Family Home - Legal Position - No Children

[ilovemydogandMrObama]

BIL and SIL, both in their 50s have had a very volatile 30 year marriage, and after a huge row (again) are splitting up.

She is a senior manager on £80,000, and has always worked. His employment history is patchy, worked as a chef off and on, as a security guard for a brief period, but not for about 15 years, and is now registered disabled.

As far as I know, he hasn't put any money into the home, paid anything on the mortgage.

They don't have children.

Was wondering what the legal position would be and whether they would have to sell the home. Think they are both on the deeds.

The legal position is that all the assets of the marriage will go into the pot to be split between them. It sounds like his earning potential is lower than hers so he may be entitled to spousal maintenance or a larger share of the assets. However, no-one can tell you what the split will look like or whether the home will have to be sold based on the information you have posted. Anyone who attempts to do so will be guessing.

prh47 - Thank you, for some reason I have stuck in my head that contributions towards the mortgage/direct contributions to property is a criteria.

I'm sure when they both get some independent legal advice they will know more.

That would be a criteria if they weren’t married, and a court was trying to work out a fair split.

Since they are married, the assumption is that all of their assets are jointly owned. So the starting point is that he’s entitled to half the house, maybe more as he has lower earning potential.

Your sil will need to see a lawyer to get detailed advice though.

That would be a criteria if they weren’t married, and a court was trying to work out a fair split

To be honest, that isn't even the criteria if they weren't married (would be a look at the deeds and follow what they say - only if unclear would things like contributions be relevant).

Yeah agreed - the starting point would be what’s in the deeds, the history of contributions would only be relevant if there was a dispute and a court would be resolving it.

@ilovemydogandMrObama

This is one where your SIL will probably end up in the reverse position of the women and end up having to pay out a significant amount of money given his position. Oh and don't forget the value of her pension as well as that will also go into the pot.

A friend of mine was similar to your SIL with a waster husband. She finished up being extremely bitter about the financial settlement as she felt he was rewarded for staying at home doing nothing. I did point out a lot of blokes had the same gripe, except that usually children were involved!