Dividing assets and agreeing finances upon divorce:
1.Does a solicitor have to negotiate a financial settlement for you?
No. If you can agree with your ex-partner an asset and financial split that you are both happy with then you don’t need a solicitor until you are ready to draft a ‘consent order’ which is a legally binding document.
The consent order will go to the court for approval. This document explains how you will divide assets such as property, savings investments and may also include maintenance payments and child maintenance. Properly drafted, this document should provide complete certainty for both parties.
2. What happens if you cannot agree?
Either party can apply to the court to resolve financial disputes. However, before doing so, you will be required to try mediation to reach an agreement. If mediation does not work or one side does not want to try mediation, then you may have little option but to start court proceedings.
The court’s approach is to calculate and then distribute the parties’ assets and finances with the welfare of any child (ren) of the family under the age of 18 being the primary consideration.
3. Asset distribution
Assets accrued during a marriage are usually divided equally. Where possible a court will try to ensure that a party who inherited or introduced a particular asset retains it to meet their own needs.
The family home, which is always central to any divorce, will be one of the main assets that needs to be divided even it was owned by one party before the marriage. If you have children, it is common for one parent to want to remain in the property to maintain as much continuity as possible. When this is the case, the other party may receive other assets to even up the ‘distribution of assets’ or it may be possible to agree to defer receiving a payment until the property is sold or when the children move out.
4. Clean break
To help you both to become financially independent of each other a court looks to achieve a clean break if possible. However if there are insufficient to achieve a clean break, then one party may be required to pay maintenance to the other.