Advice needed please, re. marital home

swingaloo2

Without wishing to derail the thread could someone please clarify why it is that the 2nd home is not part of the marital pot if  no divorce or a clean break financial order has been finalised?
If the OP were to die before either of those things happened wouldnt the husband have a claim on the 2nd house therefore making the new partners position awkward?

Mojisola

swingaloo2 said:

Without wishing to derail the thread could someone please clarify why it is that the 2nd home is not part of the marital pot if  no divorce or a clean break financial order has been finalised?
If the OP were to die before either of those things happened wouldnt the husband have a claim on the 2nd house therefore making the new partners position awkward?

A widow/widower can make a claim if their deceased spouse's will doesn't provide for them.

In this case, they are living separate lives and not financially supporting each other so such a claim would be less likely to succeed, especially if the survivor had the right to live in the property if they so wished.

It would make things much easier to deal with the estate if the OP followed the advice given by TBagpuss and got a Judicial Separation.

People always assume that other people will continue to be reasonable throughout their lives and that the future is predictable.  People can change, especially with the onset of dementia or other illnesses.

Better to look at a range of possible outcomes and plan for them.

TBagpuss

swingaloo2 said:

Without wishing to derail the thread could someone please clarify why it is that the 2nd home is not part of the marital pot if  no divorce or a clean break financial order has been finalised?
If the OP were to die before either of those things happened wouldn't the husband have a claim on the 2nd house therefore making the new partners position awkward?

It is part of the marital pot, so OPs husband could claim against it if they divorce. But it would not pass to him if she dies before him, if she's made a will leaving it elsewhere.

He could make an inheritance act claim in which case one of the things a court would look at would be what he might have received on divorce, but in these circumstances it is probably unlikely that she'd be considered to have failed to make appropriate provision for him, if he was getting the family home outright through survivorship.