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Divorce/separation

Here you'll find divorce help and support from other Mners. For legal advice, you may find Advice Now guides useful.

stepchildren & 'children of the family'

1 reply

yadadadada · 20/10/2022 09:29

Hello

Just after some factual info rather than opinions on what people consider moral etc.

John and Sarah are married (4 years), John has 2 children in their early teens and he and Sarah have one 2 year old together.

Sarah does 99% of the raising of their 2 year old and works part time. John works full time in a very busy work environment. He earns around £30k more than Sarah.

House jointly owned (Sarah paid the deposit out of inheritance) and both contribute equally to the bills and mortgage.

Would John be entitled to more of the assets than Sarah simply because he has more children to provide for than she does? Would step children count as 'children of the family' even if:

  • they live with their mother most of the time staying with John and Sarah a couple of nights a week. Mum is resident parent and owns her own home.
  • They do not call Sarah mum.
  • Sarah does not contribute toward them financially, doesn't buy clothes, doesn't pay toward maintenance, school uniform etc.. other than sharing the bills with John like council tax, elec, gas etc..
  • Sarahs relationship with step children is very different to her relationship with her biological 2 year old.
  • Sarah makes no parental decisions regarding her step children and rarely cares for them alone.

This seems to suggest step children in this case wouldn't be considered children of sarah family when determining financial split but just wondered what other people may know/have experienced.

www.2drj.com/post/in-the-era-of-blended-families-what-constitutes-a-child-of-the-family-divorce-and-inheritance#:~:text='Child%20of%20the%20family'%20is,a%20child%20of%20their%20family.

OP posts:
yadadadada · 20/10/2022 09:30

If it matters john and Sarah were together and cohabiting for 4 years prior to marriage too so an 8 year relationship all together.

OP posts:
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