My husband wants to a divorce but i have no where to live at

Hello. My name is***** you for the question.

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For background - how long were you together and married in total?

how old is the child?

and what does he expect you to do?

are you prepared to ask for financial settlement?

You have probably seen a pop-up offering you the chance of a telephone call at an extra cost. It is up to you whether you have a telephone call or not but do bear in mind that a 15-30 minute telephone call covers an awful lot of ground and you can get an awful lot of information in that time. So you can ignore it or go ahead or go ahead later. It’s your choice.

Meanwhile, we can carry on on here.

The house where you live is the marital home and you are free to come and go as you like and it doesn’t matter whether it’s in his name or your name or joint names, your financial interest is exactly the same.

You may think that he has been clever by keeping the marital home in his sole name but he hasn’t.

What will happen with regard to the division of marital finances is that everything will be lumped in together including pensions. With regard to pensions you will need a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) which converts the pension to a lump sum for the mathematical calculation. You cannot get hold of that money but it converts it to a theoretical cash equivalent.

All the value of the assets are then lumped together and there is a division which starts off at 50-50 and it would then be adjusted in favour of one spouse or the other spouse depending on the needs of the parties, how long they have been married, where the money came from, et cetera et cetera.

Not just the length of the marriage would be taken into account but also any length of time together before marriage because it would be unfair if the couple were together for 29 years and only married for one year before splitting up (not uncommon) to be treated in the same way as a couple who had a whirlwind romance got married, were married for 12 months, and then split up. So the whole length of the relationship would be taken into account.

It’s largely a mathematical thing but does look at needs after divorce.

Even if everything is being divided down the middle, it’s not really a case of dividing it down the middle, all the assets wouldn’t be split 50-50 but, for example one person may keep the house and the other for example could have the savings and the pensions.

You have to remember that if you have dependent children, under 18, the situation can be completely different.

Parents are under a duty to provide a home for dependent children until they reach 18 and therefore, unless there is a lot of equity in the property, sufficient to release some money to the non-resident parent AND provide a home for the resident parent aAND the children until the youngest reaches 18, it’s unlikely that the non-resident parent is going to be able to force a sale of the property.

The only good news is that the party that remains in the property is responsible for the mortgage and the bills.

The situation would be completely different if there were no children and it would be infinitely possible for the person wishing to sell to force a sale of the property if necessary under section 14 of the Trusts of Land Appointment of Trustees Act by applying for an “order for sale”.

Dependent children, under 18, change all that. However in those circumstances the resident parent would be responsible for the mortgage and the bills not the non-resident parent although there is still the possibility of child maintenance and spousal maintenance.

If the parent with residence of the children cannot afford doesn't want to live in the property because, for example, it's too big, they can always sell it and asked the court to apply the proceeds to a new house to provide a home for the children until they reach 18. Only then would it be sold.

There is a strong possibility therefore that you could live in the property until your daughter reaches 18 and only then it would be sold.

But you would be responsible for the mortgage and the bills meanwhile.

Thank you for letting me assist you with your legal question. I am glad that I was able to help.

I am not certain whether that answers the question for you or not, but I am happy to answer any specific points arising from this.

It will be my pleasure to help you again either further with this or any future questions you have

Kind regards

Stuart

A person who believes that they are being bullied or who has been a victim of domestic violence or coercive controlling behaviour, can apply to court for a non-molestation order to prevent the other person coming within 100 m of them and an occupation order for the alleged perpetrator to move out of the house.

Here are the government webpages on exactly this subject. https://www.gov.uk/injunction-domestic-violence.

A range of people can apply to the court: spouses, cohabitants and ex-cohabitants, people living in the same household (but not employees), tenants, lodgers, boarders, and certain relatives such as parents grandparents, in-laws, brothers sisters, and engaged couples. So basically people who are in a close relationship either physically or family or living together whether that’s in a relationship or just the same house.

There doesn't actually have to be physical violence per se because there can be coercive behaviour for example as you will read in this excellent article: D

https://rightsofwomen.org.uk/get-information/violence-against-women-and-international-law/domestic-violence-injunctions/

If living arrangements are involved, it is very often impractical to live in the same house and it would very often be allied to an occupation order which defines or regulates the rights of occupation of property by the parties involved.

Many landlords will not change the name of the tenancy agreement for example without a Occupation Order.

It always helps if a report was made to the police recently because that is good evidence that this actually happened. The reason is that to report something to the police which hasn’t happened is a serious offence of wasting police time and/or attempting to pervert the course of justice which potentially carries a short jail sentence. So the civil court will take more notice if it has been reported to the police.

Having said that, the civil court will normally err on the side of caution and grant the order. However if the order is applied for based upon fabricated facts and that comes out in the wash, that is also perverting the course of justice and contempt of court and also potentially carries a jail sentence.

It is one of the few areas of law which legal aid is still available in certain circumstances so it is certainly worthwhile contacting the solicitor in the first instance.

As there is usually some urgency with these kind of applications, it can be done on an emergency basis and there is the facility on the form to do that. An applicant can also attach a Certificate of Urgency (a letter with that heading) explaining why this should be in court on an emergency basis, usually within a day or so.

These applications are usually made “ex parte” which means that the other side doesn’t get notice. What I mean by that is that they are not told “if you do this again we will make an application to court”.

The first they know about it is when the applicant gets the order and they are given the order.

The effect of the order is exactly the same as a restraining order to restraining order is something applied for by the police/CPS through the magistrates court (or exceptionally the Crown Court) whereas a non-molestation order is through the family/civil court.

Section 1 of the Domestic Violence, Crime & Victims Act 2004 May the breach of a non-molestation order a criminal offence. It’s serious stuff.

I appreciate that probably the easiest way of making and keeping it civil is to make sure that your partner stays away from you and hence my suggestion of the application for a non-molestation order.

They may but the first he will know about it is when he gets the order and if he starts to be nasty, you dial 999 and the police arrest him.

There is a possibility of a liability for spousal maintenance, maintenance paid to keep a spouse , as opposed to children. Although most commonly paid from husband to wife, that is not necessarily the case. Spousal maintenance is based on both incomes, ability to earn money, previous lifestyles and most importantly, need. It is not about equalising incomes. There is no exact formula, but these links will give some reading..

https://www.blbsolicitors.co.uk/blog/spousal-maintenance-how-much-and-for-how-long/

and

http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed33597

and

https://family.findlaw.com/divorce/questionnaire-are-you-entitled-to-alimony-spousal-support.html

And here is an interesting and informative article with regard to the division of finances in general

https://www.lawteacher.net/cases/financial-matters-on-divorce.php

And finally, here is an article what happens to inheritance in the event of a

divorce:

http://www.marilynstowe.co.uk/2011/05/18/what-happens-to-an-inheritance-in-the-event-of-divorce/

A non-resident parent is obliged to pay child maintenance at the CMS rates which are here https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/672432/how-we-work-out-child-maintenance.pdf Do read the whole document but the basic rates start at the top of page 18. Child maintenance is reduced by 1/7th for each 52 nights that the non-resident parent has the children. If the children live 50-50 with both parents, then no child maintenance is payable. Considering there may be a disparity in incomes, that seems rather odd but that’s the rule. If the paying parent pays for other things such as clothes, toys, school trips, food, whatever, then it’s not classed as maintenance. They are voluntary payments. They do not get taken into account. Child maintenance has to be money paid by the paying parent to the resident parent. It doesn’t matter how much the receiving parent earns or what assets they have and it doesn’t matter what assets the paying parent has, child maintenance payments are based upon income of the paying parent.

Can I help you any further with this?

It's my pleasure to help. I’m glad that I was able to help so far.

Thank you for trusting Just Answer with your legal problem.

I'm happy to clarify anything which is outstanding.

Please don't hesitate to ask.

Kind regards

Stuart