Wife selling joint owned asset

My wife has sold my car which was purchased just last September for £21000. The vehicle was registered in her name as I had already registered my son's car in my own name so his insurance would be cheaper. I gave her the car back about a month ago after she crashed the other car she was using so that she had a car to take kids around etc.

This car was the only car we both owned and I understood to be a jointly owned asset. My divorce is at petition stage and my wife is currently in the FMH with the children although i have them 2 nights per week. She has about £5k in savings I gave her and has now sold the car and bought another brand new one!

Am I entitled to any of this now? Can she simply friter it away? I am already likely to lose my home to her. I feel frustrated after years of work that i now have nothing and she is sat there with a brand new car and me paying the mortgage. This woman would never work when we were together which is the major part of my divorce petition and now appears to be able to continue to leave me with nothing after working so hard for it.

What options do I have anyone please?

Hi,

just a quick answer re the car. I was told by my solicitor that the legal owner of a car is the person to whom the car is registered. The legal owner can sell the car if they want to.

Pinkfish

Hi

I will get back to this post when i have more time, but even though pinkfish is right in that the legal owner of a car can sell it, it still remains part and parcel of the joint assets and will be taken into account!

Like i said i will come back to you Mike

Kind ones
Louise

Mike,

How did you purchase the car? have you any receipts etc to prove it was you who paid for the car?

Worst case scenario,it is still an asset, be it either yours or hers, it will still have to be accounted for on form E......

Hi there Liago. I paid for the car from my sole name savings account by transferring the money into my joint account so I could pay by debit card. It was money which I received from a compensation claim for a back injury which I suffered whilst at work.

I was hoping to settle with my wife by saying she could keep the house (equity of about £160k)and that I had the car back and kept my pension. The car would have provided me with a small deposit so i could purchase a house too. Now it would seem that i have nothing and no prospect of saving in the near future whilst paying maintenance etc.

She has purchased a brand new car of a lesser value and has pocketed the difference.