Last year we were instructed by Matt* (not his real name) to act on his behalf in financial proceedings following the breakdown of his marriage and mediation attempts.
The marriage ended acrimoniously due to infidelity on Matt’s side. Matt had left the former marital home (FMH) and was living at a new property. When Matt moved out his wife would not allow him to retrieve his belongings.
Unfortunately, the bad feelings between the former couple were also impacting on Matt’s relationship with his children due to their mother withholding meaningful contact. Matt was providing for his children via Child Maintenance Service (CMS) and ad-hoc payments to his wife.
The separation became more complicated when Matt was made redundant putting massive pressure on the family’s joint finances. Despite having the capacity to do so, his wife refused to extend her working hours, it was at this point Matt was forced to take a mortgage holiday on the family home.
The family team at National Legal Service issued financial proceedings on Matt’s behalf triggering the completion of Form E’s and subsequent questionnaires and financial disclosure, it was during this part of the process the team discovered the wife’s dissipation of matrimonial assets.
After a series of negotiations, Matt and his wife settled at an FDR (Financial Dispute Resolution) hearing. A Mesher Order (a way for the courts and divorcing couples to deal with property when an immediate sale or transfer to one party is not appropriate) was made with a 70/30 split in favour of the wife along with a Global Maintenance Order with a section 28 bar (where maintenance is expressed to end on a fixed date or event in the future but excluding the right to go back to Court and seek an extension of the length of the term) for a period of 5 years.
These orders allowed the couple to achieve a financial clean break.
Agreeing the financial position of their divorce has allowed Matt and his ex-wife to live their separate lives whilst effectively co-parenting their children.
