Some Advice Needed Please - Divorce

Gooner10

Hi Folks,

Just after some advice. My wife and I have been married for 11 and sadly have agreed to get a divorce. We have no children however we do own a property. She didn’t want to buy originally and was happy renting where as I wanted to buy a property. Due to her ill health she supposedly went along with it as wasn’t thinking clearly and was scared of losing me, however now she is better she wants to go her own way and doesn’t love me anymore. She is happy for me to try and buy her out if I’m able to as I would like to remain in the flat and she is happy to move out and rent somewhere. 

There is 137,000 left on the mortgage and the property is worth around 240,000 so plenty of equity. My question is my parents gave me a deposit of 30,000 when we bought it 5 years ago and I just wondered when it comes to a 50/50 split which would be 50,000, would she be entitled to 50,000 or would the 30,000 be taken off so she would be left with 20,000? Also to complicate matters she has 7,000 of debt in her name and I have 20,000 which some of that is joint spend which she has acknowledged so this will have to be deducted from whatever he settlement is as joint spent works out about 6,000 of my 20,000 debt. She is happy with what she has paid in for mortgage over last 5 years which rounding it up works out about 20,000 as her share of mortgage was £300 per month. 

My parents have offered to pay her the  20,000 rather than me having to try and remortgage or sell the flat. I just wondered if I have any chance of the lender letting me take over the mortgage on my own given the large debt I have? This could be lower by the time it all goes through as could be 6 months but won’t be by much. I have worked it out and by the time I take off the mortgage payment (504 a month as we just remortgaged in November on 5 year fix rate) and all my bills, food and including the minimum payments on the cards I will just be able to get by and will have about £100 left. Also my wife was out of work for around 18 months so I was having to pay the mortgage and we have never missed any payments or taken any holidays.

One final thing is it best to sort the divorce first before sorting out removing my wife from the mortgage? We have been looking at Divorce Online as they get good reviews, but just wondered what people’s thoughts are on doing it this way? We want to keep it as cheap as possible and they offered a fixed fee divorce with consent order for £399 I think it was with the 500 court on top which doesn’t seem bad.

Sorry for the long post and thank you if you have read to this point! Any thoughts on all of the above would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks
Andrew

comeandgo

Do either of you have pensions?  You need to get them valued.  If nothing agreed at time of gifting the deposit then she is entitled to her share of the property with no deductions.  

Gooner10

comeandgo said:

Do either of you have pensions?  You need to get them valued.  If nothing agreed at time of gifting the deposit then she is entitled to her share of the property with no deductions.  

Thank you for reply. We both have pensions as we met at our work place and she was there a bit longer than me before leaving due to ill health. She was there 15 years and I was there 13 years and we were both working full time during that time. Would we both be equal in regards to pensions or would she still be entitled to some of mine?

burlingtonfl6

With regards to your mortgage, the mortgage company aren't going to just remove your wife especially if your affordability doesn't stack up.
Why would they? It's better for them to be able to chase 2 people for the debt.
With regards to your deposit it depends how your solicitor handled it.
Prepare for her to want half of that.

comeandgo

Gooner10 said:

comeandgo said:

Do either of you have pensions?  You need to get them valued.  If nothing agreed at time of gifting the deposit then she is entitled to her share of the property with no deductions.  

Thank you for reply. We both have pensions as we met at our work place and she was there a bit longer than me before leaving due to ill health. She was there 15 years and I was there 13 years and we were both working full time during that time. Would we both be equal in regards to pensions or would she still be entitled to some of mine?

Get them valued, you may be entitled to some of hers if value more.

sassyblue

Your first paragraph sounded like you were setting the stall that your wife should receive nothing or less than you, however, the default position in divorce with no children is a 50/50 split.

You ought to get some proper legal advice from a family lawyer who could try to argue you receive a larger split because of your parent's gift - but the time to protect that was 5 years ago, not now when things haven’t worked out. And remember with nothing drawn up to state otherwise it will be seen as a gift to you both, as you were both purchasing the flat.

No, the mortgage company will not take her name off the mortgage.

Yes, you are equal in terms of pensions but only the years of the marriage are relevant. Someone else in law on these boards disagrees with me on this, but you try arguing for a share of your wife's pensions from before you were married....  

You ought to get proper legal advice because your wife could argue for a larger share of the financial settlement due to the ill health you mention as her earning power post divorce sounds like it could be compromised. And don’t under any circumstances go to someone to sort out the divorce and consent order on the cheap.  Go to a proper registered lawyer who will have indemnity insurance in case they mess up.  Someone else on these boards used a cheap internet firm and they messed up the consent order which could have cost him dearly.

TBagpuss

You and your wife are free t agree on a settlement that you both feel is fair -then when you send the order to the court to approve it, you fill in the Statement of Information Form (D81) and include in para.9 a brief explanation of what the split is fair (e.g. "The proposed order reflects that Husband's higher contribution to the purchase price of the family home, and the proportion of debt n each party's name which was built up in the marriage and for joint expenses" ) 

If you can agree, you can agree that you each keep your own pensions.

If you can't agree, then a court starts by looking at all of the available assets and normally you would not automatically get bac the gift that your parents provided to the purchase price, as it was a gift, not a loan, and if you didn't get a declaration of trust saying you and your wife would own unequal shares of the property at the time, you can't retrofit one now. BUT if your wife agrees that you should keep that extra money then a court is highly unlikely to have an issue with it, especially as yours is not a long marriage and there are no children. 

Normally, you would issue the divorce petition and get that process moving along, then if you have not agreed a financial settlement by the time you have your decree nisi, put the divorce on the back burner at that point, then apply for the decree absolute once you have a financial order.

I would recommend using a proper solicitor local to you, not an online company. You could also consider dealing directly with the divorce yourself and then instructing a local solicitor to deal with the financial order. 

pinkshoes

£103,000 equity of which £30k belongs to your parents.
£27k debt between you. Assume it is joint as you were married...

It would be easier to pay off the debt (so £103k - £27k) then deduct the money owed to your parents. This leaves £46k equity so £23k each.

You would then need to buy her out. You have your £23k and the £30k from your parents, so a deposit of £53k.

The house is worth £240k so you would need to raise a mortgage of £187k. You can borrow about 4x your salary, so do you earn over £46k per year?

If your parents had a space £20k as indicated, this would mean you require a £167k mortgage, so a salary of just over £41k would get you a mortgage.

tallgirl_3

Advice please.my partner and wife separated 2.5 years ago, house sold, equity agreed and paid out in January. In order for divorce, both have to fill in D81 for judge to sign off. Equity was 375k. My partner got 170k, his wife 205k .He has put this on form, quite straight forward. His wife however is being difficult . She bought house for 220k, put down 160k, got mortgage for the difference and has 45k in bank for improvements. She is refusing to show the 205k on form, only putting her down the 160k. She hasn't even put down the 45k down anywhere. Her solicitor says this is correct.. My partner is fuming as she got 205k as a total and looks like he's got more, and judge might not like. Surely you put down what you received, not what you just put down on a house ?..?....totally ridiculous and unfair. 

elsien

@tallgirl_3, you’re probably better off starting a new thread with your own question, otherwise if the OP comes back it can be confusing which answer relates to who. 

sassyblue

tallgirl_3 said:

Advice please.my partner and wife separated 2.5 years ago, house sold, equity agreed and paid out in January. In order for divorce, both have to fill in D81 for judge to sign off. Equity was 375k. My partner got 170k, his wife 205k .He has put this on form, quite straight forward. His wife however is being difficult . She bought house for 220k, put down 160k, got mortgage for the difference and has 45k in bank for improvements. She is refusing to show the 205k on form, only putting her down the 160k. She hasn't even put down the 45k down anywhere. Her solicitor says this is correct.. My partner is fuming as she got 205k as a total and looks like he's got more, and judge might not like. Surely you put down what you received, not what you just put down on a house ?..?....totally ridiculous and unfair. 

If her solicitor has actually said it’s correct in writing you should report her to the SRA as it’s not correct. There is a specific box on the Statement of Information for assets which include savings.

When you say 'her solicitor says it’s correct' has this been said by the wife? If so, I would write to her Solicitors informing them that they are misleading their client and specifically demand that information in writing from them.

If they refuse to alter it tell them that you will inform the judge when the consent order is sent to the court, letters can accompany the order and he can write in also.

that should make them put it right. And yes, start your own thread