Prenuptual agreement

[josadler7]

I seperated from my husband 2/3 months ago - he walked out and we are now beginning the fight over who gets what. Seven years ago we bought a property together - some 5 years before we married. Since I put up 50% of the equity I took the precaution of getting our solicitor to draft a legally binding agreement that, in the event of break up, the proceeds from the sale of the house would be divided in proportion to the money put in to the house. Since this is substantially in my favour (I have paid 85% of the mortgage) does this stand in law ?

[lady_p_gold]

I think that this will obviously could have a bearing on things ... but it may not actually stand up. Its a tricky one. What are your husband's circumstances, has he got another property etc.? I think they will take both of your circumstances into consideration ... after all if a man has paid the mortgage and the wife has not paid a penny she still gets half or more of the house usually, so not sure how it would be different in your case, apart from this document, which someone more qualified than I needs to advise you on the legality of. Apart from that you say 'we are beginning the fight' ... could you not try to agree on things, because you will find that half the equity goes to the lawyers if you start the ball rolling, because once it starts it is hard to stop and it can get very expensive.

[MustafaTickl]

It is difficult to say. I would also have to consider your opponent's argument against it before I could make useful comment. Sometime's this sort of agreement is upheld by a court, but more often not. The difficulty is that over seven years the situation between the parties will have changed very considerably from the date that the agreement was originally written, so the judge puts the agreement to one side and decides on the facts as now presented.

[josadler7]

Thank you MustafaTickl, at the moment he hasn't really made a case, simply asks how much he will get. When I do the calcs and let him know then I expect the dispute to start. The amount that the prenuptual agreement would yield for him is around �5k....

[laura_lou7]

depends what thr actual document drawn up was. A prenup is not legally binding in English law, but it will be taken into consideration by a court