Protecting shared home in eventuality of Divorce

Nowherefast

Hi all just looking at some advice Me and a Sibling purchased a home together joint names where elderly parents are living too , but I also have a separate home with my Wife  
Just something playing on my mind say in an eventuality we was to Divorce can my Wife claim or have rights over anything say from the home I own with my Sibling ?
Also if we have kids does that change anything?

gwynlas

A lot depends on whether you are married or not in divorce all assets are shared. Having children means that you are responsible for them until they  reach adulthood. Whether the main carer remains in the family home would be up for discussion at time of divorce.

Nowherefast

gwynlas said:

A lot depends on whether you are married or not in divorce all assets are shared. Having children means that you are responsible for them until they  reach adulthood. Whether the main carer remains in the family home would be up for discussion at time of divorce.

Yes Married and own a home together but also have another home family home in joint names with a Sibling.
no children at the moment .

Keep_pedalling

50/50 of all assets is the starting point but that would not be the case with a short marriage and based in your other thread you have only been married a few months.

elsien

One of the downsides of having parents living in a house that is in your name for whatever reason is that it removes their security.

it also means that if you get divorced and you’ve been married a reasonable amount of time your share would be considered a marital asset.
If you ever needed to claim means tested benefits and you weren’t living there it would count as an asset.
 If you became bankrupt it would count as an asset.
In the event of divorce and if you were unable to realise the money from the house because your sibling’s share, your wife would probably get a larger proportion of other assets instead to redress the balance.
 

tightauldgit

Nowherefast said:

Hi all just looking at some advice Me and a Sibling purchased a home together joint names where elderly parents are living too , but I also have a separate home with my Wife  
Just something playing on my mind say in an eventuality we was to Divorce can my Wife claim or have rights over anything say from the home I own with my Sibling ?
Also if we have kids does that change anything?

Your share of the property owned with your sibling would be considered part of the marital asset pot, yes. All your assets are considered. 

Having kids doesn't really change anything other than you would be responsibile for child maintenance and whoever has the kids most may be able to make a case to say they have greater need when it comes to split of assets. 

TBagpuss

Your share of the shared should would be part of the assets which a court can look at, yes.

There are things you can do.

If you and your wife were to agree, you could get a post-nuptial agreement drawn up. This is like a pre-nup except that it is done after, rather than before, the marriage, and can set out agreements about what would happen in the event of a divorce , for instance, and agreement that your interest in the shared home would not be taken into account and is agreed to be a non-marital asset. 

This type of agreement is not binding on a court in later divorce proceedings, but it is taken into account and shifts the burden from you having to justify why the property should not be included, to your wife having to justify why it would be fair to disregard the agreement.

IT might also be possible for you and your siblings to draw up some form of trust or other agreement about the house; this could include granting your parents rights to occupy it ; this would make it harder for your wife to seek a sale of the property in a divorce and would affect the value of the property within the divorce proceedings, however, it would of course also affect your and your siblings rights and ability to sell the property or require your parents to leave, so it would essential for everyone concerned to get proper legal advice. Also, if an agreement of this kind was drawn up only after your marriage got into difficulties then a court in the divorce might disregard it on the assumption that it had been done solely to try to 'hide' assets, so they could decide to split the other assets , such as the house you own with your wife, on the assumption that the money you had in the other property was fully available to you