Ex blocking final order

[TwoTuesday]

Sorry it's long and probably not v coherent either.

My partner's ex (separated 11 years ago) is now blocking the final order that completes their divorce. He is due to apply for the final order in a few weeks so it has come as a massive shock as she has cooperated up to now.

She applied for a financial order soon after agreeing to the divorce, and they went through mediation but this was not successful. The mediator was so inept that the info they had supplied went out of date before they got to discussing any settlement and they were faced with starting it all from scratch, £600 wasted, so partner decided not to continue with it. Cue solicitor's letter, it's going to court. Ex has refused to communicate with him directly or even say what financial settlement she wants.

All the marital assets were given to her a long time ago, partner took nothing at all, he paid off her personal debts by taking a loan out, carried on paying mortgage for several years then transferred the marital home to her. He thinks she is doing the financial claim to claim his pension, as he has nothing else, but not sure as she will not tell him. For all I know she could be claiming on the equity we have in our home as well which will be a disaster.

Her solicitor says the final order will prejudice her financial claim so they are applying to the court to block it. (This despite post divorce claims being allowed so not sure what disadvantage this could refer to)

There has never been a significant disparity of earnings and neither of them have any assets to speak of apart from her equity in their former home and his equity in the home we share. Plus both will have pensions. He's said he wants nothing off her but surely that is not tenable if she's claiming off him. She was financially reckless during their marriage and he is pretty sure she's cohabiting too but keeping it a secret.

It seems absolutely appalling that she can force him to remain married to her for an indefinite period of time. From talking to others it can take years to get a pension sharing order implemented and cost thousands in reports (which he will have to pay for) as it's a public sector one, so there is no pot to divide. He is no longer contributing to it anyway as he has now left that employer. About 10 years contributions in total. Our mortgage will run until we are in our seventies so he needs his pension to pay it. Would the court take that into account or is it just tough? His ex's mortgage is much smaller and would be paid off much sooner.

Can he object to the blocking of the final order or will the court wave it through? He can't afford a solicitor and has been DIY up to now. I am worried he'll do something rash as it has really upset him. She has literally had everything off him.

Talking to him about it, what happened to him during the marriage would now be called financial abuse. He gave her everything just to get away. To not be able to divorce at this stage is just cruel. I am really worried about him.

Any advice would be appreciated.

He should not agree to the final
order until
finances are severed by a consent order. That would not stop her claiming on his ( therefore your joint) assets but would stop him claiming on hers.
he should not have allowed this to remain unsolved for all this time.hes needs to follow process to get it to court asap if necessary and do not get the final divorce order until it’s done

Surely he would finalize the divorce so they aren’t legally married as he wouldn’t want his ex having automatic spousal rights to his pension and any inheritance if he were to die. Poster has already said her partner wants nothing from his ex?

Yes that's right. It could go on for years yet as pension sharing takes ages. They have been apart for 11 years! I really hope he'll be able to get it finalised in spite of her asking for it not to be. It seems crazy that it can be blocked at this stage. She could have objected at any point, but it suited her to get him to pay all the costs of it clearly and then wait until the last minute to cause him maximum aggro. She gives women a bad name.
He's got a solicitor now thankfully. Who was very surprised to hear she's going down this route, given that she has her own pension and the costs involved in court and pension reports/sharing orders etc are significant. Maybe she's on "no win no fee."

It can be blocked at this point because too many try and push it through when finances have not been agreed and signed off by a judge. He should have done that part years ago, especially since you say she took everything. This is on him, not her tbh.

She’s coped last 11 years fine so why is she being greedy now. Judge should reject it as if she’s been fine last 11 years without him she can carry on without his help too!

If he finalises the divorce his ex can STILL claim his pension and any shared assets

he must get the consent order to avoid this

I can't see any reason for asking for the final order to be blocked, other than vindictiveness at this point, as she can claim after the divorce anyway if there is no consent order, as we all know.
She has form for greed and financial incontinence which is largely why they split.. and yes he should have sorted it long ago (that would be really helpful advice, if you've also got a time machine).

@TwoTuesday she would only be able to claim pension contributions accrued during the marriage so none before and not since separation, it’s happened to a friend of mine who is greedy and I don’t agree with her at all but she tried going for everything judge shut her down and she was asked to explain how she’s managed 7 years without financial support from ex husband as she works full time has her own savings and has a house. She went down the claim route as got jealous as her ex got a new partner. Again I didn’t agree with her on this !

That’s not correct
she could claim total pot of assets not just those accumulated during marriage. Whether not she’d be successful is the risk.

she’s likely blocking it to be awkward plus thinking he’ll negotiate more money her way as leverage

@millymollymoomoobut only joint assets. Not those accrued after separation or divorce

and yes he should have sorted it long ago (that would be really helpful advice, if you've also got a time machine).
I only mentioned it because you seem to be blaming the wrong person. Use your anger (or whatever you are feeling) to kick him up the backside and get it sorted. If he can't afford a solicitor then he needs to go to Citizens Advice. Eleven years is a ridiculously long time. If he had won the lottery she could have claimed half, still can tbh.

@peaceandhappiness that’s not correct

Presumably he still has a claim on the marital home because the finances have never been settled.

Yes he would have a claim on that, as well as everything else she's got. She would appear to think it's a one way street though.

When they were in mediation, he was very clear that he wasn't seeking to claim anything and the mediator led him to believe his ex wasn't either. He asked several times what her intentions were. As ex is likely to receive inheritances soon it made sense for her to get it sorted properly to protect herself so he thought it was purely to formalise things as they stand. The pension claim has only come up now it's going to court.

The mediator, who was chosen by ex/ her solicitor, seemed to have been fed a pack of lies that he was rich/ hiding assets/ living off me. They were spoken to separately by the mediator. She spent most of the sessions interrogating his Form E, why he "only" has one bank account and one savings account, why he doesn't he have joint accounts with me, where are "the rest of" his savings etc. Yet she was happy to accept his ex saying she had no assets at all.

He's got a solicitor now, anyway, so he has been dragged into a long and expensive fight. Which I think will come as a bit of a shock to his ex as all her assets are in the pot too now.

Yes my understanding is that everything can potentially claimed on until there is a consent order, but claimant may not be successful in actually getting anything. In England anyway.

Yes correct
she can claim anything and everything until there is a consent order. That claim may or not be successful

Does anyone know how long it takes for the financial remedy to go through the court process? If pension sharing is in the mix? Not even had a date for the first appointment yet, any idea how long it takes for this first one.

Mine took 15 months but that is unusual and included a lot delay by the court before and after final hearing. It should have been done in 9 months.
my exH claimed against pension I bought after we separated and after we divorced (as did financial order after). He wasn’t successful as judge decided he could have worked more and made his own provision but in a case of someone who couldn’t work I can see it may be successful.
You may need a report to apportion the pension.
it doesn’t take years for the pension company to implement an order.
Has he requested the value from the pension company as that can take months if public sector. Info on splitting and how it might be apportioned pre and post separation may be avail on the pension co website eg if he bought a set amount of pension each year - or from his annual updates.
Public sector values are often thought to be an underestimate so she may request a pension report at first hearing in which case she would need to set out details of what questions she wants the report to answer - you can’t just say I want a report you need to know exactly what you are asking the pension expert to do.

Thanks, yes he is requesting valuations already.
They both have both public and private sector pensions, so I expect there will be at least 4 reports to do. Although he isn't asking for pension sharing of hers, just her claiming on him, in spite of no wage difference. I'm not sure if he has to put a counter claim in against hers or if all the pensions just get looked at together anyway.
As she's applied to block the divorce until the financial order is sorted, it's in her interest to drag things out as long as possible (as all the while he's paying pension contributions which increases what she'll get?)

He should counter claim against all her assets inc pensions. It can’t all just be one way and if he doesn’t he’s a mug

@millymollymoomoonot everyone is full of greed regardless of legal entitlement there is such a thing as morals. Maybe the posters partner just wants to move on without the being a money grabber. That certainly doesn’t make him a mug. No need for name calling.

Once you have done form E and questionnaires / reports then at fdr or final you have to prepare ES2 which summarises all the assets. https://resolution.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Template-ES2-corrected.xlsx So all her assets have to be included eg the house he has transferred, pension etc. in the column far right you would put disputes eg view that pension should be apportioned. If he’s not claiming against her he doesn’t need to say he wants a share of her pension his case would be that she retains the existing assets already transferred (which he needs to value) and that each party retain own pension. But everything he gave her would be included in the courts assessment of what is fair.

it is possible to argue once you have pension values a report is disproportionate the FDA judge may give an indication if think it’s not likely be pension sharing case

@olderandwiser84 he is if he sits back and lets his ex claim against him while not looking at her assets to balance it !

Well he was quite happy to live and let live, move on, up till now anyway, that's why he hadn't asked her to buy him out and just gave all the equity to her all those years ago (which I did think was a bit daft but ancient history). But if she is going all out to claim things then he will have to too. Just a lot of unnecessary money, time and trouble arguing over what will amount to less than the legal fees when it comes down to it.

Partner and ex now have a date for the first court appointment for finances, in November. The previous Form Es have gone out of date, so they are preparing new ones. He applied for the final order, but has not had a response from the court. The ex had lodged a form with the court to object. His solicitor says the court will sit on the application and do nothing with it until he makes an legal argument for it.
Today his solicitor informed him that ex has applied to court for immediate maintenance, with a court date prior to the financial hearing court date. His solicitor was surprised at this application given that ex has supported herself for years, and thinks that this is a ruse to get him to not pursue the final order. Even though it seems that the court isn't granting it anyway. It seems really strange as spousal maintenance is very rare. He earns 45k, she would be on similar, considering her job. It seems very odd that her solicitor has advised her to do that.
How will the court decide on the payments given that they haven't yet done Form E (assuming she really does want to apply and it's not just a ruse)? It wasn't mentioned in mediation or at all, just straight to court. We can only think that she is alleging abuse or dishonesty on his part? He is very upset by the implications of that.