[Solved] Offer before FH

sorry im not experienced in this. but she wants you to pay cms and just hand over the house, and walk away with nothing?? if thats the case then thats one bad deal. you worked hard for that property, so i would say its definitely worth fighting for. i thought its common to just do 50/50 split on house equity and part ways.

I think a few questions first, such as how much total equity in the house - assumed £140K? What is the size of the mortgage? On her assumed 50K per year, could she afford the mortgage or a mortgage to buy another house if this is sold, or buy you out? What if any savings are there? Any other debts?

On the face of it (with very little to go on), you should not need to give the house away and walk with nothing. I am no expert, but basing on my similar situation where paying similar maintenance on similar salary with two children, with admittedly more equity in the house, I received a 45/65 split of house and savings.

Please be aware that any court agreement reached for child maintenance can be overridden by opening a case with the CMS twelve months after the order was made.

We have had members that have paid a lump sum to cover CM by court order, only to be billed for it a year or so down the line, when the receiving parent opened a claim with the CMS.

thanks for the advice mojo. during my hearings, the ex cried about not receiving any maintenance, but acknowledging that the child arrangement order is a completely separate issue. i would advise every dad to take the initiative and self-register with CMS.

i would advise every dad to take the initiative and self-register with CMS.

agree completely with this

As mentioned before, you need to add the equity in the house to (for both of you) + savings + pension (transfer values) - debts. This forms the total pot. As mentioned before you both work an earn £50k each so your ex is able to get a mortgage and should be able to afford to buy a suitable property or taken on the existing mortgage for her and the children. The Judge will focus on this to ensure the children have a home to live in.

You just need to do the maths and work out if giving your ex all the equity is a fair split of the total pot (you keep your pension, savings and any debts plus not paying legal fees etc). Each case is different, and in my opinion a bit of a lottery, but its good you both have similar incomes, so spousal maintenance would be unlikely.

Good luck.

Thanks all,

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Ok so to answer some of the questions, I have no pension, no other assets aside from a second car valued at 22500 (as part of the FDR paperwork). She has a very small pension and no other assets, so it's all in the house. The house works out after sale etc (with me being on a 37% share, which we agreed when we bought the house as her folks put in a sizeable chunk) that I'd be passing up around £70k when you take into account my second car.

My concern is that I cannot afford the likely £10k court cost for the final hearing, I could find the money but then I'd at best come away from court with CMS and a chunk of equity for some future date, which doesn't help my debt (from the divorce) now.

The way the deal is worded is not CMS, it's me paying CMS at todays rate, then just increasing with CPI each year, no CMS involvement as I live outside the UK a lot. I sincerely hope there's no scope for her to come back at me in the future as then all will be lost! She's already trying to sneak in a nominal spousal maintenance order (£1 a month or whatever) to the deal which I'd politely declined.

That’s always the fear when making child maintenance a part of the divorce/financial settlement. After the court order has been in place for over 12 months, either parent can open a case with the CMS and as far as I am aware, at that point court agreements are overridden.

hi blindsided,

if you live outside the UK, then you dont have much to worry about from CMS. they will struggle big time, when dealing with international cases. They are pretty incompetent at dealing with UK with cases lol.

in my child hearings, the other side were going on about maintenance, so my barrister just went to that CMS calculator site, and told me to just start paying, otherwise it will look like i am trying to get out of it. ex side were dumb and greedy with mutual arrangement, so i just ended up signing up with CMS and sorting it out.

Thanks again guys,

I've been voluntarily? paying £1200 a month since I moved out 2 years ago and only just now reduced it to £750 a month (which is around CMS for £60k salary even though I'm on £50k), so nobody can say I haven't been trying!

I guess I will see what is said this coming week with the consent order wording. My stance is that if I give up the house, I'm not going to sign up to a nominal maintenance schedule, I want as clean a break as I can get. She's already having me stay on the mortgage for 3 years until remortgage time.

Interesting to hear on the CMS being powerless outside the UK, hopefully that's why the 'just pay this much a month and then increase it by inflation' proposal.

We do have reciprocal arrangements with other countries, called REMOs - Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders.

It would be worth your while to do some research about what arrangements are in place between the UK and the countries you live in.