buying a second house

My ex put a home rights order on the house I own in my sole name. Ever since he did this, I have lived in constant fear that he will use this fact to break into my house and force me out. In addition, I know he has been spreading malicious rumours about me and my daughters in the neighbourhood.

The house in question is rapidly becoming uninhabitable. The central heating is failing and the roof will soon need repair. Taking into account my original purchase price plus money put in for upgrading before I ever met him, I have contributed at least 8 times more money than he has into the house. It has been valued at £99,950. Were I to invest another £10,000 to refurbish it, it would be worth £130,000. However, I am unwilling to pour more money in and have a slob and wastrel profit from the increase in value.

Taking all the above into account, I can no longer bear to stay in this property. Although he has prevented me from selling the house or remortgaging it, he is unable to prevent me from taking out a second mortgage against my earnings to buy a new home for myself. I am currently in the process of doing this, with my offer of £90,000 on a property 250 miles away being accepted last Monday. I have an offer in principle on a mortgage, and the full application is starting now. This will impact severely on my finances, especially during the period before I can sell the "marital home" (yeuk, what a nauseating term!) when I will have to pay twice over for council tax, mortgage, insurance, standing charges for utilities etc, but I feel it is worth while to obtain a home in a new region where I can feel safe.

Does anyone know how this will impact on the financial settlement? I know he cannot have a home rights notice on two properties. Do I have the right to keep my new address confidential as far as he is concerned? Obviously my solicitor will know it and so can act as go between on any correspondence. I am scared if he finds out where I am moving to, he will take the opportunity to hassle me there.

The financial settlement will be based on the situation during the marriage, the situation at time of separation and the actual finances available for distribution at time of the final hearing.

Moving money/assest around makes no real difference.
i.e. taking 20k from one house to put into depsoit on another house still means the 20k is available for sharing out.

What can cause problems is if one party spends/hides a heap of the money/assets between separation and final hearing.

You can keep your address confidential and have him correspond with you via your solicitor.

Hello Terrified,

I am really surprised you have decided to buy another property whilst getting a divorce as this will be classed as another asset to go into the dividing pot!! It is also making it quite clear that you are very capable of looking after yourself financially so there would be no real reason for the courts not to award a 50/50 split which will almost undoubtedly include this new property.

If you want my personal opinion and it is not too late to back out of this purchase, then do so now and rent somewhere!

Now, don't see the rental property as a waste of money. The one good thing here is that you will not be concerned with the maintenance side of it, that will be down to the landlord. Also it will not be classed as an asset. I cannot see why you are so prepared to get yourself into this new debt?? We are probably the only country in Europe that seem to put such an emphasis on buying property - all been watching too many property investment shows thats the trouble!! It is such a bad time to buy what with interest rates rising and property prices falling you could find yourself in a serious negative equity situation here!!

If I was you, I would stay in the Yuckital Home(!!I agree horrid word)take out an injunction against your husband if yuo have fears of him breaking in, talk to a financial adviser (I can highly recommend a very good one who has helped a few on here and they have been very pleased), take out a further advance as small as possible, get the work done and keep all the receipts up to the amount you borrow so that these can be produced at court. Get Ancillary Relief proceedings underway as soon as possible and get this divorce sorted and the property sold.

Then, give this man his percentage and move on with your life! Then and only then consider buying a new property with a court order for a "Clean Break" under your belt so that this man can never have another claim against you.

I may or may not be right in what I say so please always check this advice as I am not a legal person but go on my own financial past experiences. Citizens Advice Bureau is always a good first port of call.

PLEEEEEEEEESE.......don't go through with this purchase you will live to regret it!

Hope this helps,

Kind regards,

OBEs 1

Hi there,

Yes, I am able to look after myself financially, but then so is my ex who is earning about twice as much as I am. The new home will only have £9000 capital in it, so half of that is neither here nor there in the overall accounting. I am taking the mortgage on an interest only basis, so will a large debt attached to it and given that I can only have a mortgage for only a limited period due to my age, I will need some capital left to me in order to repay it because there is no way I can save the whole amount starting from now. The interest repayments plus the very small mortgage payments on the current house, insurance, council tax etc and that will bring my home-related outgoings probably to about the same as he pays in rent at the moment.

It is almost impossible for me to move into rented accommodation, because I have several animals. Most rented properties do not permit pets, or at most allow just one.

A financial settlement will allow for the costs of selling a house, but not for the costs of buying a new one or moving into it. I might as well spend money on this in advance, thus reducing my capital. Also, I will need to buy some new furniture, because most of the stuff in the old house is ancient and falling to pieces. My understanding of form E is that you only declare items worth more then £500 each. I shall be careful to purchase things costing less than this. Since I will be using my own smaller earnings to buy and pay for the move, I guess no one can complain, especially as he is spending out thousands running a fancy car so that he can be the true poser he is.

I'm at the stage at the moment where if I am to lose the money and the house that I have saved for all my life with no help from him, I prefer to let lawyers have most of it rather than him. As it is, I already know he intends to spin things out legally to cause me the maximum financial loss. At least I know that whatever legal fees I incur, he will incur the same and my legal outgoings will decrease the pot available to him. While always earning significantly more than me, he never paid more than half of the bills, did practically nothing around the house, and was also unwilling to put up his own money to enable us to trade up to a house in a more pleasant area. The fact he simply profited from living in a house that was paid for by myself, without offering to contribute according to his means is one of the reasons I grew to despise him.

Say I put £10,000 into the current house. The value could increase by £30,000. However, if he gets half of that, I will only earn £5000 over my extra investment while he gets an extra £15,000. No way!

There are quite a few things i could argue there because I realise what a huge mistake it was for me to buy a house whilst my partner was going through a divorce. It caused him to lose a huge part of his settlement. You could be losing more than you gain anyway but hey what do I know.

Reading your new post I realise you have convinced yourself that what you are doing is right anyway, I was just trying to make you realise that this could backfire on you in a big way to make a further investment whilst going through divorce.

I don't think anything I say further will change your mind so all I can do now is wish you very good luck. I would love to hear back from you when your divorce is over saying that you have proved me wrong.

Kind regards

OBEs 1

I would love to hear back from you when your divorce is over saying that you have proved me wrong.

I am delighted to have proved you wrong.

My FDR went through earlier this week and after the judge had his say, the ex was finally forced to settle for a lot, lot less than he hoped to leech from me. Buying the second house was the best thing I could have done. Had I not done so, I would have probably lost three or even more times the amount to him than I did. Had that been the case, I would have seen my life savings wiped out and also would have had to take out a large second mortgage.

As it is, my house is untouched, and I can raise the money I need to pay him without touching my core savings, just by selling some shares I got for nothing in the past by having various bank accounts etc, that were bringing in pathetic dividends anyway, and by taking on some more work (one of the advantages of being a freelance is that I can work as much or little as I meed to).

Buying the second house meant I have already had 18 months living where I wish to live, have been able to pay for the move, furnish the house, refurbish the kitchen, get loads of odd jobs done and do up the garden before having to settle with him, which meant my capital was reduced by totally legitimate and necessary expenses months before I even started the court proceedings (the ex was too stingy to start proceedings himself). I had a few months of having to pay for two houses. However, I applied for the divorce Absolute as soon as I could, which let me lift the marital home rights notice and put the original house on the market early last year. Regional differences meant that my current house lost a lot more value than the previous one would have, but I see my house as being my home in a region that appeals rather than as an investment, and anyway the fall in value helped to reduce my "pot" significantly.

All in all, I have come through relatively unscathed and intend to make up my losses within the next 18-24 months and continue to build my capital. After paying out a quarter in legal fees, the ex will no doubt put the rest of my money towards an even flashier car; much good will that do him!

Going for what I wanted to do, despite a lot of fear, has made me feel stronger and more self-confident than ever before, which is a nice bonus.

Delighted to hear it all turned out well for you and wishing you the best in the future.

Nell