Ex has spent savings and got new debt

[Orangetutu]

Currently going through divorce and thought the last of the paperwork was completed and signed about a month ago. Stbxh has now redone the financial statement for the consent order. He said he’d had to adjust a few of the figures as some things had changed for him….. well he has reduced his savings by 8k and taken out a 10k loan.
No idea if he’s actually bought something, or just moved money. I suspect it’s to make things look a bit more ‘even’. We have agreed 60/40 split on the pension (in his favour). House is sold as was a 50/50 split. He had about 18k in savings which I haven’t touched and we have gone for 50/50 custody. I don’t get any child maintenance from him.

Am I right to be suspicious..? Scared I’m being done over.

Sounds like you are getting a terrible deal here - what does your solicitor think?

Youll never know where the money went but surely the loan is taken out after separation so it doesn’t come under a matrimonial thing at all. And since you weren’t touching his savings I guess that doesn’t matter either. Why weren’t you going after the savings in the first place?

@Beachlovingirl because like so many others on here, I am worn down and just want it to be over. I don’t have money for a solicitor and so by at least getting some of his pension I have gone some way to protect my long term financial situation.

@Orangetutu I do understand you want it to be over and have been worn down. I’m only at the start of my process and already been worn down by it. Your ex sounds devious and manipulative.

can you borrow some money to see a solicitor because if he knows you are getting proper legal advice his whole demeanour might change.

you might save yourself much more in the settlement by having a solicitor deal with it for you and remove the stress - even if it sounds expensive upfront

Loans and debt post separation are a grey area in divorce and often cone down to:

savings spent often just money gone with little recourse to offset.

if debt is related to living expenses or meeting family obligations - eg if one person renting, paying all own bills plus share of family home etc then it fair to treat that as matrimonial debt. If taken a loan to buy 50k car or go on holidays etc then it wouldn’t

the challenge here is whether you feel it’s worth spending a lot to not be necessarily actually come out with more. You need to weight that up - based on the figures here I’d say it’s not worth it - but if you think there is really something amiss then it might be