PLCLEGAL Hope you are well. I have a few more questions

Thank you for your patience.

As regards ***** ***** of the first property, if you put in a significant deposit, this would hopefully have been protected by a deed of trust or agreement of a similar nature. If it was not, it leaves you in a vulnerable position given that you were joint owners of the property, as the presumption with a jointly owned property (under joint tenancy rather than tenants in common, where shares are specified as a percentage) is that you both legally own the whole of the property in equal shares. This means that the deposit, if not protected, is effectively swallowed up in to the joint pot. It's possible in a non-marital dispute to make equitable arguments about the deposit amount to try and ring fence it before a settlement is agreed, but when you then marry, without any protection over the deposit on the family home it will perhaps be difficult to argue that the despot amount is effectively yours alone.

Agreeing a settlement in terms of a cash sum rather than a percentage is sensible if you are being bought out, but not if you are agreeing a Mesher order.

As to the house valuation, you can insist on a surveyor's valuation rather than estate agents virtual valuations, in order to get a true price. There is a fee for this type of report of a few hundred pounds, but its probably worth the spend to get the right price for the sake of the agreement.

I hope that this helps.

Do remember that I can only give you my opinion.

Another lawyer may have a different opinion. Litigation needs at least 2 parties and neither goes to court expecting to lose.

Nonetheless, one of them does, even though they have been told by their respective legal advisers that they have a good chance of success.

If there was a black-and-white answer to every legal problem there would be no need for anything to ever proceed to court!

I am glad to help.

Hopefully, I have answered your query in a way that is simple and easy to understand.

I would be more than happy to clarify anything else for you. In the meantime, thank you once again for using our services.

I am happy to answer any specific points arising from this.

Please be aware that my answer is based strictly upon the information you have given me.

If you still need any points clarifying, I will be happy to reply because the thread does not close. In fact, it remains open indefinitely.

I am always happy to answer any further questions you have on any new thread in which case, please start your question with, “ For PLCLEGAL only”.

That only applies to new threads, not this one. You have me exclusively on this one.

Thank you.

Take care and stay safe.

My pleasure. Thank you again for visiting JustAnswer, please do let me know if you have any additional questions in the future. I am also happy to answer any new questions on other topics that you may have, you can request me by putting “for PLCLEGAL” at the start of the new thread. Best wishes, Peter

In general the court would want to keep your business asset separate from the marital assets - you rely own this for your income and it's not a marital asset per se.

As long as it is not a joint business, this is.

However, the value of the business may effect your claim on the property, depending on its worth.

It's actually very difficult to advise on specifics, given that we only have a very brief overview of your situation here.

It would really need you to sit down with a lawyer and the form E's (if filed) to go through what would be a reasonable outcome.

If there is a deal to be done, you would draft this into a separation agreement. Though this type of agreement is not totally binding on the judge in a divorce, if you have both taken legal advice on the contents of it there is no good reason a judge won't uphold it, providing it is fair to both of you.

I hope that this helps. We can discuss further and more bespoke assistance, of course, but that would be outside this platform obviously.

Thank you again for visiting JustAnswer, please do let me know if you have any additional questions in the future. I am also happy to answer any new questions on other topics that you may have, you can request me by putting “for PLCLEGAL” at the start of the new thread. Best wishes, Peter

The courts will always favour a clean break, if its possible. The mesher order option comes into play where it is not possible.

A mediation agreement is a good template, but not legally binding and less useful than a separation agreement as mediators do not give legal advice. To sign a separation agreement you have to have had legal advice, which gives it more weight.

As to contact, this can be done through mediation without the court's involvement.

If you come off the mortgage, buy your house and do all of this without a signed agreement, then yes you weaken your position in terms of the settlement.

Your needs will be met by the house you own. Your wife will manage the family home mortgage on her own. As you are not tied to the mortgage there, and don't need it to live in, then your claim on the asset is weakened as a result.

I hope that clarifies.

As I said its as legally binding an agreement as you can have, in the cirtcumstances. It';s certainly much more effective than a mediation agreement, but it may of course still be the case that you need to attend mediation to come up with the terms of the the agreed settlement.

A solicitor or barrister can draft the agreement for you, for a standard agreement it would normally take me 2-3 hours (obviously depending on complexity this could be more) to take instructions and complete a draft so the cost should simply be an hourly rate.

Of course, I can offer email contact to discuss, I can't put my hourly rate on here though! I'll submit the offer above.

Of course - happy to do so.

A mesher type agreement would have you remain on the mortgage, normally, but if it is possible for you to come off, then your interest would be simply registered as a charge on the property.

I'll email you shortly, apologies, it's been a very busy day!

Absolutely. Email on the way.

A court order is pretty watertight.

There would have to be a significant change in circumstances in order to depart from the contents, and so minor alterations etc would not affect this.

Even extensive repairs won't really have that a significant impact in the house price.

However, for housekeeping purposes, you could commission a surveyor's report on the house, it's condition and it's value at today's date, and then in the event of a dispute a similar report can be commissioned at the date of sale, which can address any discrepancies/ increases in value due to additional works, if this is going to be an issue.

That way the question of increase in value due to alterations is dealt with by a specialist.

I would dispute the value of the business, certainly.

A business only has a net worth if it can be bought/ sold.

Are you not actually a sole trader in that respect?

I would suggest you go back to your accountant and work out the best approach - as I don't believe the valuation is helpful or accurate in the circumstances.

The other point is, of course, that your work is not a marital asset. It's your source of income.

60/40 is pretty good, to be fair, you may conversely end up with less time if it goes through the courts.

I'd agree that tackling both issues at the same time is perhaps not in your best interests. Far better to put the financial arrangements to bed before arguing in court for 50/50 instead of 60/40.

Happy to help.

That's good news - and as I would have expected.

You start at 50/50, the departure form this is on the basis of needs, not a mother/ father bias. Obviously, making a generalisation, historically mothers did not work and fathers were breadwinners, so there is still a perception that mothers will automatically get more. It's not the case.

I can turn around drafts in 7 days normally.

Yes I can advise you as part of the service.

Submitting a draft to the court can be done as soon as you are agreed.

How long it will take the court to turn this into a final order will depend on court delays, but if you have submitted a draft consent order after taking legal advice you should be pretty safe, if all seems fair on paper. Obviously no guarantees, just an assessment of risk.

Of course - there's no delay from my end as I work completely online for drafting and paperwork.

The process is quite straightforward:

1. Mediation agreement;

2. D81 statement of information (assets and liabilities) to be completed in draft form;

3. Both sent to me for review;

4. Feedback and questions from me;

5. Draft order prepared to submit to the court;

6. Confirmation that you are happy with the contents.

Essentially that's the process. Steps 3-6 can be done within 7 days. I hope that helps.

You submit a form D81 jointly. I work just on an hourly rate, there's no fee to instruct.

Only one set of court forms and a court order is submitted - there are not two competing versions of the same thing.

You both have to approve the draft.

The financial order application costs £255.

I hope that clarifies.

Happy to help. You have my details - as and when needed. Best wishes.