Divorce and Property

JoanneUtt

Hi, I am currently in middle of Divorce and we are fairly amicable, we have 2 young children and an older child both ours.  Husband is selling the property to me and wants a clean break order (which is fine, i think) however, he wishes to pop a percentage of his share of the property we both completely own (but it is all in his name, however title deeds as we speak are being changed into my name) however, he wants this percentage putting on the house (Lieu) for the children.
I don't really understand what the implications are if i want to sell this property later on down the line.  Is it wise for me to sign this or is there another way. Thanks in advance.

TBagpuss

It it sounds as though he is proposing that rather than you buying him out and ending up by owning the entire property, that instead, you buy him out but don't buy the whole of his share, and that the remaining amount is held on trust for the children?

This is likely to be a bad idea, and I recommend that you get some legal advice.

In particular - if the children have an interest in the property then hey would be entitled to that money in due course, so you could be forced to sell the house to pay them out. 

It would usually make much more sense to have an arrangement where by you buy out your husband, and he can then make a will to leave his assets to the children, or chose o use dome of the funds that he has from you to make investments on their behalf, nothing to do with your home, and for you to decide for yourself when/if you sell the house and/or provide further financial help to the children. 

If the amount that you are paying him is less than 50% of the value of the equity and his argument is that this means that part of the property value is still his to dispose of, then bear in mind that an equal split is only a starting point, you may be entitled to more depending on the over all fincial position (e.g. if the children are living with you, your respective incomes and earning capacities etc) and also the way in which other assets such as pensions are being split.

But the short answer is that if you do this, you won't own the property entirely, you will own it subject to a debt to the children Which as they don't currently own or have an interest in it nor are they entitled to, is weird and unlikely to be appropriate. 

The implication if you sold the house later would be that you would have to pay some of the sale proceeds to the children, so you could wound up with too little to be able to rehouse, and you could potentially be forced to sell even if you didn't want to. 

meganthompson7

I also recommend that you get legal advice in this matter. Or try exploring different legal resources yourself. Don't rush to make a decision here.

43722

That doesn't sound like a "clean break".