Hi,
I am new to this forum so please bear with me. Here is briefly where I am at the moment:
I have been in the fire service for 19yrs and 4 months (start date Jan 1999). I have been divorced now for 2yrs and 2 months. I have 2 girls aged 5 & 8 who I see every weekend, and a fair share of school holidays, and live with my partner and her 2 girls aged 6 and 12. I pay £200 every 4 weeks
child maintenance (using the govt' website calculator) and have paid approx. £700 since Sept' 16 in extra Parentpay fees (school trips, meals etc). In August 2015 my now ex told me she was having an affair and our marriage was over. I moved out of the
matrimonial home and her new partner moved in. I had a
CETV of £269k at the time on my pension which was 22yrs pensionable service (I transferred some forces and private pension in). I was co-habiting and then married for a total of 13yrs so have calculated that she would be entitled to £79k (which is £269k divided by 22yrs pensionable service times by 13 years together divided by 2). The £79k is what she would get if she went down the
pension sharing order route. I have made her a financial offer as follows:
1. My share of equity in house (£20k).
2. I am in a debt management plan for £24k joint debts of which her share is £12k.
3. A lump sum when I retire of £25k.
This offer totals £57k.
We earn similar wages, I let her use the family car for 12 months after we separated (which I paid the finance, tax and insurance), I have told her I don't want to touch her local govt' pension (15yrs service approx.) and I also put 17k of my own money as a deposit when we first moved in to the matrimonial home (she put in £0). I have tried to resolve this issue now for the last 2 and a half years at least and last year my solicitor told me I had spent a small fortune and had so much time wasted by my ex and her solicitor that I should leave the ball in her court now (she has twice refused my offer but as of yet I haven't received any counter demands). We have been to
mediation but she has been deemed as not suitable so now have 4 months to go to court otherwise it's back to mediation.
This is a very potted version of events so I should like to ask:
1. Do you think this seems a fair offer?
2. If not, where am I going wrong?
3. She has said my offer needs to be legally binding through a solicitor, is this the case? (I have emailed her personally my latest offer which hasn't changed from the one sent by my solicitor in 2016).
4. Anything else I need to know or consider.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post. I really would appreciate any feedback whatsoever, good or bad.
Regards,
Zofo.
