Hi all, sorry, this is long, and complicated so please try to bare with.
Last year I instigated court proceedings against my H. He’s been messing about, telling lies and obstructing for 6 years.
Me and H own 25% of a two bed shared ownership house which he still lives in with his new partner. My share is worth approximately £22000 when remaining mortgage of about £7000 is taken into account. I left 6 years ago with our DS who was 6 at the time because he refused, and he was very abusive and violent on occasion.
H is now out of work with no chance of being employed again. He already had a disability, although he did work. He is an alcoholic and has severely damaged his health further with the drink. I also have a disability and am on long term disability. He is 60 and I am late 30s.
H pays nothing towards DS and is barred by SS from unsupervised contact. H doesn’t even bother to contact DS though and DS doesn’t want to see him. H was violent and abusive to DS.
Anyway, I took him to court. I started the process last august and the first hearing which was a FDR took place in March.
I recieved H’s form E in February. Seems he’s received a £35000 severance payout from his former employer in July last year, but in the bank statements he provided they showed that he had already spent half. A couple of months ago he rang moaning he was trying to claim benefits, so clearly he’d got through substantially more in the interim.
In court the judge said that he wouldn’t recommend a house sale and it was unlikely I’d get that result at final hearing as H’s housing needs were being met. Me and DS are living in private rented housing and having to move regularly due to LLs selling etc. The council won’t house us because of the share of the property I own.
I was told that the best I could hope for was an order where he kept the house and I would get a percentage when he dies.
I’m skint, so couldn’t afford to keep up legal fees so I dismissed my solicitor. I basically offered H what he wanted as a settlement because I couldn’t see another way, couldn’t afford legal representation and just wanted it over.
Anyway, H’s solicitor emailed me with the draught order last week, but in the email casually dropped out that H has just found a pension policy he didn’t know about and has received a £35000 lump sum payout in the last couple of weeks.
Now, my share in our house is worth approximately £22000 when the remaining mortgage of about £7000 is discounted. H has had £35000 last year which he’s spent and now has another £35000 from a pension policy he didn’t disclose on his form E.
Today I will be submitting an application for an order under S37.1 (2a) of the matrimonial causes act 1973 to restrict his access to the money until we can go to final hearing.
Do you think this application will be successful, and where do I go from here? I can probably scrape enough for a barrister for a final hearing, but I can’t afford a solicitor to do the bundles and advise etc. Also, can I apply for a costs order? What does this mean and what if anything might I get back if granted?
I don’t want to drop this. It’s not fair that he gets our two bed house while we move around from crappy rental to ever smaller crappy rental. He knew proceedings were pending last year a couple of weeks after he got his first £35000 so could have bought me out then. he didn’t even pay off the remaining mortgage, which would at least meant I wasn’t subject to his financial irresponsibility. The he spent the money, on nothing as far as I can see. Now he has another 35 grand from a policy he didn’t disclose. He must have known, he’s only had two jobs in his life, a very low paid job for about 5 years 40 years ago, and his previous job which he was in for 20+ years. He couldn’t have forgotten about that. I just don’t know what to do next, and can’t afford someone to act for me.