What is she entitled to?

[sparkycats]

Asking for a friend who's not on Mumsnet. I hope she's seeking legal advice but she wants some quick advice in the meantime. Her DH has just announced he's moving out and has offered her £350 per month total. They have been married 10 years plus.

Her situation is:
She was gifted a four bed house from her dad which is solely in her name. Estimated worth around £400k but not sure.
They have a small mortgage.
Her DH has paid all bills and the mortgage on the house for all that time.
They have 1 dc. Not decided yet but I guess her DH would have her two days in the week and one day at the weekend. This is the situation since they have been separated but living together.
He earns around £80,000 but I don't think she's sure. Self employed.
Their money has been very separate and he has given her a very healthy monthly allowance each month.
She works 20 hours a week in a minimum wage type job.
They have no savings, pension etc.
He is likely in a lot of debt but she doesn't know how much.
Sounds like he isn't trying to make any claims on the house and will be leaving it to her. But it is in her name so not sure how much claim he has anyway?

She's going mad that he's only paying her £350 a month which does seem low.

How much is she entitled to in this situation?

Most likely child maintenance only
And as he’s self employed that could be tricky
He has claim to her house and could get a large chunk of that
Spousal unlikely to be given as based on needs basis - of which her and the children are housed adequately ( especially if he doesn’t actually make a claim on it)

Possibly claim to some pension if there is one- ( worth checking as you state there isn’t)but courts would look at total marital pot of assets and balance them out - eg she might get say 30% of pension but he could get 30% of house etc ( just making up numbers here!)

What does she think she should get? When the only asset appears the house which currently he’s saying she can keep??? He’s entitled to claim his share of that….
She’ll be expected to provide for herself and claim benefits / increase hours and earnings and he’ll be due to pay child maintenance

I would say she could be at risk of losing half the house and needs to get herself a very good solicitor

What does she think she should get? When the only asset appears the house which currently he’s saying she can keep??? He’s entitled to claim his share of that….
She’ll be expected to provide for herself and claim benefits / increase hours and earnings and he’ll be due to pay child maintenance

She's going mad that he's only offered her £350 a month as it's very unlikely she will be able to pay for the house on her own. She is upset he expects her to Even if she increases her hours. I think she thought he would carry on paying half.

Does he have to do that to keep his dc in the house too? Or is he under no obligation?

She needs to speak to a lawyer not Mumsnet.

He could have a claim in the house if they're married.

So, to clarify. Shes upset as she can't run her existing house on £350 even if she did increase her hours I expect. I don't know how much she earns though. She spends big though.

Is he obliged to pay half bills whilst the dc lives there?

I think he's going to leave the house completely to her and not try and claim anything. He is starting completely from scratch whilst she has a huge asset she almost owns outright. I hope he stands by his word though. I wonder if this is why his offer is so low. He's left with nothing.

No he's absolutely not. She needs proper legal advice, she might accept that he's not responsible for her bills if she hears it from a lawyer.

No he’s not obligated to pay to keep them there
It’s likely he’ll only have to pay cms

She’ll need legal advice but she risks losing all the house and could find she only gets a % of they - such as 6O-70%

Of course things won’t stay as they are - he’s left. Running 2 homes is harder than 1
So she’ll either need to increase her hours and income or cut her cloth

But no one here knows what the outcome will be - she needs legal advice but I’d say unlikely that he will he expected to pay half plus cms certainly not indefinitely and he needs to house himself ( on suitable place for children too)

Oh dear! She's really been in denial about all this. Our group of friends have told her continuously over the last 18 months to seek legal advice, decide on finances, dc and check his credit rating. To save. She laughed when I implied she might need to work full time.

She's not listened to any of this and she's always said it will be Amicable. She seems to think he was going to carry on finding her and wouldn't listen otherwise. Everyone else could see this coming except her snd she's not prepared herself financially for it at all.

I hope she gets legal advice ASAP. If I lawyer tells her I think it will finally sink in as she's not listened to anyone else.

*funding her.

She needs to get that legal advice because she seems to think she's got all sorts of entitlements but forgets he may have a claim on her assets too.

They're married, so even if the house is in her name it's still a marital asset.

In theory he could therefore be entitled to 50% of the equity in the house, if he decided to pursue this. I doubt he'd walk away with less than 30% of the equity.

She's entitled to CMS based on his income. That's all she's legally entitled to.

She can claim UC to help with the costs.

If he is having the dd half the time then he won't need to pay maintenance will he?

She should up her hours or start looking for a full time job as this could be her only way of keeping the house going.

My friend has four dc and when her self employed dh left her she ended up with nothing as he apparently stopped working. And when the oldest is 18 the former marital home will be sold and the profits split between them.

Yes. If she kicks up a massive fuss he might turn around and try and claim some of the house.

I don't think she's thought of that. Ultimately he is allowing her to keep the whole house. I hope if a lawyer tells her it will sink in. If she's got legal advice earlier she would have known this. Unfortunately, she has carried on spending a big disposable income from him and her own wages the last 18 months and got herself in debt instead of getting her ducks in a row and preparing herself. I think she's panicking

Am I right in thinking there are two houses? One gifted to her, but also you mention a small mortgage, is that for another property?

If not, what is the mortgage for and how much is on it?

Several red flags here.

1. he would usually be entitled to a share of the property.
2. you mentioned lots of debts. These are marital too and need to be discounted from any assets.
3. are you sure there's no pensions (seems unlikely).
4. are there any other savings and investments to consider

On the surface £350 seems way more than fair if he's keeping all the debts and giving her the house.

But I think it's super unlikely that the courts will allow this as it's too imbalanced towards her. What are his plans to house himself? Where will he get a deposit from? Etc.

We don't really have enough info but it seems like she is massively over-housed with four bedrooms for her and one child. I would expect that the house be sold and both of them to get a slice to enable them to get a property each (both two bedrooms so they can both house the child).

I would expect her slice of the equity to be higher as her mortgage capacity is so low. I would assume with a 4-bed gifted house with a low mortgage, there is enough equity for her to get a two bed outright or with a small mortgage, and for him to have a hefty deposit, which with his mortgage capacity buys him an equivalent 2-bed property.

If she goes after spousal, his mortgage capacity goes down and hers increases, so I'd expect a proportional rebalancing of equity to make that fair. However, courts like clean breaks, so if she can be housed outright with a higher percentage of equity and no spousal, that would be the recommended option.

How is he characterising this £350 he offered? As spousal or CM? As above, I don't think she'll get spousal AND the house.

Child maintenance will be owed, but that is tricky from a SE perspective. Hopefully he will do the right thing.

That's the main thrust of it. Seeing a solicitor a good idea. There's no point then agreeing it if the courts deny it because it's so unbalanced.

Thanks very much. I will feed that back.

So in light of all this she's actually got a good deal.

She's absolutely going off on one on messages to me so I don't know the exact ins and outs. I do find it bizarre that she hasn't seen this coming though. Or that she thought he would just keep funding her. I don't know how much she thought she'd get. She questions how he thinks she can afford to keep the house paying her £350. He did say he wants her to keep the house and their dc to get his share but in giving such a small amount I don't think that's possible. Her parents are pretty wealthy so I expect they will help her out.

I think they want to avoid courts and want to sort it out amongst themselves. I really hope they can.

There is one house. They got a small mortgage to pay for improvements and he was in a lot of debt so they used it to pay that off too. I think he's got himself in further debt. There money is so separate though she seems to have no idea and don't think she's ever asked/thought about it.

I don't think he will do 50/50, he works away a lot. I expect two days in the week and eow or one weekend day each. I think she's said no to all his previous suggestions whilst trying to sort these things out so has just named the £350. Pretty sure he has sought legal advice.

How old is the child?

Lower Primary aged.

It was a while ago but she told me they have no pensions. I expect she might have one through work possibly but I imagine it's small as she's only gone back to work five years ago.

Off the record they are very irresponsible with money. They both over spend, have no savings, pension, insured. Get into debt and have multiple credit cards, very expensive cars he can't afford. I think they have been living a lifestyle they haven't really been able to afford.

Presumably is the child is in school she could work 35 hours a week?

Yep. I think she wanted to maintain her lifestyle only working 20 hours. She laughter when I mentioned about her going full time. I don't think she ever considered she would.

Agree the likely outcome could be sell
The house, downsize, clear debts, she get larger % as housing child and lower mortgage capability but him enough for deposit, then cms ongoing

She needs a solicitor and a dose of reality!

Yep the reality is true.

I think she's hoping the house won't be sold. Seems likely it will be but she will get all the money.

I hope she gets told this by a lawyer. Otherwise we will hear about how unfair it all is.

She needs to look at the CSMA calculator to see how much maintenance she will be entitled to. It probably would be more than £350 on £80,000 though