Short Marriage: Assets

Hello,

I’ve been married for 2.5 years, with only 14 months cohabition and 16 months apart as neither her place or mine were big enough to accommodate all our stuf.

I filed for divorce in April 2018 as I couldn’t live with her abuse, violent and controlling nature. She left me in Kenya and returned home 2 days early, had a knife concealed under a towel in the lounge and lunged at me, excessive alcohol intake, assaulted me requiring hospital treatment, threatened by her ex-husband at my house, alleged that I assaulted her and had me arrested and she also placed a Without Notice Non-Molestation Order on me which was overturned at Court as it was unlawfully applied. The Decree Nisi is due to be approved by the Courts on 13 November 2018.

She has voluntarily left the marital house for over 12 weeks with her son, to which she has clearly demonstrated that she is self sufficient with her annual income £40k i.e. to pay rent, bills and upkeep.

At Present I’m compiling my form E and I’m getting mixed messages for marital and non-marital assets. Does everything need to be disclosed as I have 3 other properties purchased 20 years ago prior to marriage and I’m scared that these might be split also, when really it should be ring fenced?

Supplementary, I purchased a house in April 2017 for the both of us, with a large deposit from my dad and myself, with zero contribution from her. What happens here?

PS. She has a child from her first marriage and he is 17.65 years old (18 in March 2019) and he’s due to go to University and his father lives 3 miles up the road and provides continual support since he was taken away at the age of 6.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Teek

General rule of thumb with a short childless marriage is you take out what you bring in.

Understood and that's reassuring, but do I still need to disclose everything on the Form E or just what was accumulated during the marriage?

You should disclose everything. All assets go in the pot but they can then be argued out on the basis they are non marital. In a short, childless marriage, there would be no reason for assets owned by you so long before to be included in any settlement.

Hadenoughnow