settlement proposal

Dear all

I wanted to get your opinion regarding settlement proposals which i am at present in direct discussions with my ex solicitors.

been mirried for 8 years no children

A quick note re our financial assets.

Me: only a current account. a car worth £400.00

Wife: current account with £6000, Cash ISA account with maybe £1000 or £2000. a bmw car worth £4000.

We have a house we purchased 2 years ago for 145k, with a deposit put by my wife at 30k and a current mortgage balance of 112k. the house is now worth 155k to 160k approx. (according to valuations).

We have a deed of trust that entitle me of 31% equity and 69% for her. the deed states that when the home is sold, she gets back her 30k plus 4k legal fees she spent when purchasing the house.

we are at negotiation stage now, and they initially offered me £1800 to vacate, but i didnt accept it and proposed £8000. they came back lately offering £6000. I feel strongly that i deserve better, however i wanted an expert advice. should i negotiate further or just accept the offer?.

solicitors have been a couple of times saying that they have instrcutions to apply for a financial order, but i know that my ex doesnt want it to end up in court. however i dont want to be over confident and take the matter as if i can get better in court, so your expert advise is appreciated.

Many thanks

I make the fiqure if you were to get 31% of equity as £13k.

I quess they are taking the deposit etc of first and then spliting the 'profit'.

What does the deed actually say that the equity should be split 31/69 or that the £34k should be taken off then it equity split in that ratio?

If you take out the deed your left with 15k and then her savings of 6k forget the car, so at best your looking at 8k, if they have offered 6k with the caveat of accept or go to court then you need to be careful, she could spend all her savings and then some just on lawyers, then there is very little to share, take the offer.

to be honest, I am a little confused now, as i looked at the deed and couldnt see where it says that when selling the property, she gets her 34k back!!?? Maybe I am missing a page or something.. I only have a copy.

how do I know if they mean "accept or go to court"? they said if not accepted, we have instructions to apply for an order, but they said that before twice.. last time when they offered £1800
Am I able to negotiate further? like asking for £7000 instead of their £6000?
Regards

You could ask for more i suppose but where will it come from? your being offered just about all the cash as it is.

This is a fairly short marriage where you brought nothing and your wife invested 34k, at some point they will stop negotiating and apply to court, you say they said this before when the offer was very low, the danger is now two fold,

The offer on the face of it is reasonable,

If they do apply to court the costs will be more than she has in cash terms, in short there will be nothing to share,

To a lesser extent there is a worry about a costs order, if you force their hand into court they will almost certainly ask for costs on the basis they have done all they can to stay out of court and have made a reasonable offer to settle, the judge will reserve costs until a final hearing, if you do not achieve a better settlement than they have offered you are in danger of being hit with their costs.

morning Dukey

On the letter they sent me, they said that she secured a "loan" from her parents of £6000, being their retirement money.