Urgent help required - financial settlement after divorce

[AnonymousNumber]

It’s a very long back story which I posted under the NN ‘Winged’ but basically, I was given negligent legal advice which meant I never got a financial order when I divorced my abusive XH. After I found out the advice was incorrect, life took a turn for the worse. I became very ill and one of my DCs developed some extreme mental health problems. I’m still dealing with the fallout from this. XH kept all the marital property, including my childhood 5 bedroom home while we live in unsuitable private rental.

However, XH has stopped paying child support and his parenting leaves a lot to be desired to the extent SS told me to stop contact. My DD will often self harm after any contact with him. Anyway, he has now petitioned the court for a contact order but I’ve not yet received the paperwork.

We have the MIAM as we were deemed unsuitable for mediation. It runs out in a month so my time is running out.

My question is, can I counter petition for a financial order after I receive the paperwork from his petition or do I need to do my own and pay the fee?

You need to make an application (form A) to the court that dealt with the divorce, quoting the divorce case number. Did you tick the boxes about wanting financial orders in the Petition? I assume you have not remarried. The court fee is £255 but you can get a refund using form ex160.

You need to see a solicitor about this. If you have no funds, CAB can often get you a freebie.

The child proceedings are completely separate.

Talk to the Child Maintenance Service about child support, it is out of the Court's hands.

In whose name is the home registered?

Thank you - thats really helpful. I’ve got some of the paperwork together but it’s just finding the time to sit down, understand it all and fill it in. My XH whited out those boxes but I reticked them. We did a diy divorce whereby I filled out all the paperwork but he actually divorced me as it was the only way I could get him to agree and at the time I thought I was protecting myself from taking on his debt since that was what the solicitor I saw told me would happen and the best I could hope for was walking away with only my own debt. I moved out ASAP from the family home on her advice too.

I did have a solicitor instructed but had to cancel as I lost my job and needed the remainder of the fees I’d paid on account. There’s no way I can afford a solicitor now. I don’t think I qualify for legal aid.

The CMS are already involved but he job hops so they can’t enforce payments.

The house is in his name only. My parents sold it to him. He made me sign a disclaimer from the mortgage company and told me it was the only way he could get the mortgage. I also signed a document that said I wouldn’t make a claim against the property in exchange for keeping our own debts but a solicitor has already said it constitutes a pre-nup since I was acting on bad advice when I signed it.

Please try to see a solicitor, there's a lot to unpick here.

You need to register home rights on the house too.

When was this document about debts signed?

I genuinely can’t afford to instruct a solicitor. I can barely afford my bills which is part of the reason I haven’t yet sorted this out. We divorced in 2014 which is when I signed the document. A solicitor has already looked at this and told me it isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. He also breached his terms - he agreed to pay a specific joint debt but never did and I was persued for it. I very much doubt he’s kept his signed copy anyway.

What are the actual assets from your marriage?

There’s a 5 bed house (I grew up in that house) worth around £180k with a £20k mortgage (unless he’s borrowed more). He also part owns a commercial property and land and receives rent for these. He has a substantial pension and did have around £20k in saving when I left but as he is financially incompetent, that will almost certainly have been spent.

I don’t want to pursue anything other than a fair share of the house though, I just want enough to enable me to buy somewhere (substantial deposit + small mortgage) suitable to live with our dc.

I know this probably isn't what you want to hear but I would imagine that there will be very little in the way if assets if things are in his sole name. I would bite the bullet and instruct a solicitor to get the ball moving on the financial.consent order so at least you know where you stand.

I’ve already been advised by a solicitor (and on here) that I have a valid claim to the marital assets, it’s just a case of pursuing it. The solicitor told me that if I’d been advised correctly, I’d probably have got around 75% of the house but I’ll probably have to settle for around 50% now.