Ex refusing to sign pension paperwork or pay fee

Hi all

My parents have just divorced, aged 70!

The court order states, amongst other things, that the 2 pensions are shared. This process has been started and one pension requires an admin fee of about £900 each - mum has paid, dad has not - and another needs a form fillings in and signing - mum has done, dad has not.

Dad claims he feels the pensions should be worth more, wants to investigate, wants to wait for brexit (!) Delay delay delay. This is the last little bit of the divorce to finish off, final split. Divorce was due to a lifetime of controlling behaviour.

Can we enforce the court order in any way? Should the pensions companies be sharing regardless of his delaying tactics?

As an aside, he has been sending mum half the pension by bank transfer, monthly. But if he dies before completing this process is everything lost?

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

If he has failed to comply with the court order, you can go back to court to force compliance.

There should be a clause in the original order that says something about liberty to apply and timings etc.

Was a time frame set in the order? I think the matters to be completed are internal things for the pension companies. A judge can sign things if some one is not complying.

If two pensions are being divided, what is the CEV of each? It would be more usual to transfer a smaller pension and share a larger one to reach an equal split. It may be worth asking the judge to amend the order.


Do they have a Decree Absolute yet? If they don't it would be worth holding off the preserve her rights to a widows pension.

If they do, she would have a claim in the event of his death but it would be less straightforward.

The whole point of all this is to allow independence.

Hadenoughnow

Thank you for your reply. Mum doesn't really want to go back to court as it has been very expensive so far but it does look like that may be the only way forward.

She can't see anything in the court order about timings but I will have to have a look myself next time I am there. I assume if we want to get a judge to sign things then we have to go to court again.

They have the absolute already yes.

One last piece of control left to conquer...

It looks like she will have to go back to court he is ignoring all communication.

Her financial advisor is advising against this course of action and says it will cost her £10k and that she won't be able to claim it back from him! Surely this can't be true?

I have searched as much as I can and found a Form N244, is this right? Or is it a D11? Or a D50K? I've looked at the schedule of fees but none seem to be the right option, how do we choose what fee to send with the form?

edit : just rang the family court, they say D50K and it will cost £50

She doesn't need a solicitor. This is very straightforward. Even if she did use one, she can claim costs against him.

Let us know how you get on.

Hadenoughnow