Rights after a short marriage?

[Frouby]

Hoping someone can help.

My lovely friend got married 3 months ago. She has lived with her dh for 4 years in the property he owned. She has always paid towards the mortgage, bills etc and has proof of this via bank transfers.

She has found out her dh has been having an affair for several months. She isn't sure where the marriage will go now. She wants to try again, her dh is edging his bets I think.

If they do split does she have any rights with regards to the equity in the property? They have increased the value of it by around 30k with various home improvements over the last 4 years.

I have advised she see a solicitor which she intends to do next week but atm she is pretty shell shocked. Her DH has suggested a few weeks break and that she should be the one to leave as it is his house.

Unless she signed some prenuptial type thing, I would think she is now owner of half of their assets.

Can they get divorced so quickly? I thought you had to wait a year or so before you could apply to be officially divorced.

If she moves out of the property she’ll have less of a claim on it.

I wouldn’t do anything without getting proper legal advice.

She needs legal advice. Don't move out. He may already have had his legal advice! I wouldn't put anything past him. Absolutely stay put, she has rights as she's married.

I have on my head that marriages of less than 2 years are treated differently.

Do they have DC? If so this will give her more rights to stay in the house.

As they are married, he cannot force her to move out even though she isn't on the deeds. She should go on the Land Registry website and register a Notice of Home Rights.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/notice-of-home-rights-registration-hr1

This will prevent him selling the property from under her, leaving her homeless.

Otherwise, solicitor all the way. They won't be able to divorce until the marriage is a year old.

If he's saying she should move out for a "break" it sounds like he's already moved on mentally :(

Thank you all. I have already told her to stay put. Will send her the link to register her interest too.

I think it will end. They have no dcs thankfully. She will go see a solicitor next week but things are so distressing for her at the moment she can't think straight.

She could have claim on assets built up whilst living together too if cohabitation was on the same sort of basis of the marriage and she contributed to the asset generation.

She would need to formally separate in the first year as the marriage wasn’t long enough for divorce to be initiated.

The sooner she can get to a solicitor the better. Make sure she bullet points her contributions and has proof of this and assets etc to make the most of the time she has with the solicitor.

What a shit, how long has he owned the property and how long has she lived there and contributed towards the mortgage.
I'm just trying to get a perspective.

Unless she signed some prenuptial type thing, I would think she is now owner of half of their assets

That is not correct!

She will be entitled to any assets amassed, for the period of the marriage only.

And tbh, nobody with a shred of decency, would want half a man's house, when they'd only contributed for 4 years. He could have had that house for 20 years prior to meeting her. Why on earth should she expect for walk away with half of it's value?

Because they are married Confused. Which means as far as I am aware all assets become joint. And the property has been her home for nearly 5 years. She has contributed to it while ever she has lived there.

The DH owned the property jointly with his ex wife until quite recently. About 3 years ago I think? The ex wife recieved her share of the property then and my friend and her dh jointly renovated the property increasing it's value by around 30k.

The ex wife was taken off the mortgage and deeds and the dh took everything over in his own name at that point.

Friend has been with him 4 and a half years, lived together for 4 years, been married a few months. Her wages have gone into the joint account as did his. All bills paid from that account as well as the home improvements they have done.

My poor friend is devastated but wants the marriage to work. I don't think her DH does tho. And if it doesn't then she will need somewhere else to live. And some way to raise either a deposit to buy somewhere or to rent somewhere.

She is booking a solicitors appointment cor next week and I have said I will go with her. Hopefully for her the marriage will work but she needs to know where she will likely end up financially. I have also suggested she have her wages paid into her own account and transfer 50% of the bills across to the joint account.

If he wants out of the marriage he will need to ensure she gets her investment back but I wouldn't necessarily agree that she will get or deserves more than that.

I don't know if things have changed, but 20 years ago my first marriage broke down after 14 months and he moved back to his parents from the house I'd bought before our marriage. No children. I had to pay him half of the increase in value from the date of our marriage. (At the peak of property prices before they crashed. Took me years to make up the deficit I was left with.)

I wish her all the best.

Um, actually, 30 years ago now - time flies...

My first marriage ended in divorce after 9 months. Although we couldn't actually divorce until after a year. We had been together 3 years before that.
We jointly owned a flat together that had 15k equity. He had put down the 10k deposit on it. I got 5k he got 10k.
I didn't really fight for anymore as it was such small amounts really.

I don't think your friend deserves half if he has been paying for the house for 20 years and she has only lived there for 4 years. As they don't have kids she won't be entitled to stay in the house. I doubt she will get much with such as short marriage. Sadly she won't get much sympathy for the fact that he cheated on her. The facts of the marriage break up bare no regards on the divorce settlement. She will get something probably, but not a lot.

The majority of the EU has had cohabitation rights for any two people, regardless of gender, for at least a decade I think, that should allow you similar rights as if you were married for those four years.

If you made an agreement then that would deviate from any norms of marriage, say you made an agreement at sometime during those four years to split responsibilities and assets, and it didn't get overwritten by the following marriage (and hence official agreements stating cohabitation will stand better in court than informal ones), then that could be used to override any norms of marriage.

The marriage can often be considered meaningless I think.

The majority of the EU has had cohabitation rights for any two people, regardless of gender, for at least a decade I think, that should allow you similar rights as if you were married for those four years.

Whether this is true in other EU countries I don’t know, but it absolutely is not the case in the UK.

Best case would likely be half of the increase in assets over the 4 year period, worst case half of the increase in assets since the marriage. It could cost a lot to contest issues at court - don't spend £20k arguing about £10k, obviously. If there is equity, presumably he (?) could borrow against that to 'pay off' the one leaving, if necessary.

Short marriage, one guiding thread is to return people to roughly where they were prior to the relationship.

This is all assuming no relevant children.

She will be entitled to any assets amassed, for the period of the marriage only. Which makes a mockery of "With my worldly goods I thee endow", which is law, as well as a pretty speech!

Yes, there may be adjustments, but 50:50 is the starting point!

The majority of the EU has had cohabitation rights for any two people, regardless of gender, for at least a decade I think, that should allow you similar rights as if you were married for those four years.

It's mistruths like this that end up with women leaving with just the clothes on their back and wondering what they'll eat for dinner.

Which makes a mockery of "With my worldly goods I thee endow", which is law, as well as a pretty speech!

It’s absolutely not.

With a short marriage the aim is to return both parties to the point they started. You don't get 50% assets on the day the vows are made - that is something that comes with time.

She could have claim on assets built up whilst living together too if cohabitation was on the same sort of basis of the marriage and she contributed to the asset generation

^this

Based on what you’ve said about her contribution it will be more like a 4 year marriage for the purpose of splitting assets

This is not classed as a long marriage though (which is around ten years plus at which point a 50:50 split becomes a starting point)

Thanks for all your thoughts. I will pass them onto her.

I know she wants it to work out but don't think it will sadly. So she needs to know how best to protect herself. She is registering an interest tomorrow on the property. At least then it can't be sold from undrr her.

She needs to see a solicitor. There's an awful lot of misinformation here.

Definitely register her home rights.

The Court will add premarital cohabitation, so this is already not an extremely short marriage, she has contributed to the former matrimonial home. Her claim is likely to be no more than 50% of equity, and possibly a fair bit less, depending on all the facts.

It’s absolutely not. Not absolutely, no. I wasn't the one making absolute statements...which was the point I as making to your previous absolute statement!

... the starting point in any divorce, whether you agree it between you, use a mediator or go to court, is that all assets are shared, unless one party can show otherwise.

It ain't set in stone but it is a starting point...