Do i have to declare this in consent order?

[CoralOrca]

Myself and dh have agreed that he will sign the house over to me. In order for me to be able to get a mortgage I will need to pay off some of the mortgage. We had around £40k in savings which I have now put into my son's name for tax reasons. He has said I can have his share to pay off some of the mortgage which will then enable me to transfer the house to my name and take out a small mortgage.

There is around £150k of equity in the house. He is therefore only coming out of this with his pensions which are worth about £30k and his car which is worth about £10k.

I realise this is heavily weighed in my favour and I'm worried a judge won't agree to it. Therefore I'm wondering if I need to mention the savings at all on the consent order as they are in my son's name now? Can I just ignore that and put that the only asset I'm receiving is the equity in the house?

Before anyone says how unfair this is on my dh, he has done something so terrible to me that he wants to do this to make up in part for what he's done. We have had many conversations about this and he is adamant this is what he wants.

Agree 100% with you- sounds like to me he wants a quick divorce and will agree to any of her terms to get it.
but it is so heavily weighted it will not be accepted.
judge will prob order house to be sold if she can’t get mortgage by herself.
also if judge didn’t order house sold and it was transferred to her, the consent order has a section that states who is responsible for bills on the property etc. so whoever is named there legally has to pay and she’s already been told by solicitors judge won’t accept that but of it at least.
no way her current idea for the consent order will be signed off on

If your child is under 18 and you put money into his savings, you have to pay tax on his interest income as though it is yours, ie you'd pay exactly the same tax as if it was in your account. If you'd put it in an isa you are right you can avoid tax on it but tax is still payable by you when it is in a child's name

Wow some really harsh responses here. For what it's worth I didn't ask my dh to give me that amount of money each month and have told him so repeatedly. He is insistent on this and so I have agreed to it on the basis that at any time he wishes to stop he can do so. Despite what he's done I still want him to be able to have some semblance of a life.

He doesn't want a quickie divorce. In fact he doesn't want to divorce at all but accepts this is the only outcome. This is a long marriage of 25 years and a position neither of us thought we would ever be in.

He wants me to have the house and to be able to stay living here with our son. He earns much more than me and so the only way I can get take over the mortgage is by paying off some of what is owed. Hence this is why he is giving me his portion of our savings.

Those saying they can't imagine what could be so bad as to warrant him giving me everything have no idea of what has happened to me. It is something so dark and evil that you couldn't possibly imagine and it will effect me for the rest of my life. Even his family are insisting me that I have the house due to what he's done and they don't know the worse of it. My whole life has been turned up upside down and I have to live with the consequences. He has to live with the guilt of what he has done and by giving me the house this is the only way he can improve my situation.

Because despite what he's done I still care about him and I don't hate him.

It was a long marriage and he still wants to provide not only for me but for our child.

I've agreed to it for the time being while I try and rebuild my life. I've said to him that any time he wants to stop he can. The ball is in his court. I'm not demanding anything.

This isn't the advice that I've read but if that's the case then so be it. It will be negligible. I think I'm going to move it all out and put it into a standard savings account or premium bonds until the consent order is done as I didn't realise it would cause so much of an issue. Even the solicitor didn't say it was a problem when I told her I'd done this.

It doesn't make sense though. He's done something really terrible and yet you still care about him and don't hate him.

It doesn't need to make sense to you

The 1 hour free session solicitor didn’t have an issue with you moving both yours and your husbands money into your sons bank account which you then want to use to pay down some of the mortgage??? I would seriously seek another solicitors advice because that is movement of assets and is suss

id say spilt the savings back as they were.

Check your mortgage capability. I got more of the house as I was part time due to being the main carer. And as a result my mortgage capability was low. Our pensions were split 50:50.
I had 2 dc under 16.

Hiw old is your child as that will make a difference.

Is your ex housed anywhere? Mine moved into rented accommodation and everything was signed off by the judge.

I told her I put it there as the money was earmarked to pay down the mortgage. She said it's probably best to put it back into my name but she didn't seem overly concerned with it.

Honestly, your ex is keeping you enmeshed, he has behaved appalling and you are letting him keep you dependent.
Get proper legal advice and make an arrangement that gives you a clean break. The willingness to settle on his part is suspicious, he has more assets he isn't disclosing.

He doesn't have any more assets. I managed all the finances but I agree i am still going to be dependent on him somewhat at least until I can rebuild my life.

If i do this though then he will have more in his name even though they were both of our savings. I used to max out his saving accounts and then mine. We always did it like that and I never thought it would be an issue. All our money was pooled.

My child is 17 but has some disabilities. I have checked my mortgage capability and I can't afford to take it on unless i pay down the mortgage so I need his share of our savings to do this.

He's moved into rented accommodation and has been paying the mortgage as well as his own rent for some time now.

Have you actually got a mortgage? Ie a lender has approved you?

it’s difficult to judge here op, as if it was so bad surely he’d be in prison. He’s not. He’s renting, will have access to you and his child so something seems off

Good point. Is the perceived generosity so he can have access?

How would he have more?

Currently the house is joint
Savings split 50/50
Pension - he’s keeping 100pc
Do you have a pension?

Then the proposal is that
house 100pc yours with mortgage
pension 100pc his

The savings can be used to pay down the mortgage so you can take on the mortgage.

I wouldn’t have the house signed over to you until CO approved. It makes it look too messy.

I have been approved in principle

I haven't contacted the police as he has threatened suicide if I do and i can't live with that on top of everything else

My child wants nothing to do with him because of what he's done so it's nothing to do with access

I mean if I transfer the savings back to the original accounts so the balances are the same as before I moved them then there will be more in his account then mine. The judge may then look at it as being more his money than mine and it will look as though he's giving me even more than half of the savings then.

I could give him back half now until the consent order is finalised but I feel it's confusing it keep moving money around and it's still not putting it back to how it was so I don't know what benefit this will be.

Otherwise yes what you've suggested is what we've agreed. I don't have a pension. He also keeps the car which is worth £15k so he'd be coming out of it with £45k in assets and I'd have the £150k equity in the house and the £40k in savings.

As an aside - you will be taxed on your minor child's income that arises as a gift to you.

I also don't think that you can now take it away from your child when you has given it to the child. But I suspect that is an academic point really

*arises as a result of a gift from you

Wouldn’t the judge be more likely to agree the order if you put the savings back as it was? It’ll look more balanced rather than a split of £45k v £190k. Though £65k v £170k still looks uneven.

Might be worth getting a solicitor and going through it all in your situation.

I know mine said it’s better to gain capital rather than maintenance. (Which proved useful as ex stopped paying maintenance)

haven't contacted the police as he has threatened suicide if I do and i can't live with that on top of everything else

Please. That is on him not you.
If what he has done is criminal, report him

Your son is 17. Anything in his account at 18 is his.
If he lacks capacity due to disability it may well be complicated to get the money out, once he turns 18.

What if I pay down the mortgage now and then leave the rest of the savings out of the consent order altogether?

Technically we have gifted our son this money and he will gift it back after the consent order has been sealed. I don't see there is anything illegal in that. I have spoken to dh and he is happy with this arrangement.

This should all be done and dusted well before my son turns 18 so it won't be a problem getting the money back out.

I think this is the best thing to do. Moving it around again confuses matters and risks the consent order not being approved. It's ridiculous that we can't do what we want with our own money when we are both in agreement.