Advice for mother leaving father

TBagpuss

Iamadored wrote: »

By which I meant, changing from a jointly-owned property to a tennants-in-common arrangement will require his agreement, which he is unlikely to provide.

No, he has to be given notice of it but no agreement is required.

panicproject

TBagpuss wrote: »

She wants to leave him but she is not sure whether to divorce or not.

She can leave him, and then decide whether to divorce him. However, in order to get a financial settlement sorted out she will need to either divorce him or apply for judicial separation. Both processes are similar., JS doesn't leave her free to marry again but may be more cost effective in terms of pensions,

She wants to change her will so that if anything happens to her, her money does not go to him as she knows how it will be spent. Also the will states her half of the house will go to him, she no longer wants that.
If they are currently Joint Tenants, she will first ned to sever the joint tenancy. She can then make a new will. She neds to see a solicitor to get proper advice and they will be able to deal with the severing of the joint tenancy for her. Please be aware that for the joint tenancy to be severedm, your dad MUSTY be served with the notice, so will know she has taken this step. There is no way round that!

She is also concerned that if she leaves him she does not know if he can come after the money she has saved, which is still a chunk of the money that was split a few years back.
Yes, he can. The court (if they can't agree between themselves) looks at the assets as they are at the time any order is made, and has to try to reach a settlements which is fair to both parties, taking ton account a range of factors including their ages, length of marriage, needs, resources etc. Behaviour and prior agreements may be relevant, but 'need' is usually the single most important factor.

That said, things are not going to get any better, so she may do better to cut her losses now rather than waiting in the hopes that things will change.


The main pension that comes into the house is in his name. It gets automatically transferred by me into my mums account that he does not have access to so that bills can be covered and he does not spend it on alcohol.

Within a divorce or JS, the court can make orders relatin to pensions so she would have some income in her own right. How this is done would depend on the pension, and whether they go down the JS or divorce route.

My mum is concerned that if anything happens to her he will get her money savings.

Unless she makes a new will, he will. Even if she makes a will, he will be entitled to anything in an account in joint names and would be eligible to make a claim under the inheritance act if she fails to make reasonable provision for him. So if she decides not to go down the route of divorce or JS she should see a solicitor about making a will and how to reduce the risk of him being able to make a successful claim on her estate, if she were to pass first.

Very helpful. thank you.

panicproject

again, loads of helpful information guys, thanks.

have been speaking to her over the weekend explaining what has been discussed on here.
she is overwhelmed by it all but I am determined to get her to stick with it and assist all the way through.