Submit your anonymous questions to our Q&A platform!
We recently launched our first anonymous Q&A platform to provide even more people with the guidance and support they need.
The Johnson Legal Family Law team tries to answer our frequently asked questions on our social channels; however, we want to open up our specialised legal advice to anyone who has a family law related question.
Enter the question in the box below. All questions are 100% anonymous and we’ll be posting the responses to these questions on our social channels and on this webpage on an ongoing basis. If you wish to provide an email address you can, and we can inform you of when your response has been answered. Your name/email will remain 100% anonymous.
Check out some of the anonymous questions that we’ve already received below:
- Enquiry:
I have been married for 14 years and during most of that time I have been a stay at home mum with only a small part time job that fits in with family life. My husband is the main earner but I look after our child, house, dog so he can travel for work and to keep the upkeep of the house etc. However, he mentions from time to time that “the money he makes is his and inheritance from his mothers house is his family’s and not ours.”
This makes me very uncomfortable and I have told him this. He makes the majority of decisions on how the money is spent. He does give me an allowance each month, but with this money I have to pay the dog walker and pay day to day costs for my child including clothing etc so there’s not much left over for me. I am also aware that money from the sale of his previous flat helped fund our current house. If we were to divorce where would I be financially with our house and also all his wages/stocks & shares and pension? Is it all his as he states?
- Response:
When a married couple divorces, the law requires that their net matrimonial property is divided fairly between them. Net matrimonial property are all the assets and liabilities you have, jointly or in your sole names, on the date you separate, obtained through your income and efforts. This means savings, pensions, stock and shares etc. are all included. The exception to this is money gifted from a third party or inheritances to just one of you. To divide your property fairly, the court can consider your circumstances, including any economic disadvantage you have had from not working to support the family and your ongoing need for support. Please give us a call on 0131 622 8477 and we can have a free, 15-minute chat with you to see how we might be able to help.
- Enquiry:
I have separated from my partner – she is not letting me see our two children and is ignoring my contacts. She has now made allegations about me and as such the Police have charged me and I cannot enter our old house. Feel like everything and everyone is against me. I just want to see my kids? What do I do to make this happen?
- Response:
We can give you straightforward advice in support regarding your contact with your children. If you were married to your partner and/or you are named as the parent on your children’s birth certificates, you have what the law calls parental responsibilities and rights. You therefore have a legal right and indeed a responsibility to see and maintain a relationship and contact with your children. We can discuss the issues with you and are likely to suggest that we correspond with your ex-partner to sort out the contact arrangements.
In relation to the second point and involvement with the Police, again we can look at that for you. If bail conditions are in place, we can advise you on how we work with them to set up the contact arrangements. We can support you and give you advice so that you can see your kids.
- Enquiry:
If I am planning to leave my spouse, what should I do to prepare financially such as gathering paperwork? My spouse has control and has dealt with everything down to utility bills
- Response:
There are a number of things to consider in your planning. It is good to collect and ingather that paperwork that you will need before leaving your spouse. This would include your own ID for example driving licence, passport etc. If you have your marriage certificate and own birth certificate, retain that and if you have any children, retain their birth certificates. You should also take the children’s passports.
If you are able to access any paperwork connected to any bank accounts you and your spouse have including joint accounts, this would be helpful to confirm the extent of what you have and relevant account numbers with balances etc. Paperwork in connection with mortgages, other debts, savings, investments etc would also be helpful. Your solicitor will have to have an idea of what the extent of your matrimonial property is in order to advise you of the claims you have in it. If you can ingather as much paperwork connected to that, this is really useful.
You may also want to think about setting up an initial appointment with an independent financial adviser/mortgage broker. In that meeting, you can get an idea in principle as to what the affordability would be for you if taking on a new mortgage and options in connection with any investment in pensions and other investments subject to what financial settlement you reach with your spouse. That information is also very helpful for your solicitor.
We can discuss these issues with you and then suggest and support you through a strategy in connection with your separation.
- Enquiry:
Can my husband avoid revealing all his finances in a divorce to avoid sharing wealth. We have been married 19 years but he wants to avoid legal fees and he hides a lot from me.
- Response:
Ultimately the answer is, no, your husband cannot avoid revealing all his finances in a divorce to avoid sharing wealth with you. You are entitled to a fair share of what the law calls your matrimonial property. We would initially advise you to attempt to negotiate that with your husband, with our support and advice. That would involve us in a process of negotiation with your husband. He would be expected to disclose his finances in that negotiation. When you agree a financial settlement with your husband the terms of that will be drafted into a separation agreement called a Minute of Agreement. That Agreement will have a specific clause in it which will say that you both warrant by signing the Agreement you have given full disclosure of all your relevant property, wealth etc. If for any reason you later discovered that he had not disclosed all the relevant information you could come back and make a further claim.
A second point to note is what happens in the context of a divorce action, if you raise a divorce to sort out the financial matters – possibly because you cannot negotiate a fair settlement with your husband or during that process you are concerned that he is not disclosing all his wealth/relevant property, in the context of a divorce action you can obtain an order from the court called a Specification of Documents. That is an order from the court which is then sent to all relevant financial institutions for example banks etc. and they are ordered by the court to release that financial information they hold in your husband’s name.
We can discuss these issues with you and then suggest and support you through a strategy in connection with your separation/divorce.
If you wish to have an initial free call with one of our solicitors please get in touch on 0131 622 8477.
- Enquiry:
We have been married for almost ten years, no children. The house is worth around £200K with £80K outstanding mortgage. I personally have paid for almost everything in it. I do not have any other assets or savings.
My husband has just inherited his parents’ house, worth around £120K plus probably another £10K or so.
My question is this; if we decided to split, would I be permitted to keep living in this house, or could he force me to sell? Based on the approximate value, if it were to be sold then £200K less the mortgage of £80K would give each of us £60K. As I would be entitled to half of his parents’ house, which is also £60K, would that be sufficient to make us “even”?
- Response: