Potential financial split and general thoughts?

[TheApplicant]

Background

I am 51 years old, my husband is also 51 years old.

Married in 1992 (33-year marriage at time of divorce proceedings).

Separated in 2020 (28 years)

We have three children:

Eldest (28, adult, independent)

Middle child (now 23) – severely autistic with adjustment disorder, living at home, requires full-time care.

Youngest (13) – lives with me full-time.

I am the primary carer for both my disabled adult son and my younger child. This means my earning capacity is very limited. I have also had anxiety & depression since 2016 and am in receipt of PIP for this.

Properties:

There are three mortgage-free properties in the case:

1. Former Matrimonial Home (FMH) – where I live with the children. (Valued at £330,000 and mortgage free) purchased in 2004.

1. Property A – where my husband resides. Currently in his name. (Valued at £320,000 with a mortgage of £90,000. Net equity £230,000) my husband purchased this property in 2022 - 2 years after separation, however I believe martial funds were used to facilitate the purchase.

1. Property B (Rental Property) – also in his name and mortgage free. 'His tennant' is not allowing entry to the surveyor for valuations, however Zoopla states an average of £288,000 - also mortgage free. Purchased in 2002.

Pensions:

Husband is a serving police officer.

His police pension CETV (cash equivalent transfer value) is approx. £495,000 before actuarial adjustments.

An actuary is being instructed to calculate offsetting or sharing.

I have no significant pension of my own.

My role as a full-time carer (for both a disabled adult child and a minor child) means I have little to no earning capacity going forward.

Husband has a stable income as a police officer and a very secure pension.

There are multiple income streams which were initially undisclosed on his Form E, these average out to about £10,000 NET per year in addition to the £800 per calendar month in rent that he receives for the rental property. In total including his police wage after CMS reductions, his monthly net income taking into account rent and secondary occupation is approximately £3,500-£3,800.

Court Proceedings So Far:

We are in ancillary relief (financial remedy) proceedings.

The court has already issued penal notices against my husband due to repeated non-compliance (not providing full disclosure, failing to pay for valuations, delaying answers to my supplemental questionnaire).

I must note my supplemental questionnaire contained issues regarding initially undisclosed bank accounts which were only disclosed aftwr I had provided the account number and sort codes to said accounts. I also raised issues around 'loan agreements' betwen my husband and his family/friends which are very suspicious as they are allegedly signed in 2020, but my husbands address within the header is listed as the property he purchased in 2022.

At the last hearing (July 2025), the judge directed that all previous and future orders be sent to his employer (police force) due to concerns about his compliance.

The next hearing is listed for September 2025, which could be treated as a final hearing if he fails to comply again.

Offers & Positions

I would like to keep the FMH (for stability of the children) and ideally Property B, with him retaining Property A and his pension (or at least most of it).

He has suggested transfer of only the FMH to me in the past (rejected), and in emails has complained about my disclosure, while failing to comply with his own obligations.

He has not put forward a clear proposal other than vague references to me keeping “the matrimonial home”.

I must also add that my husband is ALREADY in breach of 2 court orders (from FDR on 6th March 2025) with penal notices attached. These are to facilitate entry for rental property to be valued and also to return replies to my supplemental questionnaire. I did not action these via a committal order at the time. But intend to do so for the latest court order if deadlines are not followed.

The judge has also reserved the case to herself, given his continued non compliance throughout the duration (18 months) of the proceedings. The process server concluded he was evading personal service when he was served the documents relating to the FDA last year.

Key Issues for Determination

1. Housing Needs – I need secure housing for myself, my 13-year-old, and my disabled 25 year-old who will likely always live with me.

1. Pension Sharing vs Offsetting – whether I should take a share of his police pension, or whether I can offset against properties.

1. Conduct / Non-compliance – whether his repeated delays and failure to comply will influence the judge.

1. Clean Break – I want a clean break financially, given the length of the marriage and my limited earning capacity.

Question:

Given the facts (long marriage, three mortgage-free properties worth ~£250–£300k each, a £495k police pension, my role as full-time carer, and his stable income and pension), what would a realistic and fair settlement look like?

For example:

Is it more likely the court would award me two properties and part of the pension, or two properties with no pension share?

How heavily does the fact I am caring for a disabled adult child (and a minor child) weigh into the split?

Would a “clean break” be achievable in this case?

Thanks in advance.

There’s enough in the pot to provide for clean break

your limited earning due to adult child special needs will be then into consideration.

do you want pension share or the second property ?

what does your solicitor is a fair settlement?

what’s your income based on universal credit/ pip /earnings and cms? What’s his income ?

id say you keep fmh. Ex keeps property b or c. The third property is sold and mortgage cleared. ( so no outstanding mortgages on any property ) eg if property b sold use 90k of that sale value to clear the 90k mortgage on property A. Remaining equity shared 50:50. Roughly 90k each) Pension split 50:50. Plus you might argue for slightly more assets if your income vs his is very different.

ie you get fmh ( 330k mortgage free)
half property b equity left ( roughly 90k)
half pension

he gets property b equity)320k mortgage free)
half equity of property b ( 90k)
half pension

you might argue for slightly higher overall share

you need to consider capital gains tax and ensure this is understand and calculated

Hi, thanks for your reply. I ideally want a clean break so would be looking to keep the FMH and rental property. With my husband retaining his current property (3 bed semi detached house, with just him and his new partner residing there) and his whole pension.

My solicitor and barrister thinks this a fair split.

Oh and my income is around £1350 per month from UC, PIP, carers allowance and CMS.

My husbands income is £57k gross £33k net annually from the police, £800 per month rental income and an average of £10,000 net annually from his second job.

Perhaps you need to gather evidence that your ex used marital funds to purchase the property he is in, when it was two years after separation.
If he can prove that the money came from elsewhere, that may discount it?
Otherwise, I think your proposal to retain the fmh and the other property, whilst he keeps the house he is living in and his pension is fine.
Is he a very high earner ? Three properties, two of which are mortgage free and a third with decent equity is quite a lot for a one income household and a 'normal' job as a police officer.

Also, how much money did current partner put into the home that she is living in with your ex? Her share of that would need discarded.

My sons disability benefits, my carers allowance and PIP were all paid into his accounts (which has been revealed on his financial discloaure) as I did not have a bank account till around 6 months before separation. Meaning for almost 28 years of marriage I did not have financial independence.

I believe my sons disability living allowance/ PIP was being utilised to pay off his mortgages since 2005. Then when I became diagnosed with depression and anxiety he started abusing my funds too. Hence the properties being paid off.

I have to give credit where it's due, he also worked 2 jobs at a time whilst serving as a police officer for the last 25 years.

Well, initially he refused to accept he had a partner. Till the process server knocked on neighbours doors who confirmed the vehicle on the drive was his partners.

As far as finances go, I don't believe she paid for any of the deposit. However the mortgage is £1600 per month and she has regularly transferred him £800 just before the mortgage has left his account. She has also sent money to him with references like 'ALARM' shortly after the house was purchased, suggesting some sort of financial interdependence.

there will be capital gains. That needs to be factored in, debt shared and cleared and remaining pot shared.

a pension share is a clean break too. If you retain the second property abc want to sell it you’ll be liable for capital
gains tax

if you keep the second property he loses 800 a month rent,

do you work at all? Can you work pt ?

his official earnings are not high esp when reduced for cms and the 800 too.

what’s is second income ?

I would rather half the value of rental property and some money from his pension. You may need to do expensive repair work on rental property at some stage. Presume he is retiring at 55 on full pension, you need to be sure that you don’t want any of that as CMS payments may stop once he retires and they can no longer get the payments through his pay.

I cannot work as my middle adult child who is 25 has severe autism, he is non verbal, wears an incontinence pad, self harms and requires 24/7 care. He has also been classed as a dependent child by the judge. As mentioned my youngest is still 13 and I have diagnosed mental and physical health (arthritis) issues.

I do not intend to sell the rental property if awarded it, as I would use the rental income to reduce my reliance on state benefits long term.

Two properties paid off and a third with a large amount of equity, with a 67k yearly salary ( won't have always been at that level either), £1350 of your income, plus you've had three children to pay for. Think I'd be digging deeper into the family finances tbh as that sounds like a stretch.

We have not lived extravagant lives whatsoever. We have been on family holidays 3 times in almost 30 years. We have renovated our home once in 25 years. My husbands mortgage repayments on the FMH were in excess of £2000 10 years ago. Pretty much all the money went towards repaying mortgages. So if you look at it that way a police wage plus overtime plus disability benefit can actually go a long way.

Plus he's been able to 'save' £230,000 to put towards his current home?

He's not a high earner and I'd be suspicious that all the financials have not been fully disclosed to you. He already has form for that from what you've said.

Presumably a second home, as an asset, would take you out of UC eligibility? That may be a factor.

The biggest problem I see with you taking on the rental property OP is that to be brutally honest- you can’t afford it.

Being a landlord isn’t free or cheap passive income, what are you going to do when the boiler goes, or the oven, or there’s a leak and at the drop of a hat you have to find £100’s to have those things repaired? Or the roof, there’s potentially £2000? Even a simple plumber call out could be a £300 bill.

You don’t have the money to be a landlord to be brutally totally honest.

I forgot to mention, when we extended the house he sold approximately £35,000 worth of my gold jewellery this was in 2010 when £35,000 was a decent chunk towards the extension. This obviously helped to increase the value of the FMH (which was purchased in 2004 for £140,000)

When we separated he had my 22ct gold bangles in his possession in his locker at the police station for 'safe keeping' these were worth about £20,000 -£25,000.

My family gifted me a lot of this gold back in 1992 when we got married. I do not have any of the receipts proving the sale of the gold.

Yes, as stated that is part of my reasoning for wanting the rental property as it would reduce my reliance on atate benefits and my UC is approximately £400 per month so the rental income would double it as it is £800 per month

That is an interesting point that (to be quite honest) I had not considered. I guess it shows my naivety in dealing with finances as I was not involved whatsoever during the marriage. It's given me food for thought. Thank you.

You would be better in my opinion selling the the third property now, taking the hit jointly on capital gains due and getting 50% of pension as income .

have you looked and understood the impact of these assets ( either having second property, or large savings from its sale, or rental
income or pension income on your benefits claim ?)

it’s odd to be able to amass this wealth on his police wage tbh

Ok just to make things clear I will break down the timeline for you. So we got married in 1992.
My husband started his own business aged 19 in 1993 - he was subsequently defrauded by his parents and ended up having a huge VAT bill and the home his parents had remortgaged on his name to finance the business. They had claimed the business and all assets associated with it. As a result my husband declared himself bankrupt in 1994 whilst working ss a bus driver. He paid off the mortgage via loans before declaring himself bankrupt (mostly from my family) which were later repaid. Therefore from 1994 till the same of that property (in 2004) we were mortgage free.

My husband joined the police in 1999 at which point our finances improved drastically as a police wage was a lot healthier in real terms compared to today. My husband then purchased the rental property in 2002 for £74,000 (deposit secured as a loan from my family) on a 20 year mortgage (this was subsequently paid off early in 2020 using rent and accumulated savings)

He then sold the first property mentioned in 2004 for £98,000 at which point the tax man came knocking and reminded him that he owed the government £12,000 from 10 years ago. This was paid and the remaining £86,000 put towards the deposit for the purchase of the FMH at £140,000 in 2004. Meaning he needed a £54,000 mortgage. I believe our mortgage repayments were approximately £800-£1000 initially (my husbands wage was approximately £1,600 without overtime and without him driving HGV's on his days off. He started receiving my sons disability benefits in 2005 which I believe were about £500 plus the £150ish carers allowance I was getting. Based on these rough numbers after he was paying a considerable mortgage he would still be left with approximately £1250 without accounting for his secondary income stream.

As my son got older and the years passed his disability benefits increased, my husbands police wage naturally rose with service. Once I started receiving PIP his income increased further.

I can see how it would seem a stretch to achieve so much from just a police wage but I hope it makes more sense given a bit more context

It’s just going to be a money pit you can’t afford. Even if it’s in great condition now at some point it will need a new kitchen, bathroom, flooring, roof, oven, fridge etc- and unlike a house you live in where you could live in it until you can afford it you simply cannot do that as a landlord, you have to find the money to pay for it.

Also the new renters reform bill coming in is going to make it harder for landlord’s to evict tenants. If you had a shitty tenant who failed to pay you’d have to spend the best part of £3000-4000 to get them out and then what if when you get your keys back you realise they’ve trashed the place? Another £3000 to get it nice again to get new tenants in.

Being a landlord isn’t something you can do with no real money yourself.

I would say that given you basically started from scratch as a family in 2000 and on a single police salary, a side hustle and benefits, the assets that have been declared sound more than about right. What else do you think you will find and how much are you willing to pay to find it.

There might be more salted away but it will cost you time and money to find them. And all you might find is that money in the account you didn’t have access to was used to buy property A. In which case you have found it hiding in plain sight. And whilst it might have been out of order and high handed that he invested it in property- you benefit from the return on that investment.

You have 3/4m in property and 1/2m in pension on a middle income to share. All paid off from not a lot of income.

If the gold bracelets got sold and you didn’t see a family budget, does it matter what exactly happened. As long as your children’s needs where taken care of.

I would invest my energy into some expert financial planning for your future and your disabled son’s future. That will tell you if you should accept the BTL or a pension share.

As someone pointed out the problem you have with cash or rental income now is that it will impact on your means tested benefits. You might not be able to avoid this unless the btl is put in trust for your disabled son.

The other problem to be faced is that child support and child benefits will disappear in 5 years time.

As always very measured advice from @LemonTT

I would think very carefully about giving up any rights to a pension share. A pension sharing order will give you a guaranteed income every month, with none of the stress that a rented property might.

If the rented property has a btl on it then you cant just take it over

You need to apply for a new mortgage. Terms have changed a lot on BTL mortgages, the rates have shot up and affordability changed

it or you may not be eligible

the margins on it seem tight. How much will you have to pay a month when it is remortgaged?
(You can do a dummy application on
line to see)

he also cant just transfer a mortgaged property to you. the mortgage would need to be settled and you remortgage

you need to also take into account capital gains if it is sold