dividing assets and also i have a mental illness

BTW i found out that I could assess the land registry for the cost of £4.00. So as wills are in the public domain it should be available to you to access that information for a similar price.

I expect that here on wiki someone knows the relevent registry to contact, in case of land it is the land registry, in case of companies it is companies house, I do not know the government organisation who is responsible for wills but as there are many will hunters around it can not be that hard to trace.

Your solicitor needs the information to give you an opinion as to where you stand and what options there are.

As I said above the first thing is voluntary disclosure including the value of all the assets held in joint and sole names, living expenses and incomes from all sources. Once the value of assets has been established they are shared according to a checklist of factors and the needs of both parties usually comes at the top of the list, or very near the top. The priority is the welfare of children but the fact you aren''t able to work is an important factor too.

You would only go to court if there are problems with disclosure and you can''t agree a settlement.

With respect Fiona (deep bow) I do not think you realise the difficulties of diability, mental illness and abuse.

I do know that you are one of the most respected and decent posters and contributors on this site (just your profile indicates that - mine does not).

However, BIG however, I do think that I am an expert on abuse, I am competent in the law having been IN Court including QUEENS BENCH now personally 32 times, being an ex financial adviser and a victim of significant sexual and emotional and physicalo abuse many many times..

I also know that I undertand mental illness and prejdice.

Please do not underestimate the distress that you may unintentionally be causing eh original poster and do not underestimate the distress that you are causing me right now.

Many thanks

Soulruler

my illness started in 2006,i was studying the knowledge,to become a black cab london driver green badge,it started when i started hearing voices,i started hearing voices of all kinds of people men ,women etc.the voices started increasing,voices would tell me what to do and say,now its 2012 when i look back what happened to me i sometimes laugh it off sometimes cry and sometimes dont know what to make of it,one particular incident that happened to me was that in 2008 i got up one morning put on my trainers and ran towards central london,the voices in my head were so excessive that i was running towards the queens house to fix her arthritis i know it sounds bizarre and maybe funny but at the time it was real,i sometimes look back and think how did i survive that?the main question that baffeled me that were did these voices come from? i have so many theories,but anyway lets hope i have a nice and peaceful divorce,thank you for reading and giving advice

In fact my county pscychatrist team has refused to diagnose my potential ADD. What they have done is to diagnose that I am suffering from Acute Stres Reation and Acute Anxiety; the acute stress as a result of domestic abuse and the acute anxiety as a result of legal proceedings.

What they told me in confidence what that they did not want to prejidice me by an ADD diagnosis; they felt that would be discriminatory and anti productive to me; haveing described me as a lovely lady (there words not mine).

I do believe that I am nice and kind but I do not believe that ADD (attention deficit disorder) is correct.

What I believe is that people who are add or adhad are brighter than most, just firing off more thoughts per second than the average person which sometimes leads people to get into trouble.

However, I do not believe that a diagnosis of ADd or ADHD (H being hypoactive) means you are entitled to an asbo. I believe that if you have the intelligence you have the responsibility to contain yourself an do better than the average.

I know a person who is diagnosed with narnissium and I like her very much and she is in councelling to come to terms with it and on medications.

Hard life but worth it if you want it.

Well I do not know whether it is the same or even similar but I do know of a person whom I admired personally very much when in my early 20''s (I am now 50) but he was a global business man (ex) who got into computing (studying knowledge in the early days of computers).

I think his mind overheated; who knows. Anyhow, one day i went to see his family and he went literally nuts, took off all his clothes, ran across his lawn (lived in a Manor house in a very priviled area in the country) scared the parents and children in the next door property witless.

I arrived totally unaware to be greated by all of that, his wife unable to cope, his daughter in a state of shock and I was left to cope with someone I looked up to and admired totally naked and asking very obscene questions to me (everyone else had ran off) until literally the men in the white coats came to take him away.

That was 20 years ago he is still on medication including lithium.

There but by the grace of god go all of us. Those that speak unintentionally without knowledge are excused.

Soulruler, I''m not sure what you are trying to get at here. The OP is not claiming that he has been abused. He says that he has a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and is living in sheltered accommodation as a result. He also says (quite reasonably) that his divorce is happening as a result of his illness. What he''s trying to establish is what his entitlement is in this situation.

By the way, as I remember it, Fiona does have previous experience of mental illness and its effects, both in her marriage and professionally.

Kool59, I think you will find it easier to get help if you only post a question once. You now have replies on three different threads. LMM, who has replied on another thread, is a particularly good source for you as his former wife herself had schizophrenia until her recent death.

I think part of your problem is that you have been separated for so long that you don''t really know the details of your wife''s assets, or her liabilities, apart from the house and the credit card debt.

From what you have said so far:

1. There is some equity in your house but there is also a lot of debt to pay off.

2. Your wife and children are living in a house that was provided by her mother. It''s not clear to me that she actually owns this or is just being allowed to live in it. If she doesn''t own it then it doesn''t come into the marital property but at least it means that she and the children are housed.

3. Your mother in law has a lot of property which she inherited from her husband. If something happens to her then your wife is the trustee. Unless your wife is the joint owner of this property, she has no direct claim on it and therefore it is not marital property.

4. Given that your wife is able to claim benefits, I think it is unlikely that she has the amount of money or property that you think she has. It is more likely all to still belong to her mother.

As others have said, you need to speak to a solicitor. I assume that you will be eligible for legal aid. When you have done that you need to ask your wife to disclose her assets formally, on a voluntary basis. It''s only when she has done that that you and your solicitor will be able to see how you both stand. You may be able to come to an agreement outside of court but I think you should make sure you get good legal advise before you do so. You need to think about how much you would need to re-house yourself if the family home were sold - it might be worth asking for enough to buy yourself a one-bedroom flat outright so that you will always have somewhere to live, as part of a Clean Break. As LMM says, in other circumstances you might well get spouse maintenance but this is unlikely here as your wife doesn''t earn at the moment.

Best wishes,
Sadie