Is anyone here a legal eagle? Friend desperately seeking advice

[Sunrisingmama]

Hi

I know this isn’t long shot but I wondered if anyone on mumsnet can help me help my friend.

She’s a single mum with four kids and really struggling because she can’t get all the benefits she is entitled to. She also works and has a good job but can’t put the hours in because of the kids so she earns much less than she could.

She’s struggling to pay her rent and her legal fees which she has incurred in a lengthy battle with her ex over contact and now money.

She had money in the bank but this is now virtually gone. But she is a listed partner in her ex’s farm business and is entitled to half the value of their house. Because of this she can’t get many benefits.

Her ex and his family are entirely in control of the business, she has nothing to do with it and she receives none of the profits because her ex keeps saying there are no profits. Whenever he makes any money she believes he hides it by giving it to family members.

The house they lived in doesn’t have full planning and her solicitor has told her to wait for planning permission to be granted and then they can move forward. But her ex isn’t even trying to get planning, and her name is not on the deeds

Is there anything she can do?! Her solicitor has basically told her no, there is nothing they can do except wait and hope the partner goes ahead with the planning process.

She can’t afford any more legal fees.

Is there anyone out there who has any expertise in this field?

She’s going to end up having to apply for social housing but her social worker has told her that if she moves again her ex will probably file for custody on the grounds that she is not providing stability. She’s already moved twice.

Sorry for waffling on. I just want to do something to help.

It would help if you would say if she was married.

Why does her ex have to get planning to move forward (what do you mean by planning? Is there a completed house or not? So you mean planning permission to complete some work, or sign off on already completed work by the planning department?). Why can’t she get the half share of the current value now? What makes you think she’s entitled to 50% is her name isn’t on the deeds? That takes me back to the point about knowing whether she is married or not.

She was married and they lived there in the family home with their children.

The house is completed but apparently it doesn’t have full planning permission

One solution is she moves back in as I don't think decree absolute has happened. I don't think he has a legal right to stop that and then she would have no rent to pay.

She should also if not already done registr at the Land Registry the spouse's occupancy right under the law which most solicitors would advise a spouse to do if the house is not in their name. - she can do that immediately today.

Is the farming partnership a partnership, a limited company or some other form eg an LLP? If it is a registered company she can look at th accounts on line and also even with a partnerhip will have legal rights to see details of the partnership's activities and indeed attend partnership meetings.

She could try to get a full time job - I worked full time after divorce and I had 5 children.

She shoulod apply for interim maintenance from the husband but that may not be worth it if he is able to show his income is very low. Would his family look after the children more to enable her to work full time perhaps?

Hi Xenia

Thanks for your response. You have obviously loads of experience here. Hats off to you for doing this with 5 kids. I also have four and been through a very similar thing to my friend. I only currently work 16 hours and am exhausted so absolutely hats off to you for what you did 😍.

I think my friend will increase her hours in September when she gets her 30 hours free childcare so that will definitely help.

No way she will move back in, he was abusive to her and the kids. SS have been involved but proof is insufficient for them to be of much use. They just sit on the fence.

I will see if she can find out the structure of the business.

And yes the Land Registry thing, I remember I did that now when I left and the house was in his name only and it all worked out very well. But our house was up for sale anyway. Theirs isn’t so can she force a sale somehow if she registers her legal right to occupancy? I remember my solicitor said I had a very good case under Lands and Trusts and also the Children’s Act, to claim money from the profits of the house sale. I wonder if that would be true for her too?

The difference in my case though was that my family contributed to the deposit on the house. This house is built on land belonging to his family and now he has added his father to the deeds.

In h er case she is married so does not need to use any trust or children law - she has rights of a spouse, with 50% of joint assets as a starting point. It does not matter if the house is not in her name.

The purpose of registering the spousal right is so he cannot sell the house from under her and disappear with the money or gamble it all away ( assuming there is any equity in the house). She should also search the Land Registry and for £3 can see whose name it is registered in eg husband or his mother or a different company and also if it has a mortgage over it. She can do that in a few minutes now.

It sounds like moving back in will not work for her so applying for emergency interim maintenance (if he husband has any savings or income) might be the best route unless she is sue he can pretend he has no money at all. By moving out she has proved she is adequately housed which is why people are usually advised to stay put (my husband stayed until the bitter end on legal advice) and if the partner is violent get a non molestation order. It can be more complicated with farms as often there is a family partnership or company and frequently the parents or siblings also live in the house or on the land.

There is quite a good summary of interim maintenance here www.stowefamilylaw.co.uk/blog/2018/10/22/divorce-tips-what-is-interim-maintenance/

I was already working full time with 5 childrern and the youngest 2 were just about to start school when we divorced so it was not too bad and I earned more than my husband so not the usual situation. Even so full time childcare is very very expensive even once they are at school. I had to pay someone to collect them at 3 and look after them until at least 6 and then cover school holidays.

This is great!!!! Thank you..... best advice I have heard anywhere and you make her solicitor look like Mickey Mouse!

I will tell her to get on the Land Registry. She’s spent so much on legal fees already I am wondering if she might be better off just representing herself.

I will tell her to search LR and find out exactly the situation with the house.

I know it has his dads name on it too, and there is complication around a) no full planning and b) ground rent to his family. He has also given cattle from the business (of which she is still a registered partner) without her consent to his father as unpaid rent. Which sounds incredibly wrong and fishy to me.

You are certainly spot on when you say it gets complicated when it’s agricultural.

The childcare situation is also tricky. Her youngest is still 18 months off school age although they will get the 30 hours in September. She actually has what I think is an amazing career with super prospects and a fairly good salary but because she can only work part time it doesn’t take her very far. Rents round here are quite expensive.

I think hopefully it won’t be long before she can command a raise or move to a higher paid position in the same industry. She was held back when she went back to work by having spent 7 years at home looking after the babies. She could definitely earn more, she’s just got to get back in the groove and she’s very held back by having to fire fight urgent problems in the short term. I worry that she’s running out of energy to be honest, the court battle over contact was really painful.

Thanks for the info about interim maintenance, it might be her best option. At the moment he is only paying about £200 a month which sounds like peanuts to me but I have no idea about what are “normal” amounts as I stayed out of all that when I separated.

Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me about this it really helps to hear from someone who knows their shit and also has some life experience to back it up!

I think the non resident parent should be paying about 25% of net capped income less deductions for time spent with the father - for the children if 3 children under the CMS formula but if he says his income is really low then that is going to be 25% of not very much. Then for spousal maintenance just depends on the incomes of the two eg my husband claimed if from me as I earned a lot more but we compromised with a clean break, no spousal maintenance and my buying him out of the house (by taking on a £1m mortgage lucky me) and he got about 60% of our joint assets in return for no future maintenance claims on my income. That is a very unusual order but illustrates how hard it is to generalise.

If he and his father own the house 50% each then the husband's share is just that 50% so the starting point wife's share of that 50% might be 25% of the house's value I suppose although "ground rent" suggests it might be some kind of leasehold - a land registry search might help. She should also look at if she has had copies of partnership accounts and tax returns to HMRC which she ought to have had as a partner and may be speak to the accountants for the business - no reason they should not speak to her as she is a partner in the business I think.