Financial order prep and outcomes

[Moonshine91]

Hi all,
Can you share your financial order outcomes please?
We will be going through this process next month so I just want to have a rough idea of what to do and the outcome to anticipate....
We were together 10 years, married 5 and seperated last May. We have a house, approx value £147 with £100 left on the mortgage and we have a 4 year old daughter who lives with me in the mat home full time. She stays with her dad every other Friday & Saturday only. He barely calls or sees her :(
He left the home in June and hasn't contributed anything to finances since then (mortgage (£700pm), life insurance etc with half the amount he's legally liable for totalling around £3k so far). It's been a struggle!!!
He earns 50k and has a company car, no debts I'm aware of and he has savings. I earn 30k working full time and have a car on finance that we purchased 2 yrs ago as the 'family car' but I am now solely paying that too as well as before/after school club (£300pm) etc. When he left he took the most expensive assets too totally 3k.
We went through solicitors initially (which my mum paid for) and we offered him 10k clean break but he refused asking for 30k and has since applied for a financial order.

There has also been incidents to the point where I had to call the police on one occasion. Something I never thought I would have to do.

The outcome I'm hopeful for is to just have the house for my daughter and I. It's a 2 bed which is just a few minutes from school club and school which is absolutely ideal and the school club is at the nursery she has been to for the past 3 years so its consistent. Needless to say I've refused to sell it because I'd just be looking at buying the same again but at a higher cost and 2 the financial situation he left me with the past year means my affordability is really low right now.

If you can share your outcomes to put my mind at ease or advise I would really appreciate it. thank you xxxxx

Hello. I'm so sorry you're going through this. Is your only asset is the house with £47k equity? What about pensions?

Start with everything 50:50 so you could have to give him £23.5k but I think you'll get slightly more because you have a small child and will be doing the majority of care.

Have you checked the mortgage company will allow you to take over in sole name ( plus buying his share out)
if the house if genuinely the only asset with only 47k equity you really don’t want to spend thousands on legal fees.

OK so, a few things to unpick from your OP. You'll need to forget about the instances where the police were called, its not relevant and a judge won't take it under consideration if it goes to court.

So there's 47k equity in the home (assuming this is a current valuation?), which in all likelihood will need to be sold. Mesher orders (where you keep the home until child reaches a certain age) are becoming less common as women are more likely to be working and able to support themselves with government support as well. This would be split 50/50 but you could argue for an increased share based on the fact you solely have been paying the mortgage since you split.

Are there any savings and pensions to be considered?
£300 a month for a car is a lot, could you trade it in for something cheaper?
What 3k of assets did your ex leave with? And arguably if he left you with all the furnishings in the home then you actually would have had the larger share.

The chances are that if your affordability is low you will be expected to move into rented accommodation while you save for a deposit on a new home I'm afraid.

In my instance, we agreed a date in the future for the home to be put on the market by to allow me to get myself in a better financial position due to debts. Then I ended up buying out my ex-h with my partner. He took a few items from the home on leaving and there were no savings to be considered. I had large debts and sole care of our child so argued a 70:30 split in my favour and eventually won, but it cost a small fortune to get there.

Could you remortgage in your name to release £20,000 . I think that seems a fair amount.

Thank you everyone for your replies. It's such a mind field!
The house is the only asset. As for pension mine is only like 7k but I know his will be considerably higher, id say double and I know he has savings too.
I am planning to sell my car next month (after mot) so that will help to free up some monthly outgoing.
Will the court not take it into account that the 2 bed house is ideally located to my daughters school? We looked at renting shortly after the split and there is nothing rentable around us within budget, it would cost so much more.
I haven't spoken with the mortgage company but if I did take it on solely I know my mum would go on as a guarantor if I asked.
Our daughter isn't great with change so us staying in the house keeps with that consistency for her, I don't get why he can't see that.

Any other outcomes people can share that we're in a similar position? Xx

Generally that's not something that would be considered no, as it's about finances rather than convenience. It's quite a cold process to be honest.

I'd say the pensions are probably not worth fighting over at those values. The savings it would depend on the value, if considerate then 50% I'd fight for on the grounds it would enable you to remortgage affordably and buy him out.

If you’re arguing about the equity in the house only, it’s definitely not worth going to court over!

What savings does he have?

If your house would sell for £147k and you have £100k mortgage your equity is actually:

Sale price £147k
Less outstanding mortgage £100k
Less estate agent fees, say £2.5k
Less conveyancers, say £2.5k
Less any Early Repayment Charges, say £2k
Total equity £40k

50% of that is only £20k

You say he has savings. You need money for a car, say £5k, he doesn’t. You have higher needs than him because you have your child most of the time. He also has higher mortgage capacity than you, which reduces his needs further. He’s already had £3k worth of assets. Sounds like your pensions aren’t worth arguing over.

I would have a consultation with a solicitor and ask them to write to him with an offer. The most important thing for him to understand, is that he needs to act in the best interest of your child - that is what the court will be doing also.

But first, contact your mortgage company and ask them if they would let you take over the mortgage on your own. You need to get clear about your position and your options.

If The only asset is the house, with about £45k equity then the most he is entitled to is half of that, say £20k once everything has been paid for.

His pension is double yours? So with a 50/50 split he should deduct £3.5k from his pension to add to yours.

Similarly, half of all his savings should be transferred to you.

You also need to factor in costs for the marital home which you are currently solely covering and for which he will owe you a percentage.

As the primary carer it is possible to argue for more than 50/50.

To be honest, I think £10k from you is perfectly acceptable. He will spend £10k taking you to court to get his share up to £20k which is ridiculous.

As an aside, have you checked that you’re not entitled to any benefits as a single parent? Try entitledto.com If you find you are entitled to UC then a big chunk of those after school club fees will be covered too.

I take it he is paying child maintenance?

He doesn’t owe her a % of the costs she’s covering- as she’s enjoying sole use of it and he can’t access that.

just give him your offer
don’t waste lots of money on solicitors letters back and forth. If he doesn’t agree he’ll need to take you to court. Tell him you’ll ask judge to award you costs as well

with so little assets, him earning more, a young child it could well see a court awarding you the majority ( you need to ensure you can take the mortgage )

Thank you! We have already written a letter with an offer of 10k to him which he rejected and then a counter offered but again he rejected and applied for this financial order. He's dead set on he's having half of the equity in house and that's all that is taken into account. He cannot be reasoned with and when mentioning what is best for our daughter, it is completely ignored. Honestly he has lost support of his parents and friends through all of this it is crazy because he's adamant he's having everything .
I guess I just complete the form as best as I xan and hope for the best! I will also speak to the mortgage company before then so I know if they will let me take on mortgage solely.
Thank you again!! Really appreciate it x

My ex was exactly like this. You’ve made an open offer which is reasonable so he’ll likely end up having to pay your costs if he keeps pushing this. I would advise you to simply represent yourself. Don’t spend money you don’t have on a solicitor. Sadly, if he gets a solicitor, his savings will quickly disappear if he instants on keeping going with this nonsense.

make sure you keep a record also of the exact dates and times he has your child overnight.

A lot here. I agree that the police instances are sadly irrelevant here unless they resulted in some form of domestic abuse, which could lead to legal financial aid in some cases. I very much agree with Mumof3confused and others here. A few points to note - I could well imagine his pension may be far higher than £14k depending on length of service. At £50k a year, some schemes would see around £1k a month going into pension between employee and employer. If this went to court, I think your position would be a lot stronger than you think - you are the lower earner, with the majority of caring responsibilities, and you can show you've made reasonable offers already. Sadly, if he refuses a reasonable offer, and you're on limited funds, then you're best placed to speak to a family law solicitor and explain this. He could end up with far less than half and paying your costs if he's not careful, plus a solicitor could apply for interim payments for your daughter if he's not paying to support her in any way. Sadly, I think that your position could be very strong if this went to court, but you then have the ordeal and expense of going through that to arrive at something far more likely to be fair. I'm very sorry you're going through this.

You really need to get proper CETV statements for both pensions so you can calculate the total pot. Savings pre separation should also count as total pot. You basically need to tot up total assets and work from there.

Then decide what you want. 60% may be realistic. You don’t need to go to court but you do want to try to get what you can. If you are in the family home, the pressure should be more on your ex to be reasonable.

So the latest, my ex has decided to get a lawyer now (previously we were in discussion with a legal rep which I later found out was a friends partner training to be a lawyer so we decided not to respnd further) the new legal rep have sent me a letter demanding the same settlement he wanted before, no mention of our daughter, so I've responded to his legal rep saying I'm not paying out for formal letters until his new legal rep is up to speed so here are the 6 previous letters from both parties and I'll wait for the financial order that I'm assuming will start next month...
My question is, can he pull out of the financial order before it is being processed? I feel like he knows he won't get the financial outcome he wants so is now getting official legal rep even though he applied for the order in the first place. He's asked me for dates for a surveyor to come round too so have obliged as I also said in the response that a estate agent valuation isn't appropriate.
Thank you as always for the help and advice x

Just in case he does look to retract the financial order he's requested us to do, what documents should I ask for so that my lawyer can come up with a more accurate valuation but will ve honest the offer he's come up with so far doesn't take pensions amounts orsavings into account x

Your ex can’t get anything signed off without your signature and agreement no matter what he says. It sounds like he may be trying to steamroller something through and you need to get your solicitor to write to him telling him you need full financial disclosure before being willing to negotiate, or push for mediation that covers financial disclosure usually. Everything is purely negotiation until a financial order is signed and agreed by both parties. But you can’t sensibly agree to anything without full financial disclosure and knowledge of the total marital pot amount.

I believe what you want is a form E. It's a full financial disclosure document so it's needs to be filled in with all assets including bank statements for current and savings accounts, and pension statements. And he has to provide these as well

He absolutely cannot apply for the financial order (consent order) without

1. Full financial disclosure with either Form E (very long winded and most people struggle to complete this) or D81 which is a very straight forward list of both party's current and future financial picture (property, savings, debts, pensions and other assets)
2. Your agreement with your signature!!!

Before you apply for the consent order is when you do the wrangling and he is very much putting the cart before the horse and trying to push it through. A judge would sign a 50-50 order if you had completed a D81 with only the house details on it. Has he made you sign such a document?