Pension and divorce

Mrs_pbradley936

My friend and her husband are in the middle of a divorce. They are both in their 60s and he refuses to fill in his E form. She has completed hers. He wants to give her half of the house and savings but keep his pension and salary (he still works). That is his idea of an "amicable settlement".

My friends' solicitor will not hear of it and insists that he files the form or else she will ask for the Court to be involved. Does anyone know what is likely to happen? If my friend asks her solicitor it costs £250 so I said I will try to find out on here.

Thrugelmir

The case will go to Court. Unless the other party self declares.

Biggles567

He will be screwed, if he has a final salary pension he will be lucky to keep his pension.
I have no intention of divorcing, but a friend did point out that my pension £500k+ is more than our house £250k and savings £150k.

crv1963

If your friends husband doesn't complete Form E, it will go to court and he will in the first instance be ordered to complete it with a time limit. If he doesn't at the next hearing he will be held in contempt of court, given a further order and time to complete it. If he still holds out he could face a number of difficulties- 1) be punished for contempt of court, 2) if your friend knows his pension provider/ employer they could be ordered to provide the court with the information it seeks (with the court asking these to give it the financial details it needs) 3) he could be ordered in court to provide the details there and then to the judge 4) the court could ask HMRC to give it details if it wishes(HMRC will know tax details/ earnings/ pension provider etc). Of course he will also be made to pay for it all and probably your friends costs as well. This will likely be made clear to him at the first hearing so to make him provide the Form E at the next.
Should he decide not to attend court he's straight into hot water and contempt. Your friend should follow her solicitors advice, that is what she is paying for. The pension may well be the biggest asset especially if your friend has been a stay at home wife or has little pension provision.

Brynsam

Mrs_pbradley936 wrote: »

My friends' solicitor will not hear of it and insists that he files the form or else she will ask for the Court to be involved.

Not really for the solicitor to decide, is it? It would be foolish in the extreme for your friend not to investigate how much her husband's pension is worth, but if that's the route she chooses to go despite professional advice, so be it.

It wouldn't cost your friend £250 to ask her solicitor what would happen. An explanation wouldn't take long and would be completely accurate based on her situation. I'm sure you are only trying to be a supportive friend, but a forum like this isn't where she should be getting her advice.

Thrugelmir

Brynsam wrote: »

Not really for the solicitor to decide, is it?

Solicitor is their to act and advise in their clients best interests at what is a difficult emotional roller coaster of a time. The conclusion to draw from the recitence shown is so very obvious.

Brynsam

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Solicitor is their to act and advise in their clients best interests at what is a difficult emotional roller coaster of a time. The conclusion to draw from the recitence shown is so very obvious.

Absolutely - but not all clients want to take that advice, however valuable, and a good lawyer knows they must respect that (albeit their teeth are gnashing away at the time!).

grey_gym_sock

solicitors can be wrong, but in this case the solicitor is absolutely right that the husband must complete the E form. the husband is taking the !!!!.

Mrs_pbradley936

Thank you everyone for your comments - we have learned a lot! At first his solicitor wanted the forms exchanged in early June so my friend did that. However when her husband saw the form he said they could come to their own arrangements without bothering with solicitors because it would only be less money for the two of them.

He wants to give her half the value of the house and half of the savings. He says she can keep a £35K inheritance from her mother and he will not go after her pension. He does not want to include his pension or salary and says he will pack up work if she keeps on and so she can have half of nothing!

Of course my friend reports all of this to her solicitor and the solicitor has now given him a further two weeks to comply. They are at the stage of waiting for the Degree Nisi to be given and solicitor says it can take a while because the courts are busy but all of the formalites so far have been dealt with.

lisyloo

However when her husband saw the form he said they could come to their own arrangements without bothering with solicitors because it would only be less money for the two of them.

Mediation or information arrangements can work in some cases however it isn't the norm that people are objective in this situation. In fact it's far from the norm.

He does not want to include his pension or salary and says he will pack up work if she keeps on and so she can have half of nothing!

He pension could be by far the biggest asset.
His pension entitlements or fund will not dissapear if he stop working, so what he is saying is rubbish. There is a very possibly a very valuable accumulated benefit here which he doesn't want to split.



It doesn't sound to me as though mediation is appropriate in this case.
She needs a solicitor to represent her interests.
That is expensive but could be worth it's weight in gold if for example he has a large 6-figure pension.
If he is difficult then this will not go down well with the judge/court.
If he drags things out so that the solicitors fees increase then the judge could dictate that he needs to pay her fees too.


My advice would be to use a good solictor, listen and take their advice.
£20K in solicitors fees is worth it if there is a £500K (or more) pension fund there.

xylophone

He does not want to include his pension or salary and says he will pack up work if she keeps on and so she can have half of nothing!

Even if he packs up work the pension will still exist so this is nonsense.