Divorce finance split - is this ok? Asked to fill in a statement to ‘support’ the consent order

[Lilly239]

I’ve read some rejections of ‘consent orders’ just wondering if anyone has experience etc on this or knowledge - opinion what is to be expected or what could be rejected - below are some figures what is stated in my ‘information in support of consent order’

Applicant (me) retains the house with child and pays for all mortgage payments , upkeep , bills and insurances etc. On a trigger event either in a position in future to take over the mortgage or sell the property the equity will then after paying out costs and mortgage etc will be divided between former husband and wife 50% each equity.
No pension sharing orders.
Clean break other than me staying in the house with child and child maintenance payment.

How was this decision come to?- between the parties

Property (net of any mortgage): £12,000

Applicant liabilities:
(me) £5,000.
Respondent liabilities £28,000 (this amount is a car finance belongs to my Ex)

Pensions:
(me) £0.
respondent £190,000.00

Income:
(me) £1,800
respondent £2,300
child of family (receives child maintenance through cms)

Any thoughts anyone? Is this ok seems reasonable to not get ‘rejected’

Oh and ex keeping an asset worth £2,500. It’s in his possession , I suggested to sell it and go halves but he then said he wouldn’t agree for me and child to retain house if I suggested that - so to save issues I just said ok x

I just want some general thoughts and is this likely to be passed by court (sealed by judge) with no issue ? X

You need to look at the pensions
Seems a disparity here which you might be able to offset with higher share of equity or a pension sharing order ( need cetv)

Incomes seem low…

Are you paying interest only on mortgage. If you will be paying off the capital then equity should not be shared 50/50. You should get back what you paid of the capital as well

This doesn’t seem a great deal for you at all. That pension pot of £190k needs to be split 50:50. You’re essentially getting only 6k equity in the house and nothing else whereas ex is getting £6k equity in house, £190k pension pot, retaining his other asset you mentioned worth £2.5k and also earns more than you.

If you can raise/borrow £6k I’d suggest you buy him out of the house and so that becomes 100% yours, and then you split the pension pot 50:50. This is a minimum given he also earns significantly more than you (I’m assuming those are monthly income figures you’ve given).

And if you do keep the shared ownership of the house, I’d suggest he only gets his £6k back when you sell not 50% of the equity on sale- what if you do work and add value at your expense etc. He is leaving his £6k in the property to adequately house his child, and that is what he gets back on sale.

The agreement was for me to pay all the mortgage which is a low mortgage repayment fee at moment for next few years and then will rise in interest but I’m required to cover all the mortgage payment untill it sells etc and then get it valued at that time and whatever it worth then after all the mortgage is paid off etc I have to give him 50% - he said this was incentive to allow me to stay in the house with child and with not being in position to take over the mortgage soley yet and not wanting to uproot my child I took it - and I also agreed not to go for any pension sharing orders but when you see it on paper it looks quite apparent doesn’t it he has a lot more in pensions etc and won’t be needing to pay half or anything on the mortgage as I’ll be paying it all.

Yes the income stated is the ‘monthly’ incomes x

He said he would only agree if it was 50/50 at the time of the sale or taken over the mortgage otherwise continue with court proceedings :( I got so scared of loosing my home etc and not having the money to continue court proceedings ...I agreed to it but I was wondering if this needs to be viewed by a judge to seal will they find it unfair ? X

I was told only pensions in the marriage occurred can be claimed it’s 2 pensions combined one huge one and a 11k smaller one that was occurred in the marriage but the Majority of the huge pension probably about 2 years worth occurred in marriage x

I think I just give up eventually it was all getting so messy and emotional :( xx

...my legal rep who is putting this through as said it seems unfair on me but to see if judge will put it through or they may question regarding the pensions or equity etc. I was told it certainly isn’t the norm to have £190k of pensions and it may raise eyebrow if there is no mention of dividing them in the order etc while he is retaining 50 percent even though I’m on lower wage and paying the whole mortgage payments ...

Pre-marital pensions are only left out of the pot if the needs of both parties can be met by other available marital assets. It is more than likely that you would be awarded a pension share. I can't see a judge signing off on a consent order based on the proposed arrangement.

I echo what others have said. The main asset is his pension, and the proposal is very unfair to you. If you're worried about costs of court, you can self represent and get a direct access barrister for hearings. At least ask a barrister for an opinion on what you should offer.

It’s very unfair to you. He’s trying to bully you into it.

Your legal team is asking you because it is actually fairly possible it will be rejected.

It a pension issue

That seems likely to be rejected, mine was similar except no property to be retained and I'd moved abroad but he had a huge pension. He ended up paying me out a fair sum because his solicitor advised him going to court would cost a lot and he was on £4K a month. I can't imagine your ex would try to drag it out to court on £2,300. He may well be bluffing. It's seems likely you could end up with the entire house and it's equity plus a share of his pension as well. I may have missed it but did you include the value of the car in there that you've listed a liability for?

You are getting ripped off

Pension obviously. But if you're paying all the mortgage but he gets 50% of the equity eventually he is profiting from your money put into the mortgage (which is housing his child and his childs primary caregiver)

The assets and liabilities thing is wrong too.

He's got nearly £30k of car finance, yes. But that means he's got many thousand pounds worth of car too. Where is that in the assets break down?

Read all the comments. Thank you everyone x

Seeing it like that yes seems unfair :( but when we discussed things etc he was basically saying he was willing to lie etc about cohabitating and where he was paying council tax back then was different to where we was living etc it was all getting ugly and I caved :( so I gave in- just to retain the house my legal rep isn’t advising me as such as it’s an agreed consent order but she said it does seem unfair on your side it’s depending if the judge sees the pensions me having none and me paying full mortgage payment etc and me being primary carer of child etc.
I wonder if the court just seals it no matter what if it’s agreement between parties or if they have questions will they do so ? X

Like others said this seems unfair, what is your legal representation? I'm in final stages of financial agreement which according to my lawyer is in his favour but I have decided to go with it because honestly I don't want to rock the boat anymore and it's been dragged out for a very long time and I don't want to go to court, I'll outline below to compare:

He retains 100% of his business of which I am currently a 50% shareholder and director (valuation of about 150k, plus 80k a year income for him.

£0 pensions on both sides

80/20 split in my favour of the equity of family home (250k to me 100k to him), I can stay in family home with him paying the mortgage until youngest child is 12.

He pays £400 a month child maintenance (2 children)

He pays £500 a month spousal maintenance until youngest child is 12/I die/i remarry.

I have always been a stay at home mum and one child is not yet in school.

Legal representation is not on court record and don’t advise now on what share / division should be etc they just do the paperwork for me etc, but they said how it stands written how it is above I’m not getting the ‘better deal’ x

You need to let it go to court
They’ll only discount the pension if a fair Clean break that meets needs can be met - that does not appear to the case here

Don’t be scared of court - it could be your friend here

My ex was telling me that the assets are so down and the equity in the house low that the likely case (according to him and his lawyer) that the house would sell because there isn’t enough to go around. That did make me worry and i said what even though I couldn’t match the standard living that our child has now by selling up with only that amount of equity (12k in house and he wanted to go 50/50 on that) I’m not in a financially position to solely take over the house right bow I need time to build up to get a better job etc. It made me disheartened about the whole thing thinking would a judge make me sell if I couldn’t take over mortgage etc I just wanted stability for my child. We did go the FDA and judge said he wasn’t interested in ‘debt’ or anything else etc all he wanted was a page document of the income / the assets / the mortgage and what was owed / pensions and that is it ...
but to try to negotiate in between before the FDR so we tried and come up with this - this ‘consent above’ above, however if I’m honest I feel because I was so scared to lose my home with child and only being 12k equity in the house not enough to rehouse myself I just kind of agreed but he seemed so certain my ex that the judge would do ordered a sale he said his lawyer said that was the likely outcome an order of sale :( and I was like why when I can pay the full mortgage payment and that’s how the conversation started and he said if he was going to consider me staying in the family home it would have to be 50/50 on time of sale / taking over mortgage to buy him out with a sum of whatever it is valued at that time whatever left over from paying mortgage and interests / costs etc and to leave the pensions alone - he said accept that or go to court etc and he has this aggressive lawyer that basically let him lie on forms etc it was shocking she would trip her self up say one thing then another . It scared me x

You really should go to court. You're being threatened and blackmailed. A barrister will give you an opinion on what the split should/could be at court. You absolutely cannot take anything your ex or his lawyer says as true. His lawyer is paid to get him a good deal and it's working at the moment.

This is you and your child's financial future at stake. You do need to stand up to your ex and not let him scare you into a bad deal.

You’re being screwed over completely!

The legal rep said if they have a problem with it the court they could say so etc. Does this actually happen? Or do the court just sign and seal anything that parties mutually agree on even if it’s unfair? He is in this frame of mind my ex he wants me to have nothing with child he won’t snap out of it if I back down from this consent order he will go all out war and I said to my legal rep I’m not strong enough to go another 6 months of this crap :( my legal rep said the way my ex has been she agrees that if I tried to negotiate further he would see red mist and go all out war again in court but I was wondering if I submit it (which is by email as the court is asking anything to be sent by emails now and use telephone calls to query anything was to send it and say to the divorce unit on phone that I have written a cover note asking if this order is fair to ‘parties and child’ this is exactly what I have written below:

Dear Sirs,

Reference: XXXXXXX
FINANCIAL CONSENT ORDER

I am the Applicant in the above matter.
(my name and address is inserted here)

To inform the honourable court that after discussion between the parties (myself and my estranged husband) have a potential consent order. I therefore enclose the following documents for your consideration to whether this proposed consent order is fair to the parties and child

1. Form A – for ‘dismissal purposes only’
2. Consent Order (x3 copies); and
3. D81 Form, completed and signed by both parties.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,
(Signature here)

I was thinking the above may sway the court to think is this fair based on the figures above etc? But I’m not sure how deeply the court look into things when there I has been a consent order created x

I do appreciate everyone’s comments I’m reading them all... I just feel like an emotional mess but from the outside you couldn’t tell , I just got over being really psychically with operations etc last year too xx