Divorce and property

[Ashleyupnorth]

Will soon be starting divorce proceedings and need advice/guidance on those who have experienced similar situations based on mine.

Has anyone been through divorce where their spouse owned a property before the relationship (18 months) but it became the family home for 10 years and we were married for 7 of those years in that house.

I’m trying to understand in general terms how the equity in that property is usually treated when it has been lived in together for a long time in his sole name (i contributed to bills and mortgage) and then later sold to buy a jointly owned home. Have been living in current jointly owned property for 7 years. So married 13 years, together 17 years. He had the property 18 months before we met and put down deposit. We married 3 years later but I was not on the mortgage. We didn't buy a joint property until after we had been married for 7 years.

I’m not asking for legal advice, just experiences of how others may have experienced similar in practice.

Hope that makes sense!

My understanding is that it was not kept separate from marital assets so mingled in the marital life and became marital home so you are likely to have an equal share to it.

I strongly advice you to get a solicitor to handel it all. I'm currently doing Form E and its a lengthy process I wish I contacted my solicitor just after submitting my divorce application so we could start financial disclosure so the Concent order would have aligned to the Final order date.

I contacted them 3 months later and now we are 6 months since application and apparently negotiations and even submitting the concent order can take 4 months minimum. So this will delay the divorce. All the best to you.

Also separation date means nothing if you didn't have a prenuptial nor a post number agreement. You are legally still husband and wife and the full length of your marriage will be considered.

Not started the negotiations yet. Hoping for the best.

Being on the mortgage only makes you jointly liable for the debt. It doesn’t entitle you to the asset (for that you’d need to be on the deeds.) However, since you are married it will be viewed as a marital
asset and you should each get half, possibly more if you gave up your career to look after children. You will also be entitled to half of all pensions and savings (as will he.)

@DreamsPeace it’s extraordinarily difficult to ring fence assets or pensions acquired during a marriage. Anything before isn’t easy either so keeping a house deposit separate is virtually impossible unless the op agreed via a pre nup but even then it’s unlikely to be considered separate. Needs of both parties will trump who paid what.

@Minasama op is not automatically entitled to half of of pension or any other assets

shes entitled for all
assets to be in the pot and to get a fair share of that. Which could be more or less than 50% depending on their situation

Anyone here able to explain if partner who earns significantly less like 1/4 of what the other partner earns but that lower income partner has a higher pension pot because they do salary sacrifice and also has higher savings than the higher income person because they were good at managing money but that higher income person the house was purchased in their sole name but after they separated.

Would the lower income spouse be at a disadvantage? I want peoples lived experience right now I'm still doing Voluntary Form E and we hope to swap with solicitors in 2 weeks.

@DreamsPeace

id start your own thread

the answers will depend on your length of marriage, ages, children and what country ( presume England)

pension is not worth the same as cash or equity if it’s a while before it can be drawn

Thank you all for your posts and replies, much appreciated @MeetMeOnTheCorner there's around 50k left on the mortgage, with around 350k equity. Pensions, at least from his side are potentially going to be bigger than that but awaiting cetvs. Mine not so much because of part time working. I'm a relatively low earner, he's a mid wage earner and earns double the amount. I'm not going to be grabbing all I can. I am happy to really downsize etc.

@DreamsPeace I wish you all the best. I was hoping (rose tinted specs on here!) to avoid solicitors due to cost (i simply dont have the money...but will find it and have been saving using my own money each month to put aside). However, I have been advised by DA charities/professionals to get a solicitor so I'm on that path. I had an initial fixed fee last year before I got ill. The solicitor has moved firms and is now around an extra £100 more an hour as a senior. My plan is to see her again for a review/update over the next few weeks. I'll file myself and do it with her help. Thats my plan anyway...and we all know how plans can change!

@Ashleyupnorth I would go forward believing every marital asset is in the pot and you both need somewhere to live afterwards. I think you need to look at full time work - assuming you need a mortgage. Look at where you might live and approximate costs. Then see a solicitor and talk through what a settlement might look like.

You’ll be assessed on your full time earning capacity

You can do a lot yourself and use solicitors for advise rather than admin

Legally the op cannot be forced to work full time but potential earning capacity matters and will affect where you can buy.

Agreed that she can’t be forced. But any settlement will be based on what a full time earning could be plus cms /benefits etc

@MeetMeOnTheCorner I do work full time. I have worked full time for the past 5 years although my earning capacity isn't that great. I work in healthcare and no real way of increasing that unless I specialise. Work can't fund training to do that unfortunately and I simply dont have funds to do it. I have always worked even with DC, albeit part time when younger.

@millymollymoomoo thanks. i will try and do a lot myself. Are there any resources you may know of that help

A friend and a professional suggested using joint money for the divorce which I have access to but I would want to run that past the solicitor and be transparent with the STBXH first. Did everyone use their own savings/funds?

Well me and ex were amicable and did it all
ourselves but paid jointly for the actual
divorce and consent order.

it’s common to pay the divorce fee and consent order fee jointly but each pay got own solicitors

@AshleyupnorthApologies. I just responded to other posters about work. How you fund legal advice etc is up to you both.

I have replied back to your message

Thanks @millymollymoomoo and @MeetMeOnTheCorner for your replies.