Divorce financial dispute

MrsDancer · 2023-06-21T13:18:04+00:00

Hello everyone I'm in court tomorrow for a financial dispute hearing for my divorce and I am scared stiff. Please can anyone give me advice on what might happen, these are the facts X living in FH and works away 6 months of the year earning £60K I moved out into our second home with our 2 children. I earn £11K self employed and get UC and chikd benefit. Equity from both houses is £250K I have £18K debt in my name and X has £70K debt in his name. He is paying all the debts as he has the majority of the family income. He has not paid any child maintenance for the 22 months since we separated. We have a child arrangements order stating the children live with me and they spend 25% of their time with dad. He has kept all house contence and I had to rebuy everything. What do you think outcome would be? Thank you

Original poster

MrsDancer · 21/06/2023 14:19

Forgot to add

FH is worth £420K and our second home where I live with the children is worth £180K

OP posts:

SiouxsieSiouxStiletto · 21/06/2023 20:08

Have you not had any legal advice at all @MrsDancer?

Original poster

MrsDancer · 21/06/2023 20:30

I haven't been told what the outcome might be x

OP posts:

SiouxsieSiouxStiletto · 21/06/2023 20:33

MrsDancer · 21/06/2023 20:30

I haven't been told what the outcome might be x

Have you sought any legal advice and are you being represented?

strawberry2017 · 21/06/2023 20:36

What is your solicitor planning to go for?

peanutbutterkid · 21/06/2023 20:55

yeah, what have you instructed your legal representative to do?

Testina · 21/06/2023 22:39

You have 2 homes and £88K debt?

There isn’t nearly enough information here.

Glaring omissions are your ages, your children’s ages, your short and long term earning potential (could you drop the £11K self employed to walk into £25K employed, for example) PENSIONS!!!

You make it sound like he’s a scoundrel not paying CMS, but that’s £350K of mortgage between the houses - nothing you’ve said suggests that he’s not paying more than CMS in other payments informally.

Literally no-one can take a guess at this without more info - especially pension.

You must have had some conversation with your solicitor about what your aim is?

BetterFuture1985 · 23/06/2023 00:45

Minimum wage working full time is around £18k now so that plus the universal credit and child benefit that you will be eligible for will be your earning capacity and not the £11k. Once child maintenance is added on top, there's a good chance your net income will be higher than his.

Likely outcome of 50/50 I think but will depend on your age and that of your children.

Babyroobs · 23/06/2023 00:51

How are you getting Uc when you own half a house you don't live in ? Or is it up for sale?

Elfer13 · 23/06/2023 02:20

I can only speak from personal experience but my financial hearing divorce settlement took three meetings and a considerable legal bill to both me and my ex.
At the end of it all the judge basically told the solicitors that everything would be split 50/50 which included debts and assets and it was irrelevant whose name they were in as we took both on as a couple. The house was in my name and I paid the mortgage but it was sold once DC finished full time education which wasn't long after the hearing and the debts were paid out of that with the remainder being split 50/50.
I am not a solicitor so would not dream of giving legal advice and only give my experience to maybe give you and your ex a reason to talk sensibly about the outcome before the greedy legal vultures devour a significant part of what you both will need to move forward.
I wish you luck.

Original poster

MrsDancer · 23/06/2023 05:00

Thank you for your replies.

UC know I have property but they have decided to disregard it for a certain length of time. I'm self employed so I don't know if that makes a difference too.

Our children are aged 7 & 8 and live with me 75%

I know the outcome will likely be 50/50 but without court he would make sure I had nothing. So 50% for me is what I want and anything else is just a bonus. It is a needs case.

Yesterday didn't go anything as expected. My barrister met me only 30mins before the hearing and was very rude to me. He seemed to understand my situation. I was very nervous too as history of DV and I had special measures in place. Once in the court room the judge asked my barrister my position and he got the information wrong, when the judge corrected him he lost it it was shouting at her and she was shouting back. It was very distressing. He wouldn't be quite and kept answering her back. The judge said this is all on record and he said good! The judge had to shout very loud. The judge asked me my position and the barrister was shouting at me not to answer her and the judge was shouting for me to answer. I was just crying. The judge asked him to go calm down and understand my position. He got sacked from ever working in court again. I was traumatised as the shouting is a trigger for me. I had a panic attack in the corridor. I decided not to go back in with the barrister and I represented myself. The judge was lovely towards me and she ended up saying we need ro reschedule. We made a few decisions to move us forward towards another FDR. Afterwards I googled the barrister and he has s history of this behaviour.

OP posts:

Babyroobs · 23/06/2023 08:50

MrsDancer · 23/06/2023 05:00

Thank you for your replies.

UC know I have property but they have decided to disregard it for a certain length of time. I'm self employed so I don't know if that makes a difference too.

Our children are aged 7 & 8 and live with me 75%

I know the outcome will likely be 50/50 but without court he would make sure I had nothing. So 50% for me is what I want and anything else is just a bonus. It is a needs case.

Yesterday didn't go anything as expected. My barrister met me only 30mins before the hearing and was very rude to me. He seemed to understand my situation. I was very nervous too as history of DV and I had special measures in place. Once in the court room the judge asked my barrister my position and he got the information wrong, when the judge corrected him he lost it it was shouting at her and she was shouting back. It was very distressing. He wouldn't be quite and kept answering her back. The judge said this is all on record and he said good! The judge had to shout very loud. The judge asked me my position and the barrister was shouting at me not to answer her and the judge was shouting for me to answer. I was just crying. The judge asked him to go calm down and understand my position. He got sacked from ever working in court again. I was traumatised as the shouting is a trigger for me. I had a panic attack in the corridor. I decided not to go back in with the barrister and I represented myself. The judge was lovely towards me and she ended up saying we need ro reschedule. We made a few decisions to move us forward towards another FDR. Afterwards I googled the barrister and he has s history of this behaviour.

That sounds terrible. I hope you are ok.