Husbands ex wife coming after pension, our house and money years after divorce as no financial settlement at time.

[Joco34]

Needing some advice urgently please. Husband and I have been together 14 years, 2 children 12 and 10. They have an 18 year old together. At time of divorce there was no financial settlement. They were married for approximately 7 years and had relatively equal pensions during that time. Was told that no party would get substantial amount from other after getting pension advice. She has been unreasonable and unwilling to let things move on for our entire marriage. CMS stops in 6 months so now we have her going after our house that my husband and I bought, my husbands pension and anything else she can get after receiving a letter from her today. She doesn't work and thinks we will continue to pay her way.
Can she claim for things after they divorced, such as pension that my husband has paid into since they have separated? Does it make a difference that we have children and the money is 'ours?'. I'm so worried as I know what she is capable of.
Any advice gratefully received.
We will be getting legal advice when we can.

Flipping hell. I divorced my husband recently. We were only married less than 2 years before we split and separated for 10 years. I managed to get enough money together for the divorce. 2 years ago I bought my house.. does he have a claim??

@wossgoinon yes if you did not get a clean break signed consent order

@wossgoinon he can still make a claim for Financial Remedies unless her remarries (and even then could do a TOLATA claim). It’s why even if there is no money a solicitor would advise you to get a clean break order (you can’t come after each other in the future).

Sorry should have said yes if you don’t have clean break consent order and if he’s not remarried

Unfortunately your husband has been pretty daft not having the financial settlement squared. The simple answer is yes, she is entitled to do this. Only seeing a lawyer is going to answer how much he may be liable for, but depending on assets at the time, custody of child, it may not be a simple 50/50 split from there and he very well may now owe her money

From what I've read she can't have anything as she's divorced. Finances should be sorted before divorce finalised otherwise it's tough.

That’s not correct @BirthdayRainbow

From all I have seen on other platforms about this and on this thread… yes ! (Unless he has remarried already) lawyers I follow on Instagram always stress that You need to divorce (to end the marriage) AND have a financial order in place (to deal with the finances)- divorce is a two step process ! You need to get it sorted now … before he has a claim for more. Unless you did get a financial order at the time of your divorce.

Sadly …. This is true 🤦🏻‍♀️

Fine to be corrected but I've read not to finalise divorce before the financial order is done which is why I thought it. If I am definitely wrong then happy to have it deleted.

I think you want to ask your current solicitor for a recommendation to a professional negligence solicitor who will assess if you have a claim against your former solicitor.

I understand it's the law and I can understand the example someone gave earlier of a business set up during marriage becoming successful after....

but can anyone explain the rationale for why assets accrued AFTER divorce can be counted too please? Example being a lottery win?

I would take advice but surely this is limited to assets from the marriage? Her pension would also be an asset so offset by your husbands if they were similar value. It does seem negligent this wasn’t sorted at the time.

My solicitor was insistent that I didn’t sign off the final order until the finances were finalised for this very reason. You may be divorced but finances need to be a clean break otherwise there’s the possibility of this happening. It doesn’t matter if you are divorced, it’s the clean break in finances that is needed.

I would think that a solicitor who gives you incorrect advice on this is negligent.

It's a consequence of not completing the financial settlement and a clean break at the time
He was wrongly advised by his solicitor and he may have a case against him for wrongful advice idk

Where did all of their marital assets go after the divorce?

You need to document all the costs associated with your children until they leave full time education.

And find out why the solicitor acting act the time did not put in place a settlement. Are you sure your husband didn’t follow this up despite their recommendations? (To avoid upsetting his ex…)

I think if you were married less than 5 years, then it would be difficult for them to.

I agree - it sounds like they looked at the pensions at the time and thought that as they were similar in value, it didn't matter, but you need a financial order to stipulate that no future claim can be made on each other, for anything.

Oh dear. That is even worse. I hope your business is mostly in your name op? Talk to a lawyer and do it quick.

Although if you change your share of the business over now that is going to look suspicious if she has sent you any correspondence detailing her plan to seek financial remediation from him.

Surely a judge would see right through her? She has had plenty of time to earn her own money, and from the time her son started secondary school, there was no reason for her not to work from a child care point of view. I know you must be feeling frantic with stress, but it will be worth getting a solicitor to sort this - or even starting with mediation (and get a good mediator!). They should only be looking at the assets at the time of his marriage to her. You can't value a pension retrospectively, but if you have evidence that the pensions were similar at time of divorce, I can't see how she can expect to get any more. What a creep!

My friends ex came for.him when his mum died and left over half a mil. Divorced 35 years. It's still ongoing nearly 5 years later. So.stupid not to get a clean break clause

Get a solicitor, and make sure it's a DIFFERENT solicitor from your first one. Is she is successful against you, you might have a case against the solicitor for negligence.

She can make a claim on all her ex husbands assets until such a time that they get a consent order in place !

the job of op dh solicitor will be to try to dismiss claims, reduce value of a claim, ring fence to those at time of divorce - but these are not guaranteed outcomes and op dh may find he has to pay her out now. Not a given but possible - hence why op needs good sound legal advise and support

the ex will be claiming she didn’t work, did lions share of raising their child, diminished her earnings and pension as a result, and as a result op dh was able to build up his. Whether or not this is true will be a matter for op dh to refute

I would seek specialist legal advice but I would also be getting your husband to find copies of correspondence with his solicitor at the time. If they advised against a clean break or said it wasn’t necessary, should she successfully make a claim, I’d then be instructing a negligence solicitor with a view to recouping some of (if not all) the amount that would have been owed at the time had he had the correct advice vs the amount now due- obviously disregard that if they did advise that and he decided against it for whatever reason!

Yes, she can make a claim, and your husband cannot make a counter claim on her assets because he has married you.

Furthermore, they will take your income into account when dividing your husbands assets, and if he didn't have the children 50/50, they will take her lost earnings and pensions years into account to.

When will people learn that marriage is a financial contract....