Are you able to advise me please ?

Hi, I need some help please.

Background – me 45 yrs, him 56 years. Both work full time and earn £1500 each per month. He is also in receipt of an Army Pension (approx. £800 a month).

Been together for 8 years, married for 5.

The marriage has now broken down.
We have a joint bank account and both own the house.

I owned our home when we got together with a mortgage of about 90K and he moved in. When his previous divorce went through, he got 30K that was paid into the joint account. Over the years, this money was spent on joint purchases.

The years have rolled on and my mum died and left me an inheritance of approx. 200k. We jointly decided to spend the majority of the money on paying off the mortgage, an extension, new caravan and a bit left as savings.

He has told me that he will take half the house. Surely, this is not possible as firstly I owned the house when he moved in and we are only mortgage free due to my inheritance.

I fully appreciate that he should have something for the contributions he has made.
I believe that it is only a short marriage and would not be entitled to a full 50% of everything?

The house is probably worth about 200K and the thought of a 100K mortgage, which I’m unsure I could even get, really frightens me.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

As a general rule, people will not get much on the breakup of a short marriage.

However in certain circumstances, a period of pre-marital cohabitation can count towards the length of the marriage, if the
cohabitation was a marriage in all but name. I have heard on this forum that 8 years isn't a short marriage. Whatever you think of that, I wouldn't be quite sure.

The main concern of a Court is how both of you are to be re-housed, accepting that in most cases this will involve a reduction in living standards.

You don't mention children, so perhaps I can assume they are not a factor. If there are offspring then their needs will take priority.

The main concern of a Court would be to make sure that both of you
have somewhere to live. This will depend on the cash available and the ability of both spouses to raise a mortgage. If your x2b is the higher earner, he has a higher mortgage capability and this may
well mean that you'd get a larger share.

Of course, it also depends on house prices and what your share of the lump sum will buy you.

The fact that money was inherited may be of some relevance but
it doesn't automatically follow that anything which you inherited belongs to you alone.

My gut feeling is that he won't get 50% - one of those endearing illusions that property is shared equally the moment you cut the cake - but this would involve a detailed examination of your respective finances.

LMM