Next steps

Hi all, first time on here and any advice would be massively appreciated.

Wife and I have have just submitted joint divorce application.

At the moment is reasonable amicable and we've decided to try and sort finaces between us before having a Consent Order drawn up.

I've not involved solicitors yet, as trying to keep to a minimum, but also dont really want to attempt anything from a legal point that is too complex. Along with the build up to this and my job, im already pretty emotionally drained, so could do without more hassle than necessary.

First question is, before going to solicitor how do we draw up an agreement between me and the wife? Weve always had seperate bank accounts and savings, and my wife is of the view that we should just keep or own savings etc (ill touch more on this shortly), keep a car each, no high value items so keep our own personal belongings, and then an agreement of house contents and furniture. Id be happy with that, but not sure it will go that way.
Child will be be having a time split of 60/40 where possible in favour of wife, just need to agree on on figures for that.
So. It now just a case of deciding best we can between us via email and then taking that to the solicitors?

The house will be getting sold, so is it also best to get straight on with that now and get the estate agents round?

Second question is re division of assets. As I mentioned we are both happy with an easy split, but I suspect this will be questioned by a judge.

Bit of background -

Met wife, moved into property she already had a mortgage on. Cohabited for around 4 years before marriage.
Stayed a further 3 years in this house (my name now on mortgage)
Moved to current home, been here for 12 years (joint mortgage, but comes out my bank)
Around 180k equity in this house
My wage 44k, wife 20k
1 child aged 13
Wife has next to nothing in private pension
I have around 80k (estimated, waiting for CETV) in one pension - paid in for 8 years, 6 of these prior to meeting wife.
2nd DB pension has roughly same again 80k, all acrued while married.

I have around 20k tied up in a share scheme through work, some of which is locked in for now.

I also have 30k in a savings account, which is inheritance - proceeds from the sale of my late parents house, inherited whilst we were married.


The wife has said she doesn't want the inheritance money (im hoping this will be not taking into any considerations when okd by a Judge)
Shes also not mentioned pension, but im very aware ill have to disclose this and it will be taken into account.

I know the wife does have some savings accounts, but no idea whats in it, would imagine its 10-15k

So,

Whats the chance of keeping the inheritance money?

Do I mention the pension to the wife before taking the agreement to the solicitor (shes trying to do as much as she can herself)?

Do i mention the share scheme to the wife (she has no idea whats in there)

What if she doesn't disclose her savings account (i dont know the bank or how much is in it, so may be tricky for me to approach)

In terms of going forwards, wifes family have said will help her out with large sum of money towards a new house (50-75k ish), so could this affect judges decision on consent order?

On inital thougts, any ideas (I know it can vary massively), what i could think about expecting to walk away with? Just trying to get some sort of idea in my head

Apologies for this disjointed post, thats where my heads at right now!
Any input will be massively appreciated

The starting point for a long marriage would be 50/50 and then you would look for reasons to depart from that approach.

I would expect the proposed settlement to raise some eyebrows once in front of a judge.

The procedure for a consent order assumes that each party is aware of the extent of the assets which requires disclosure of all assets. This doesn't seem to be the case here.

The main items which will cause a problem are the inequality of income and pension and the inheritance during marriage.

Whilst an agreement can be made, a judge does not have to ratify the agreement. If the agreement is too lop-sided, the judge will list the matter for a hearing to question the parties on why the agreement is lop-sided. If the answers are not sufficient, the judge will send them away to try again.

Charles

Thank you Charles.

I suspected this might be the case, but obviously didnt want to jump straight in.

So, it looks like best option will be to lay everything on the table to the wife, and hope she does the same and take it from there.
Id imagine after consulting solictors, that if there is a hefty imbalance that is likely to cause issues, that they may advise on it. Seems little point in attempting an agreement if its just going to be rejected, so may need to be more realistic even if the wife isn't pushing for it.

So now, is there any point arranging to see a solicitor until ive had the CETV back?

We are going to arrange a couple of house valuations, but would it be best to wait until spoken to solicitor before getting it up on the market? Im thinking now, what if this ends up going down a 70/30 split and ends up with there being a chance of the wife buying me out on the house.

Really hoping thats not the case from a financial point of view. Im not fussed about the house though, will just save the whole sale process, so that would be one bonus.

It's possible to begin negotiations and firm up the figures once the cetv has been obtained.

If you are both amicable you might want to consider Resolution Together which is where you both go to one solicitor. It's a fairly new process.

Charles