Can I protect my finances from my partners ex

Hi all
My partner is divorced from his ex wife, but she is refusing to sign a financial order because, and I quote, ‘when his parents die she wants half their money’. Just an insight into what she’s like! My partner and I are in the process of buying a house together, and I am putting in all of the deposit from equity in my current house, and a long term loan from a family member. My question is, would his ex have any claim to any of that equity, even if I can prove that it all came from me? Or would it be fair game for her because both our names will be on the mortgage and deeds? I know she’s a money grabber and once she knows how much we paid for the house (we won’t tell her, but she can easily find out) I’m worried she’ll try to claim off it. I need to protect myself and my 2 daughters from losing any of this money and potentially losing our house over it. Sorry for the long post, but any solicitors I’ve tried all want £100 and upwards for a consultation and I don’t have that kind of money to spend right now!

Your money is your money - there is no claim that can be made by your partner's ex.

However, if you purchase the property with your partner without any mention of how it is to be held, your partner will be a joint owner of the property regardless of who put what money where. To that extent, as soon as the property was transferred into your joint names, your partner would be enrichened to the sum of half of what you put in, and vice versa.

Ideally you would purchase the property with a declaration of Trust which would specify that if the property was sold, you would each receive your contribution first and the remainder would be divided equally. This step is particularly important as any financial proceedings involving your partner and his ex might lead to examination of the transfer document.

Charles