Divorce / House / Business.. Help appreciated.

Morfx

Good afternoon,

  First time visiting this side of the forum..

Looking for advice.. ( whole lot going on, but looking to point in the right direction once her head is cleared)

My partners sister has split with her husband, (he left for another woman after admitting a long affair)
Both on the mortgage, (Swanky large house) she is down as a company director of his business, but has been a stay at home mum for the last 10 years of two children. 

Has nothing to do with the business really. 

She has had to borrow money from her parents to see a divorce lawyer, (not yet seen)

The bloke is a nob and I would hate to see her get stiched up..

Best advice please..

I will be pointing her to this forum..

All the best

Stu

elsien

Get proper legal advice. She can’t afford not to. 

In similar circumstances, sibling and the ex had to take into account to the value of the business, the house, the savings and the pensions to reach a settlement.
The house had to be sold, (which is what they both wanted anyway because it was too big for one person with children at the age when they would’ve been leaving home) And there was a bit of a complicated shuffling around of pensions and business because obviously the business needed to keep going and couldn’t afford the cash flow. 

As the much higher earner, sibling remains resentful of the huge amount of money they had to pay out but they accepted all along that it would go 50-50 of everything so didn’t try and cause difficulties.

If someone’s playing games that’s when the legal advice becomes invaluable. 

How old are the children?

Morfx

Both under the age of 11. 

I don't know the in and outs, but sounds like he's getting nasty with pho e calls.. this is obviously third hand information.. but is very believable.

Exodi

Morfx said:

The bloke is a nob

Morfx said:

Both under the age of 11. 

I don't know the in and outs, but sounds like he's getting nasty with pho e calls.. this is obviously third hand information.. but is very believable.

Please try to not let this sort of rhetoric distract from the actual situation.

On either side of the fence ex's will always be made out as the villains, and you're only getting your partner's sisters side. I'd focus all attention and energy at the objective position.

The first step would be speaking to a solicitor, agreeing the childcare arrangement and also understanding the value of the assets (e.g. property, savings, investments, pensions, businesses, etc). The person expecting to take on the majority of the childcare responsibilities may argue for an a higher percentage entitlement of the assets (though due to this, it's not uncommon that ex-partners suggest a 50:50 childcare split, while not actually planning to do this).

I'd also not make any assumptions that she'll be able to keep and stay living in the current house (we see this assumption quite often).

VyEu

Not enough info here by half.
But first things first, the court would look at what the matrimonial assets are and then secondly how to split them. default is 50/50 but there can be deviation from that based on a range of discretionary factors such as age, income, earning capacity and of course the needs of the minor children. This involves assets such as the house, both parties' individual and joint savings/bank accounts and...don't forget the pensions! 
She needs a family solicitor to run through the numbers/her options with her in more detail.