Pension Pot and emergency moving out of marital home

Albermarle

GunJack said:

To the OP - a friend of ours was told out of the blue their partner wanted a divorce, but it was while they were both still co-habiting. When they consulted a solicitor the advice was to NOT move out of the family home until much further into the process of separating. Hard I know, but get to a solicitor before you do anything else and get proper advice on your situation, it may save you a lot of grief & money in the long run. Good luck. 

I am not a legal expert, but I did  some research on this on behalf of a friend, whose partner was pressurising him to leave the family home due to a  deteriorating atmosphere. 
I do remember reading that any final divorce settlement would not be affected by an intervening separation, or by one person leaving the family home. The person staying or leaving would not be at an advantage or disadvantage in any financial negotiations, which would include the home.
This makes sense as often trial separations are actually recommended, or in other cases it could be dangerous for the couple to stay together.
Perhaps it was different in the case of your friend as the divorce request came out of the blue, rather than something that had built up over time. 

GunJack

@Albermarle this just shows how important getting legal advice is before acting, as no two situations will be identical. You're right in that the sudden divorce request was significant in our friend's case, and they were advised to move out only after mediation had started. There were no threats, violence, etc involved, it was a relatively amicable split, also house was only in partner's name as they had it before the marriage. 

Bostonerimus1

I went through a divorce after 8 years and it resulted in an complete reset of my financial and psychological life. The only saving grace was that we talked and although it was traumatic it wasn't nasty or vindictive. So I would talk to your partner; it's far better for divorce to be the last thing you do together rather than the first thing you do apart. Make sure you know what you want and then find out how your "partner" feels and what they want. After that you might be able to go to mediation and either save the marriage or proceed to divorce and then you can get the lawyers involved at some level. If it is going to be adversarial then you need lawyers. After 25 years of marriage I would plan on a 50/50 asset split.

Malthusian

Fast_Muchly said:

The only way is to rent which is extremely hard nigh on impossible as I will also have bills for a house I'm not living in as well . All I can see is I have to stick with it and build an escape fund little by little should I have to use it to be able to rent , to then force a house sale that will prob go on for months as she will not be in any fit state once I go . 

If you can withdraw your entire pension to buy a caravan you can withdraw a much smaller amount to fund rental payments on top of your current outgoings.

As others have said this should not disadvantage you in the split of marital assets. It will also be cheaper many times over than the original idea.

The reality is that at some point you and your wife will need to fund two separate homes after the divorce out of your current resources. All you would be doing is bringing that point forward. 

Unless the money withdrawn to pay rent takes you over a tax threshold, or you expect to be in a lower tax band in the future (e.g. after giving up work), you would only be paying tax that you would hopefully have paid anyway. (I say "hopefully" because death benefits become subject to income tax after you pass age 75.)

Ciprico

Bit of a side issue but most mobile homes are "holiday" homes so not permissible to live in full time. The council could throw you out and compound your problems...

Before signing anything get a solicitor to check the contract.

Albermarle

GunJack said:

@Albermarle this just shows how important getting legal advice is before acting, as no two situations will be identical. You're right in that the sudden divorce request was significant in our friend's case, and they were advised to move out only after mediation had started. There were no threats, violence, etc involved, it was a relatively amicable split, also house was only in partner's name as they had it before the marriage. 

I guess this was the reason for the advice to stay put. Most of what I read assumed a joint ownership, so you still own half and have every right to live there, even if you have moved out.