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Hi, as a concerned father (and grandfather) I've been watching with an ever increasing sense of disbelief as my son and his ex have descend into al state of anger and acrimony following on from their split.
This is totally outside my area of understanding and I'm now seeing him facing financial ruin whilst his ex seems to be able to demand anything she wants.
I was wondering if anyone could provide some advice as there seems to be precious little of it coming from his legal team.
Trying not to be emotional about it the bare facts as I see it are-
Father & Mother not married.
Father owned a flat.
Mother moved in.
As always relationship had ups and downs.
Mother fell pregnant.
Child born.
Relationship became a lot more unsettled.
During this period they discussed moving house.
Before they finalised any move they argued and split up.
Mother moved out.
Father went ahead and bought a house as sole owner.
Because of the child the father agreed to try again so mother moved back in.
After a very short period of time the relationship failed and mother moved back into parents house.
Father pays a substantial amount of CMS on time and it will go up this year.
Father has had to go to court already to get visiting access as this was being denied him.
Father accepts his responsibilities.
He has subsequently sold the house and is planning to move away.
The mother heard about the sale and demanded £20k from sale of the house under Children’s Act Schedule 1 to rehouse her and the child.
Over a period this grew to £30k
Now £40k.
She claims benefits and CMS but still seems to have a lifestyle that has meant she is now in debt with credit & store cards.
The amounts being claimed are extravagant and are in excess, or very close to of the value of any assets remaining from the house sale.
House sale money has been ring fenced and is with his solicitor.
Mother will not negotiate.
Father has no money left because of drain of legal fees.
Looks like going to court.
Questions -
1/ Will any settlement be based on the stated mothers needs or a percentage of the house assets.
2/ Can it be more than the value of available assets.
3/ How are the costs likely to be apportioned. Will the value of the assets be taken into account as part of this. Ie: award plus costs will be no more than the asset value.
4/ Will the fact the the father needs to house himself be taken into account. ie; the money from the sale of the house is all that he has.
This act seems to have been set up for wealthy people. The. father is definitely not rich as he’s now broke.
Thanks for any guidance.
Somebody may correct me. But if they are not married, she has no claim on his sole property.
She only has a claim in her monetary contribution to any shared assets. And of coarse the basic CMS. That is it.
It is whole different story if they were married.
Well we seem to have gone down the path where the solicitor and barrister believes she has and no one has told her otherwise.
He's a good dad and wants to support his child, but the legal profession seem to have him on a hook and are just milking him of all his money.
Even went to the pre hearing (can't remember the title it was given)and the judge was agreeing that he'd have to pay up.
She seemed really biased in favour of the mother (I would say that wouldn't I), but she seemed to really hate fathers.
To the point it encouraged the mother to push for even more money.
I was under the same impression as Ami, but having done a search of Children Act schedule 1 it appears that she does have a claim on his property... here's a link to an article that discuss this, with case law
http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed143067
If the judge has expressed that he will have to make a payment, it might be in his best interests to make a counter offer perhaps, although this is an area of law I'm unfamiliar with.
Best of luck
...further info
https://events.lawsociety.org.uk/uploads/files/7888b166-a77e-468e-b114-cd62bc514b3a.pdf
Thanks for the response. I really appreciatte the help.
Whilst the first article says the Children’s Act Schedule 1 isn’t for the super rich it then uses examples of couples where they own their own houses, have large savings or investments.
My son has zero savings and has only £40k available as an asset from the sale of his house.
He is making his full CMS contribution based on his salary.
The mother has regularly increased her claim and has been unwilling to negotiate or even justify their child’s needs.
We are now facing a court hearing and she has finally shown her spending which is as expected more than her income.
She also has credit cards with a fair amount outstanding.
Looking at her spending it seems to be mainly on clothes (for her), eating out & her mobile.
His legal team seem to be completely unable or unwilling to head this off other than to suggest he pays her extortionate claims. If he does that it seems she can come back in a year and do the same.
We just dont seem to get a clear definition of what this law is about and how sensible payments are determined.
Let’s not forget he also needs to house himself after all this.
As for the second article, please excuse me as it really didnt make much sense to me.
Hi
The second link is more practical guidelines about who can apply, I just thought there may be some useful information contained in it.
He can change his legal team if he's not happy with them. Do they specialise in this area of law? Some solicitors offer a free initial consultation which he might find helpful, but best to research their specialisms first.
I think he needs to set out what he sees as a fair compromise to her claim, perhaps offering to clear her debt and making a small lump sum payment, he could ask if a clean break order would be possible too, which would mean she couldn't make any further claims on his assets.
Apart from that I'm out of my depth too I'm afraid.
Best of luck
You can probably feel my frustration 🙂
We’d like to change the legal team but the hearings on Friday so probably not much of an option.
At the FDR we suggested a clean break settlement but the judge indicated that wouldn’t happen because of the child’s age (2 years ).
He’s also suggested a sensible figure to settle but as I said the number just keeps going up.
It’s become a bit of a nightmare really!!
Appreciatte the help though.
Yeah reading about this now, it seems when there are children, there is a claim. But it seems very vague and the judge could decide whatever amount he thinks is fair, starting from CMS method of calculation but with no upper limit.
Like Mojo I think you will need a solicitor/barrister which specialises in this particular area of law, one that is fully up to date with relevant case law and can make best use of them.
It's late in the day, but if he found another solicitor perhaps he could ask for an adjournment?
I can certainly feel your frustration and your concern for your son... I wish I could help more.
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