Surely he's not entitled to half?

[ohidoliketobe23]

Will try and keep this as short as possible!

My parents and siblings moved to another part of the country (UK) to be near us when I had DC. My gran was left behind with my uncle who she was a primary carer for. He has now passed away and she'd like to move to where we are.

She has been married for 45 years, but they've been separated but living together semi-amicably for around 15 years after he was found to be watching porn, meeting escorts etc (thats another story!).

My gran inherited £200k 7 years ago and paid off the £130k remaining on their mortgage. They had £70k in equity at that point.

Here is the problem: he's refusing to move (he's estranged from us so fair enough) and is insisting on her giving him half of the proceeds from the house (worth about £200k).

Would he be entitled to half, given that so much of the property was bought with inheritance? I had hoped he'd only be entitled to half of the £70k plus his contribution to bills.

Also: if they formally separated ie got divorced, would she be entitled to half his private pension?

He pays all the bills (£1200 a month) but he has a hefty private pension, while my gran gets the state pension and no more.

We need to seek legal advice but tbh we don't know where to start. If he gets away with half she's not got much to get a flat with and will likely end up staying with him for the rest of her life because of it.

Any advice much appreciated!

they're married. He’s entitled to half unless there’s something that tips the balance in her/his favour.

I wonder she was overhead talking about solicitors helping to claim half his pension, he might find he's less bothered about the equity..

Starting point will be 50/50 on all assets so that will likely include the house and any pensions, savings, investments.

End results if he were to keep the full value of the pension would probably be that your Gran would get a higher proportion of the equity from the house, but the first step is to understand exactly what assets and debts there are.

It all goes in the pot including his pension.

So she may be able to get more than half the equity if she leaves his pension alone.

She needs legal advice.

Yes, he'd be entitled to half the house as it's a marital asset. However, pensions are put into the pot too, so your gran would be entitled to half of that.

This is helpful advice, thank you!

Something I forgot to include in the initial post is that the house is in her name alone. She had legal advice when she paid off the mortgage and his name was taken off the deeds. I don't know if that makes any difference re marital assets.

I don't think so

My husband had a property before we met which he rents out
I've never even seen the contract so it's certainly not in my name too but I'd assume to get half of it in the event of a divorce

If she can get copies of all assets that will be helpful . You can get a free half hour usually but must be a solicitor who deals with family law.

I'm afraid as they're married it doesn't matter whose name it is in and my understanding is she used her inheritance to 'benefit the family' therefore the family benefit when they split.

Are they planning to divorce? Because otherwise I don't see why he would automatically be entitled to half given he is not on the deeds. Suggest proper legal advice and working out what half his pension will be worth. If similar or may than half the equity it may be best to push for a divorce.

If he believes in half each applies to his pension as well. She needs to see a solicitor ASAP.

She had legal advice when she paid off the mortgage and his name was taken off the deeds. I don't know if that makes any difference re marital assets.

She needs to find this paperwork that he, she and legal representative all signed. Her future relies on knowing what it says exactly. Otherwise it all goes in the pot. Once she's found it she needs to make a one off consultation with a solicitor to understand her position better. If she does go for divorce she needs to make sure there is a clean break order too as that separates them financially.

So this legal advice told her that if his name came off the deeds the house was hers in Venetian of divorce. And he signed it?

I assume he got legal advice as well? He could argue he was conned into it. Usually in marriage it doesn’t really matter who is on the deeds. There must have been other paperwork as work as well. A post-no or something similar.

Thanks everyone - this has been very illuminating as we were totally clueless about all of this.

Will get her booked in for a free family law session and see where we stand.

The other slight complication is that her husband has no surviving family whatsoever. No friends, nobody! If he takes 50% (which seems likely), I wonder whether he'd agree to leave it to my mum in the end. If he doesn't squander it all on escorts and awful websites that is!

@Wheresthefibre I'm not sure about this - going on what she's told me and at 84 she is starting to get a bit confused. She's very clueless with money - doesn't know how much her pension is etc, so I think this whole thing is panicking her a lot.

I'll see if I can get hold of the paperwork pre family law session

This is why she needs the paperwork.

If she managed to someone get legal advice, get him off the dress and managed to agree to not having any part of the house, she wasn’t always that bad with money. She clearly thought about it.

It’s just extremely unusual. And given he pays all the bills I can’t work out why he would chosen to do that, if he even can. Did she buy him out?

so she has been perfectly happy with him paying all the bills £1200 a month, for 15 years..

1200 x 12 = 14,400 per year
x 15 years = 0ver 200k , and she thinks he shouldnt get anything?

Without his contribution, would she even have a house?

What has she done with the 70k she had left if he's paid all the bills?

She needs to pay for proper legal advice, forget a 'free half hour'. This is complicated and needs properly looking into.

Technically he'd have to put a matrimonial home rights charge on the house via land registry to have a claim on the house and proceeds of sale if his name isn't on the deeds.
That said,, he is still entitled to half if they are married, but as PP have suggested, she would also be entitled to half his pension/assets - I wonder if he'd want a long expensive court hearing at this point in his life.

In the UK if you're married, you're entitled to half, even if you're separated. She needs to see a solicitor and get sorted.

If he had not paid all the bills, it sounds like your gran would not have been able to afford to live in the house.

I agree with everyone else that you need proper legal advice, but it's normally everything in the pot including houes and pensions. And, the fact he's been paying to support your gran for so long will count in his favour.

we were totally clueless about all of this.

it’s literally the point of marriage. All assets become legally joint.

This. When a woman is asking if she has any entitlement to her husband's estate sometimes it seems people are more keen on the concept of marital assets.