Hi Members,
I am after any advise or suggestions regarding my property settlement please. After 16 months of marriage, my marriage has collapsed. I have an IP ( in my name ) which I had purchased in 1994 and have 127k left to pay it off. We lived in this IP for the first 6 months ( y2002 ) of our marriage and after that we purchased a house to the value of 400k plus costs. We used the equity from my IP (renting it out at the moment ) to purchase this house. I left the house and she cleared out almost everything from the house a week after I had left. At the moment no one is living at the house. My ex wife to be has put in a claim with my solicitor requesting $100,000 from me for her contribution to our marriage.We have no kids. Would she be able to get her hands on my IP. My ex wife to be or I do not make that much money each in 2 years. I have had the house valued at 430-445k today. We still have close to 400k still owing to the bank for the house. She is not contributing to the repayments for the house after she has departed. Should i
a.Continue to pay the loan ( but do not want to do this because I doubt I will get any of money back from her for the repayments if it goes to court ), as I intend to pay out my ex wife to be out of her share of the house
b. Advise the bank of the situation and request if I can stall the repayments for a while or just tell the bank to sell it and splits the profit after the bank gets there money back.I have talked to a few people about this and my solicitor, I just thought you people my have some thoughts on my issue
Any advise/suggestions will be appreciated.
Hi Sala55
What a bugger for you!! It is my understanding that your ex wife is generally entitled to half of everything, but I could be wrong.
You did not mention what your IP was worth? I don’t think she can ‘get her hands’ on it per se, but she may be able to claim some of the equity, which would either cause you to refinance, or sell to pay her out. Hopefully your solicitor has ways of proving that your ex wife did not contribute nearly that much, and you get to keep most of what you have obviously worked so hard for.
Good luck!
Cheers
MelHi Mel,
The IP is worth about 230k.She has practically left me with nothing.She has taken all the house and wedding presents including gold jewelery worth thousands,things that we have bought together. So you may think she may be entitled to the 63k IP equity that I used for the house.
Thanks Sala
Sala
As i said, it will depend on your solicitor. If she has taken all that stuff, you need to make them include that as part of the valuation when they make the division.
So, have I got this right?
IP Value $230K, Loan $127K, equity $103K.
Home Value $430K, Loan $400K, equity $30K.
Total equity $133K. + all contents.I hope you have got a really good solicitor who will fight for you.
Cheers
MelG’day Sala…
Facts if I understand you correctly:
You own the IP, Debt was $64,000 and you borrowed $63,000 against this to purchace the house in joint names?
As you paid $400 + costs and will have more costs in a resale the Matrimonial Home is a line ball situation…No profit/No loss.
I think any reasonable person would consider that you are entitled to have your $63,000 back from the sale of the family home. But, by the time you pay the Bank out and Selling costs + legal fees you will get Bugger all from the resale.
Mark up on Jewellery is at least 400%…so it’s resale value is probably 20% of what you paid…so unless you’re talking of $100k+ forget the trinkets.
You must keep up with the payments on the Family home…you will pay for it with a blemish on your CRA if you don’t. Go and tell the Bank where you’re at…but don’t miss any payments.
That leaves the IP…You have got it…She’s gotta get it. How about a Counter claim ..match her $100k plus the $63k equity of your IP that was used…$163,000 all up. She could come back at you and want 50% of the $63k , but if she does
that is 33% of her current claim. Get your Solicitor to spell it out to hers and the advice should be ” Be reasonable girl or you’ll get nothing”Best of luck
Bill
Bill O’Mara
Real Estate,Mortgages,Share Market Strategies.
[email protected]thats right.
I hope the solicitor will fight for me. i am trusting his 25 yr exp.
Realistically she is entitled to nothing.
She got more out the marriage than what she put in and also took what didnt belong to her. Married to a greedy thief.Hi Sala,
Last breakup I had the solocitor informed us that if the relationship was <5years then you each take out (finacially) exactly what you contributed ( no 50/50)
Cheers…..Doug
Much appreciated for the info guys.
Regards,
Sala
Hey Doug, that’s good to know!
It saddens me to see so many people who are out for all they can get.
Cheers
MelHi Sala55. Depending on how hard you want to play there are other options. I don’t know how far through the proceedings you are but remember she owes half of what you owe also. You have equity then reduce the equity. You need to juggle some figures to show that the only option is to maybe sell everything and both receive a small return or better both having to owe money (this is a paper scenario and can be tricky to do). Give her 3 options (1) take a smaller amount of money and you still keep the properties( they will increase later in value) (2) tell her she will owe money after selling everything (I’m sure she doesn’t want to owe money and having nothing to show). (3) tell her you will sell everything and you will share the proceeds 50/50 ( but make sure it’s a very little amount). Be carefully if she is vindictive, some people would rather sell everything and walk away with only 5K than see the other person have anything of value.
Is there anything stopping you from borrowing against the properties and reducing the equity and rediverting the funds elsewhere, so there untouchable?
C2
“Is it true the more you owe the more you grow until the bank steps in?”Hi C2,
Thanks for the info.
I am trying to go with option 1. She is bitter & your right about your comment about some people would rather sell everything and walk away with only 5K than see the other person have anything of value.That what she is trying to do.Her solicitor realised that there is no 100 grand that she wishes to get from me,so this saturday her solicitor has organised a meeting to sort things out so not to go to court.She made things very costly by cleaning out the house and robbing me before this was all settled.Regarding your last comment (Is there anything stopping you from borrowing against the properties and reducing the equity and rediverting the funds elsewhere, so there untouchable?) C2 i presume not.Any idea’s.
Thanks
SalaHi Sala, The one figure that is missing is the value of the equity in the IP. In regards to untouchable money. If you give money or property away it looks suspicious in the eyes of the courts. If you make bad investments or spend money foolishly it is difficult for the courts to hold this against you. The idea is to buy something from someone and pay way to much. This person needs to be a trusted friend and preferably someone your wife does not know. Where it can be tricky is the court can ask you to surrender possessions. If you buy a $2000 car for say $10000 and they ask you to surrender the car your $8000 in front minus the transfer cost and a few other expenses. This is an example only, but you can alter it to suit your needs. Talk to a good solicitor and an accountant about this and they should be able to advise you further.
C2
“Is it true the more you owe the more you grow until the bank steps in?”Hi C2 thanks for that.
It maybe too late to do anything like that I think,but I will ask my solicitor for sure.
i.p current value – $220k
i.p debt – $127K
used equity of i.p $63k to purchase house to the value of $398k +$13400 s.duty.
I beleive at the moment the current value of house is $430-40K.there is not much money there between us.
Rgds,
Sala
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