Divorce and Banks + Property

[Mgizmogpc]

Hi Y'all
My wife's best friend is coming to stay after splitting with her husband. She needs a refuge, we have the space, no sweat.
However, can anyone shed any light on this matter given the following facts

1. What happens when the bank account is Joint?
2. Her hubby is Full Time Employment, She was Part Time
3 There are children involved ( 13 &17 )
4. Equitable property involved ( Probably £200,000 )
5. As a result of leaving she is dependant upon part time income, what aid can she receive from the state? ( Legal Aid or benefits. etc. )
6. Is there a good web site that deals with issues such as these
I only ask because part of the equation impinges upon the Bank Issue that this site focuses upon, but there are people from all walks of life viewing this site and all experience is relative, and therefore helpful to her.
Many thanks in advance for any replys received
TBFTGOG....

[BotB]

I think your wife's friend would find this website very informative and supportive in regard to her situation and the questions you have asked on her behalf:

www.ondivorce.co.uk

Me and my OH split, but were not married and had a child.

I paid the mortgage for a year before selling the house as couldn't afford to pay it any longer, the mortgage company wouldn't chase OH for the debt as he had moved out and advised I would need to get legal advice.

When the account was closed any remaining balance was spilt in half-the same for an overdraft I think.

When I sold the house with £14,000 profit, he took half as per the law, even though I had contruibuted to It mainly-again i would have had to action court proceedings to recover this.

If she carries on working, depending on her income she will get Working tax credit,Child tax credit,Child Maintenence,Child benefit.

Due to the age of the kids, she would be entitled to stay in the home and expect her ex husband to pay towards it.

Sometimes she is better off going to the Housing department of her local council and being put on the waiting list, or she could try and say she would be homeless and they will house her asap.

Also generally If I had not worked at all, I would be better off! This is because of all the benefits you get as a single mother.

These are just personal experiences, but i truly hope it doesnt get messy like it sometimes can!

Give her good luck from me!

Lou x

[Loula]

My only piece of advice to her is that given to me by a divorce solicitor...
NEVER EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES LEAVE THE MARITAL HOME IF CHILDREN ARE INVOLVED - KICK HIM OUT!

I would get down the benefits agency asap or call your local branch.

LOULA

Yep, I totally agree, I regret selling the house, I felt forced to, but i would never do it again in hindsight!

She shoudl stick to her guns, if she moved out 1st then there could be problems trying to get that back! Like Loula said kick him out, as she is the one who is going to have the kids!

Lou x

[Overdrawn]

Originally Posted by Lueeze

This is because of all the benefits you get as a single mother.

What!??! I'm a single mum and I don't get any benefits but then everybody's experiences and circumstances are different.

The best advice to give your friend is to seek professional advice from a family law solicitor. She could also make an appointment to see a CAB advisor and if you contact your local council offices they can set her up to see a welfare rights officer.

But do you work?

[Overdrawn]

No, I'm a full-time, stay at home mum

And you have no income? and no benefits?

Im confused?

[seylectric]

I'm not sure how relevant this may be, but all I can say is get it settled (with professional help) as soon as possible.

Why? Our case, as briefly as possible:

My girlfriend's ex moved out of their home 15 years ago to go and live with his "other woman", who he had been seeing for a couple of years.

We got together about 12 years ago. The divorce went through about 8 years ago but he always claimed, verbally, that he was not interested in the property, which is (currently) worth about 90k and needs about 20k spending on it. So basically the equity issue was never discussed legally or otherwise.

6 years ago we wanted to move to another house, but as "our" house was still in his name jointly we needed his signature to sell up. We sent letters to him via a solicitor for 18 months but never got a reply, but obviously could not sell until he agreed.

To cut a long story short it has taken us until about a month ago to reach a settlement as he decided (or was advised) that he was entitled to half of the CURRENT value; obviously as soon as he found this out he purued his claim for 50%.

We eventually settled on paying him £25k; this may not sound too bad to some but when you consider that the property was worth (when he left) about £30k in total and at the time of the settlement last month we had to pay him £25k plus it cost us 9k in legal fees we're pretty devastated by this as we assumed that he would get something between nothing and maybe 5k.

There was only £4k owing on the previous mortgage too.

Basically the law says that he is entitled to 50% of the CURRENT value, his name is (or was) on the property and the fact that he walked away 15 years ago is largely irrelevant in the eyes of the law.

My point is that if the property increases in value over time, so does his share so sort it as soon as you can, don't be fooloed into thinking that he will get little or nothing like we were, it might cost you big time.

[Don Quioxte]

Originally Posted by seylectric

I'm not sure how relevant this may be...

Oh, I think I'd mark that about a 9.5 on relevance...

thanks for the post

Its very true!

I cant believe your girlfriend was divorced, but didn't sort out the house though, thats one hell of a loss to make on the house!

Luckily I suppose that you didnt owe much on it, or you would have walked away with not alot!

Thanks for that

Lou x

[seylectric]

Well the house situation was never sorted because nobody, myself included, really believed it was likely to be an issue.

You would be amazed at how many people think that after a split the person that leaves the property is entitled to either next to nothing or at best half of the value of the property at the time they left. That's certainly what we thought, and even one solicitor, who didn't take the case on because it wasn't his field of expertise, told us not to worry because he was unlikely to get much.

We don't think he even knew himself, we're guessing it was his solicitors that told him he was entitled to half the current value. What was particularly galling is he stalled for years presumably knowing all the time that the value was increasing, so in some ways we were lucky to get away with paying him £25k. Mind you, I haven't finished with this matter yet!

It is extrememly important for people to realise this, though

Maybe it was his ulterior motive? Didn't the solicitor who dealt with the divorce deal with this too?

Normally the assets get split at that time...

[seylectric]

No, the divorce was uncontested so fairly straightforward and he said all along that he had no interest in the property so it was never an issue as far as my girlfriend was concerned.

Towards the end of the case I wanted to contest it but I was handicapped because of course technically it was nothing to do with me, but the solicitor advised that the legal fees were going up all the time and he might finish up with 50% in the end so advised us to settle at £25k.

I'm still very unhappy about it, I don't think our solicitor, though locally one of the most respected (and most expensive) handled it very well for a variety of reasons but I don't think there's much i can do. I certainly can't afford another legal battle.

Yes i dint think they handled it at all well!

At least its all over with now eh!

[seylectric]

Almost.....just the small matter of hopefully claiming back a few grand's worth of mortgage arrears fees from Abbey