy one

Mojisola

Danny333 wrote: »

I'm not keen on marriage she is

In that case, you shouldn't be getting married. It's a big commitment and both people involved should want to do it.

TBagpuss

pphillips wrote: »

If you want to prevent your wife having a claim on your property in the the event of divorce you will have to gift your house or put it into trust.

That's not actually correct. You could enter into a pre-nuptial agreement which makes clear that you will each retain the assets you owned at the start of the marriage. For an agreement like that to carry any weight you would both need to have separate and independent legal advice before signing, to have disclosed to each other your respective financial positions and to have signed the agreement a reasonable time before the marriage takes place.

As others have said, morally it is questionable (to say the least) to play the system. If you own a property outright it is hard to see why you could not sell that to use the money as a deposit on a new, matrimonial home, or even sell and see whether you and your spouse could not buy the council house, which would at least means that some of its value would go back into the public purse.

Danny333

Her house is in an expensive part of London & even with any discount unaffordable. I thought pre nups were useless in the U.K.?

pphillips

They are not useless, a court will consider a prenup but does not have to follow it.

Danny333

Are they expensive?

pphillips

You would need to get it drawn up by a solicitor so it depends what their hourly rate is. You could ring around some family law solicitors and get some quotes.

*~Zephyr~*

Danny333 wrote: »

Are they expensive?

They are less expensive than losing half the value of your property...

Malthusian

*~Zephyr~* wrote: »

They are less expensive than losing half the value of your property...

But making a prenup which the court ignores, and losing half the value of your property anyway, is more expensive still.

"I'm not keen on marriage she is" = end of thread for me.