To think I owe no loyalty to someone who has dumped wife of 28 years and 4 kids to move in with strumpet

Oh go on! tell the wife!

That's true. But it's also true people try it all the time and if it's properties abroad and the wife isn't very sure what he has or which company name it was registered in etc it isn't always as easy to track down and get back these so called gifts.

That makes sense to me Freckle. Otherwise it's a bit like giving your house to your children shortly before you're made bankrupt.

Well, if the buying of the new house is very close to the commencement of divorce proceedings, then the court will take that into account. Doesn't mean that its value will still be added to the family pot, but the court has the power to look at behaviour and to act accordingly.

The norm in financial disclosure is to go back about 3 years - each party has to provide the previous 3 years' bank statements, etc., so the chances are that any nefarious shenanigans will come to light.

I imagine that the new girlfriend isn't that new if he trusts her enough to give her a house.

Hopefully. If he's sold his second home then it mustn't have been held jointly with his wife so he's free in law to buy and sell his own properties freely at any time just as wives can do. A wife could give 100k of her savings today to the Catholic church and that isn't illegal and then in a divorce that sum wouldn't be there to allocate. Here if the home is in the gf name and may be they can show it was not just a straight gift but intended to house him may be it could be stopped but it's why people freeze sales and bank acconts so people don't start giving the money away. Money disappears all the time in divorces and it's very hard to track it down.

who are you named after?
character from 'Apocalypse in 2050'?

yes

Am I right?

Was Darrel Rivers a character from Malory Towers? Giving age away if nothing else.

v anonymous

love your name nkfeeeee
sorry hijack over

Xenia, but can't a lawyer track the cash down? Don't you have to produce bank statements etc when you are getting divorced? And how could you sell a house if it was in two people's names without forging a signature?

I know divorcing people try all sorts of tricks including giving up work rather than pay alimony but a house is a pretty traceable asset I would have thought.

N, many people hide all sorts of stuff. I mentioned below these men showing off about it I know. Someone else I know moved to Thailand to avoid paying his wife a penny. it's done all the time. Also there are a huge lot of very silly women around who don't know what bank accounts their husband has, wouldn't understand a pension if it kicked them in the face and have never looked at a tax return. They need a good shaking.

On the inheritance point F is right. Also future inheritances usually don't count either because the parents might leave it to the cat's home or the child might die first or whatever. So it's the luck of the draw when you inherit. People go off and try to get people to change wills if a divorce is likely to the money is given elsewhere. They made Charman break up trusts he and his wife had set up for the children years before so the wife could get her 50% or whatever, I think from what I'd read (I think that's being appealed).

What is very unfair is you can have a wife who works and saves every penny for 20 years in her BS account. Her husband earns the same and lives the life of riley, spending everything he earns on betting and drink. At the divorce assuming no children, the husband gets 50% of her savings.

She has got a lawyer I hope.

"Immaterial to the divorce". I think her lawyer would have something to say about that.

Can he just sell their second home with a divorce pending? If it's in her name as well?

I'd tell her, I think. He can't hide a new girlfriend and a sold house for ever. I wouldn't have thought so anyway.

Inheritances within marriage can be funny things. If, say, the wife inherits £200K from her parents, it may not just go into the communal pot as she may be able to argue that her soon-to-be ex is due to inherit far more from his own parents in the not too distant future.

If the money was inherited 10 years prior to the divorce, the situation might well be different.

Which bit isn't right? The fact in most divorces where there are children there is hardly any money so whatever the sourced you're usually giving that bit of the equity and often more than 50% to the non working woman with children is surely right? I'm interested. I am certainly not an expert.

You're not right Xenia.

If you can prove it was a debt then they might get it back but not otherwise. Mostly you need all the assets to house the children so whether it's from inheritance or not it will go in the pot. As you say it depends on all the circumstances but in general in most cases it's included I think.

Where are these "plenty" of women - I've not come across one in ten years of practice. As a rule, family debts seem to be taken as "soft " debts and therefore the assumption is often that they do not have to be repaid.

It is wrong to say that if an inheritance is received in amrriage it is a matrimonial asset as that implies that the other party is entitiled to half of the inheritance which is not automatically the case.

If somebody, say, has been married 2 years and towards the end of that time one party inherits a lot of money it would be extremely unlikley that a court would simply divide that by two.

It is all decided on a case by case basis.

I don't know what law you do Xenia but I hope to god it's not family

Yes, I agree the other way round too and if it's inherited in marriage it's part of the marital assets. Actually plenty of women say the gift my parents made of £50k to buy our first home 20 years ago by the way was just a loan and here is the (fake) loan agreement to prove it when the divorce comes and the husband is going to get 50% of that etc

I have had far some dinners with divorcing men telling me gleefully how they're either hiding assets or income (as if that will somehow make me think they're clever and desirable).

Yes, the law is the law.