Can his ex make a claim on my assets?

Hi there
Love the site - good to have somewhere to turn to for info.

I am about to divorce my husband of 25 years. We have 2 sons aged 21 and 19 who will live with me. With a 50/50 split we should both be able to rehouse ourselves. (I can just about afford somewhere big enough for myself and 2 sons with a huge mortgage). I work full time and my husband is semi retired.

My new partner has been married 20 years and has 5 children (3 teeenagers who are self supporing and 2 younger ones aged 9 and 3). His wife hasn't worked for 20 years. Obviously his wife will stay in the marital home with the children and he will pay child maintenance and presumably pay the existing mortgage and spousal maintenance. (Although I think when the youngest starts full time school it will be about time his wife got a job and take some financial responsibility for herself after all these years)

Does anyone know, if he moves in with me will my new house and financial circumstances be taken into account when deciding his financial settlement for his wife? Will he have to sign over his existing house to his wife and still pay the mortgage? What if his wife moves a new man in - would the new man live for 'free' while we still for pay everything?

We've both been married a long time so this divorce thing and splitting of assets is very new to us.

Thanks

Hi Catwoman,

Well with two divorces going on your situation takes a little unravelling.

Your key questions are around whether your new partner moving in with you will impact the divorce settlement with his soon to be ex:

Can she claim some of my assets?
No - she only has a claim to assets belonging to the marriage (i.e. jointly accrued marital assets or her husbands assets)

Can she claim some of my income as maintenance?
No - she can only claim on his income.

However - the fact he has moved in with you does have an impact in that it reduces his outgoings (because you have a house and he has less bills/mortgage to pay than if he lived on his own). This can impact:
1) Periodic payments - she may get higher monthly maintenance as it is deemed he can afford more because his outgoings are lowered by co-habiting with you.
2) Capital split - this can veer away from 50:50 to 60:40 or 70:30 (or up to 100%)for example, typically in favour of the parent with care for the kids

Independent of the co-habiting factor - just looking at your new partner's divorce in isolation, he is likely to face a hefty payout (i.e. she will likely get bigger share of assets and very sizeable maintenance - im assuming he earns a decent wage), this is because she:
- has 5 kids (including 2 quite young)
- was in a long marriage
- does not have a job
- will be unlikely to be able to earn much with 5 kids to look after

Hi there, thanks for the prompt reply.

Just one more thing... as my new partner's soon to be ex doesn't work therefore cannot get a mortgage, is it possible that the she could be awarded 100% of the equity in the property if he still has to pay the mortgage. I know you can't have a mortgage on a property that you don't own part of - so how would that work?

Thanks again.