Financial settlement after divorce

[PaulSabin]

How much information am I obliged to give my ex wife's solicitor as we negotiate a settlement. I cannot afford a solicitor so am doing this alone. I can easily provide income and expenditure, details of my wage and assets / liabilities, pension details, wageslips. But they have written to me (for the first time so we can negotiate) to request a number of things, including a whole years bank statements.

What am I obliged to provide, and is it possible they are fishing with other requests. (such as whole year bank statements). I have nothing to hide but am a little wary of what they wish to do with the information.

Plus another question. I would just like to hand the house to my ex wife as a clean break settlement and remove my name from the mortgage account and deeds, but is this as straightforward or could the lender put a stop to this if they thought she was unable to meet repayments? In a divorce case would the lender treat it the same as any other transfer of equity and refuse the request? Thanks in advance.

[Ethel]

I can't answer all your questions except to say that the lender will need to be sure your ex-wife can meet the mortgage repayments on her own.

If she can't, they will refuse to take your name off the mortgage. In effect, you are not giving the house to your ex-wife, you are giving her a debt.

[PaulSabin]

Thanks, so that is one and our preferred settlement option out of the window. There is plenty of equity in the house and she has kept up repayments for the last 2 years, but I know banks have their strict lending criteria.

[gina32]

i was in a similiar situation and my husband and i split up, i was paying the mortgage on my own for a few years, but when it came down to him taking his name of the account the building society wouldnt allow it because although i had been paying it myself, on paper , e.g incoming and outgoings, i wasnt able to.

[tboo]

Hi PaulSabin
For my divorce I had to provide a yrs bank statements for all accounts and my ex had to aswell, then all this information was exchanged for both parties to look at.

[PaulSabin]

Thanks a lot for your replies. They have been very helpful.