Hi all, so quick summary. About to start divorce proceedings, I know no 2 cases are the same, but any background of expectations/advice as I go into this drama. I have a feeling she will be unreasonable.
We live in a property worth around £475k with equity of £170k. There is an issue here though, we only moved into this place 2 years ago, prior to exchanging my wife made me sign a 'trust in deed' document to ringfence £150k in her name and £20k for me.
This was because she bought the flat originally, for context she put down £30k as deposit and I moved in 2 years later, I then continued to live there for 7 more years. Paying half on everything, including renovations. I had no issue signing a document, but felt the £20k was too low and asked for 20% (would have been around £35k). She actually initially wanted me to sign it as zero to start with, blazing rows ensued before she threatened to not exchange on the new place unless I signed, we had a matter of weeks to do this, and with 2 small kids in tow. Plus the fact she was made redundant during the mortgage offer (we just didn't tell the lender) it was now or never, or we were stuck in the flat for ages. This blackmail started what has been a long and pretty horrible 2 years leading to where I'm at now, but anyway! BTW we’ve been married 7 years.
So we have the house situation with the document, some shares in my name worth about £15k, a pension in my name worth about £110k and one in hers about £50k. Probably about 10k in joint savings.
We have 2 children aged 2 and 4, eldest starts school next year in Sept. I earn £70k, she hasn't worked since the redundancy so about 2.5 years been a SAHM.
What advice, expecations would you give on this scenario? The plan in my head is I probably just don't challenge the trust in deed to hopefully get away from all of this and avoid court etc.. but then I keep the shares and my pension. Would she likely get spousal because she doesn't work and the kids age? If she did that I'd be more inclined to go for a higher % of the equity, or is the trust in deed document water tight?
Any advice appreciate, sorry for long ramble.
We live in a property worth around £475k with equity of £170k. There is an issue here though, we only moved into this place 2 years ago, prior to exchanging my wife made me sign a 'trust in deed' document to ringfence £150k in her name and £20k for me.
This was because she bought the flat originally, for context she put down £30k as deposit and I moved in 2 years later, I then continued to live there for 7 more years. Paying half on everything, including renovations. I had no issue signing a document, but felt the £20k was too low and asked for 20% (would have been around £35k). She actually initially wanted me to sign it as zero to start with, blazing rows ensued before she threatened to not exchange on the new place unless I signed, we had a matter of weeks to do this, and with 2 small kids in tow. Plus the fact she was made redundant during the mortgage offer (we just didn't tell the lender) it was now or never, or we were stuck in the flat for ages. This blackmail started what has been a long and pretty horrible 2 years leading to where I'm at now, but anyway! BTW we’ve been married 7 years.
So we have the house situation with the document, some shares in my name worth about £15k, a pension in my name worth about £110k and one in hers about £50k. Probably about 10k in joint savings.
We have 2 children aged 2 and 4, eldest starts school next year in Sept. I earn £70k, she hasn't worked since the redundancy so about 2.5 years been a SAHM.
What advice, expecations would you give on this scenario? The plan in my head is I probably just don't challenge the trust in deed to hopefully get away from all of this and avoid court etc.. but then I keep the shares and my pension. Would she likely get spousal because she doesn't work and the kids age? If she did that I'd be more inclined to go for a higher % of the equity, or is the trust in deed document water tight?
Any advice appreciate, sorry for long ramble.
Last edited: