A cottage industry springs up to help couples untie knot

Estate agent sets up first dedicated team to value homes in divorce battles

THE bitter wrangling over finances when a couple break up is often more protracted and divisive than the end of the marriage itself.

The unenviable legal minefield faced by two people who once vowed eternal love can be fraught with complications over property values and the cost of living.

As London has become the increasingly popular location for those looking to instigate divorce proceedings, one estate agency has designed a specialist service aimed at catering for those warring couples.

Black Brick is seeking to capitalise on the soaring numbers of the super-rich seeking to untie the knot in the capital because of the more generous terms that can be negotiated for the financially weaker spouse.

The company, which specialises in buying homes rather than selling them, set up the new team to give people advice on how much a new home would cost, enabling them to approach a judge with an accurate figure for divorce settlement purposes.

It also advises clients on what it costs to run a home in a particular area so they can use the information as part of a claim against their spouse, and finds short-term accommodation for those going through the divorce process.

In the UK, unlike in other countries, property owned before the marriage or wealth that has been inherited can be included in a potential settlement, resulting in higher payouts.

Black Brick said such is the demand from wealthy individuals looking to value properties for the purposes of a divorce that the new division is needed to provide information to courts.

In 2017, around 10 per cent of the transactions conducted by Black Brick were for people getting divorced.

The proliferation of highvalue divorces has spawned its own industry elsewhere.

Umbra International, a personal security company, has also reported a significant increase in the number of individuals, particularly women, seeking protection from bodyguards or cyber security experts before, during and after divorces.

Meanwhile, Julius Baer, the Swiss private bank, has also begun offering a service where clients can borrow money to fund the divorce process if their cash is tied up in jointly-owned assets such as property.

Last year, the former wife of an oil and gas trader was awarded £453million in one of the largest divorce settlements ever agreed by a UK court.

She said she needed £39.3 million to purchase a home in England as a result of the marriage breakdown, as well as £27.9 million to buy a property abroad.

She claimed that she needed £5.4 million a year just to live on.