How likely is it that mum will get money out of dad?

[TheInheritenceIsWhose]

Parents divorced when I was a teen, I’m now in my 30s so been split for 15years+.

Dad has just inherited a substantial amount, enough to retire.

My mum thinks she can go after some of it.

What I know of their divorce:

• I am aware that the reason for the split was because my mum thought my dad didn’t earn enough money – he worked full time and we never went without; had food and clothes and school trips and a few holidays and if I ever wanted to go to the cinema or bowling with a friend/group of friends I could (admittedly sometimes they’d use nectar or clubcard points to get it but as a parent myself now I can understand why!)
• No financial/consent order as they both walked away with a car and we lived in rented homes, they both ended up with a similar size place, mum kept our pets but dad then got his own
• Dad paid maintenance to mum until my brother reached 19, I am older but dad never reduced the amount until my brother reached 18 even when I went off to uni and even then slowly reduced it by an amount each month until he paid nothing the month my brother turned 19 – he also paid well over what was recommended by the service used for child maintenance at the time and by well over I mean he paid £300-400 more than recommended by them
• He also paid for my brother to get his motorbike license and me to get my car driving license and bought us a bike and car respectively and with insurance with no hint of asking for help from my mum
• My dad was the sole benefactor of one will, he was one of 8 from another (first one was his grandmother who passed it solely to him for some reason, second was his parents who split it between their children and grandchildren)

Mum thinks she’s going to get half if not more of what dad inherited as if they were still married, she’d be benefitting.

She’s also upset that my dads sharing money with me and my brother - he’s paying for me to take my DC on a dream holiday that I’d never be able to afford by myself as I’m a single parent, he’s buying my brother a piece of equipment to do his job.

Mum is insisting I will need to cancel my holiday as that money will be hers.

So what are the chances she’ll get any? She’s apparently found a no win no fee lawyer to help her.

I’m firmly neutral in that if mums entitled to some money she should get some but I also think she’s just jealous and should leave the money alone.

Your Dad sounds a really decent bloke. Your mum sounds awful!

@Thestagshead

The grounds are that they have divorced and there was no financial settlement

She did get a settlement, she got fifty percent of what rhey had at rhe time, which was fifty percent of sod all bur still fifty percent. This isn’t she walked away from what she could have had.

Op, he can see a solicitor but I guarantee he will be told she will get sod all.

There was no court order therefore there was no financial settlement. Whether they both walked away with equal shares or not is irrelevant. In the absence of a court order, she is entitled to make a financial claim against him.

Lol. She can make th claim all she wants, she one hundred percent has no chance. She’s as much chance as I have a complete stranger of legally being allocated any of that money by a judge.

she actually wants to take a holoday away from you?? she could atleast say dw you can still go on Holiday oday, ill pay.

she wont get a penny though

See Wyatt v Vince. They did not have any money when they divorced. There was nothing available to divide between them. Twenty years later, she applied for a financial settlement and the courts ruled that she was entitled to one. She eventually settled for £300k.

You have been told repeatedly on this thread that you are wrong. Some of those comments have been made by practising lawyers. I will tell you again. You are wrong. She definitely has a chance. It may be an uphill battle. But, whereas you genuinely have no chance of making a claim against the OP's father because you are a stranger, she is the ex-wife and there was no financial order on divorce. You would not even be allowed to apply for a settlement under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1974. She is entitled to apply and may be awarded something.

To repeat something I said earlier on this thread, this again shows that failing to get a financial order in divorce can be a false economy.

@prh47bridge but in Wyatt vs Vince the lack of a consent order was the mechanism that allowed the wife to make a claim, but she was only able to do so because she could demonstrate that the husband's lack of financial support since they split meant that she and her children lived in poverty without means of improving their situation. And even then, her settlement was very small compared to what she asked for. In contrast, OP's dad provided ample support over the years. So it's difficult to see how the OP's mother is going to have any grounds for making that sort of request.

[quote PaperDoves]@prh47bridge but in Wyatt vs Vince the lack of a consent order was the mechanism that allowed the wife to make a claim, but she was only able to do so because she could demonstrate that the husband's lack of financial support since they split meant that she and her children lived in poverty without means of improving their situation. And even then, her settlement was very small compared to what she asked for. In contrast, OP's dad provided ample support over the years. So it's difficult to see how the OP's mother is going to have any grounds for making that sort of request.[/quote]
Exactly. I have no idea the poster is trying to argue something so preposterous and clearly erroneous.

[quote PaperDoves]@prh47bridge but in Wyatt vs Vince the lack of a consent order was the mechanism that allowed the wife to make a claim, but she was only able to do so because she could demonstrate that the husband's lack of financial support since they split meant that she and her children lived in poverty without means of improving their situation. And even then, her settlement was very small compared to what she asked for. In contrast, OP's dad provided ample support over the years. So it's difficult to see how the OP's mother is going to have any grounds for making that sort of request.[/quote]
If you prefer, we could talk about the much less publicised case of M v L where, 30 years after divorce, the wife was awarded the right to continue living in the flat her ex-husband had purchased for her following the divorce, 50% of the value of the flat when it was eventually sold, up to £30,000 for essential building work to be carried out on the flat and a lump sum of £150,000. In M v L it was clear that the husband had provided adequate support for his children since the divorce. There was no question of the ex-wife or the children living in poverty.

We don't know enough to say how well the OP's mother will do but, despite @Thestagshead's repeated denial of the law, she is entitled to make a claim. She may get something, she may not. But, to echo @Collaborate, to say she has no chance is ignoring the law.