Some background:
My wife bought an apartment just before we started dating, but it was off the plan so she only had to start making mortgage payments after it was built. By the time we got married, it still wasn’t ready. When it was ready, we moved in and from day 1 I have been paying half the fees, body corp fees and mortgage etc for everything. The only “extra” she put in was a $50k deposit at the beginning. It has now been 6 years. The fees per month are $3.2k and because I earn more I pay more into the “pool” percentage wise, so I pay about 60% of everything including this.
Me and my wife have a lot of issues in the marriage and have nearly split up several times. Most of it is due to her manipulating and lying to me. I suspect she is doing it again with what I say next.
She discusses EVERYTHING with me around our finances, or to be more accurate she is always quick to ask for more contributions from me when the need arises.
One of the biggest deceptions she ever did to me (which caused massive problems with us) was lie to me about my name being on the deeds/mortgage of the apartment. Early on, after we got married and after living there for 6 months I said it wasn’t fair for me to continue paying her mortgage (essentially building up her investment) with getting nothing from it (I wasn’t aware at the time how marriage contributions work – I thought she still had full rights to her property), so I asked her to put me on the deeds. She didn’t want to of course because she felt like she’d lose her $60k legally partially to me (again, both of us had no idea how contributions worked at this point), so she (rightly so) wanted to protect her asset. I understood this and from perspective and I’d do the same; I told her this. But then I explained that she has to see my side too. She agreed in the end to add me on the deeds, we signed the paperwork and sent it all off and all was well. I found out only after 4 years by accident that she never sent it off (long story that one). Now, regardless of what I am entitled to is not the point. What is important here is the massive deception she did to me (when things were good!) and how she tried to deceive me (and screw me financially – remember we both thought I had no claim to it at the time). Fast forward to today.
Today the apartment is rented out and we have bought our own house which we live in together. We still jointly pay for the same fees I mentioned above (the rental income does cover it and when we lived there it cost even more obviously). She asked me to bring her laptop down from upstairs today and it was turned on. I noticed she had a file open which was essentially a “building depreciation report”. For those that don’t know, this is a report from a 3rd party which shows you how to make tax claim reductions on your property. We have a joint account where all joint expenses come out of. As I said above, I contribute to every single debt, or if something new is needed for that apartment she asks for money. However, I noticed that this report came out of her own account not the joint one, she did not mention any of it to me and she initially contacted them over a month ago – so she’s had sufficient time to mention it to me. The report says she can claim up to $6k a year back every year, all the documentation is in her name, no mention of me.
To me it looks like she is trying to keep the tax rebates herself. However, there is a small chance I may be wrong, maybe I am not entitled to any of it, legally? I was wondering if someone could give any guidance on this. Even if due to the legality of it I am not entitled to it, she should still tell me of it and plan to give me half of the rebate herself if I’m paying for MORE than half of fees to keep it running.
I know most people her will say to talk to her about it or confront her. But if she is up to no good, she will lie her way out of it like she did with the mortgage deeds. I will bring it up with her, but I want to know where I stand first.
Thanks,
My wife bought an apartment just before we started dating, but it was off the plan so she only had to start making mortgage payments after it was built. By the time we got married, it still wasn’t ready. When it was ready, we moved in and from day 1 I have been paying half the fees, body corp fees and mortgage etc for everything. The only “extra” she put in was a $50k deposit at the beginning. It has now been 6 years. The fees per month are $3.2k and because I earn more I pay more into the “pool” percentage wise, so I pay about 60% of everything including this.
Me and my wife have a lot of issues in the marriage and have nearly split up several times. Most of it is due to her manipulating and lying to me. I suspect she is doing it again with what I say next.
She discusses EVERYTHING with me around our finances, or to be more accurate she is always quick to ask for more contributions from me when the need arises.
One of the biggest deceptions she ever did to me (which caused massive problems with us) was lie to me about my name being on the deeds/mortgage of the apartment. Early on, after we got married and after living there for 6 months I said it wasn’t fair for me to continue paying her mortgage (essentially building up her investment) with getting nothing from it (I wasn’t aware at the time how marriage contributions work – I thought she still had full rights to her property), so I asked her to put me on the deeds. She didn’t want to of course because she felt like she’d lose her $60k legally partially to me (again, both of us had no idea how contributions worked at this point), so she (rightly so) wanted to protect her asset. I understood this and from perspective and I’d do the same; I told her this. But then I explained that she has to see my side too. She agreed in the end to add me on the deeds, we signed the paperwork and sent it all off and all was well. I found out only after 4 years by accident that she never sent it off (long story that one). Now, regardless of what I am entitled to is not the point. What is important here is the massive deception she did to me (when things were good!) and how she tried to deceive me (and screw me financially – remember we both thought I had no claim to it at the time). Fast forward to today.
Today the apartment is rented out and we have bought our own house which we live in together. We still jointly pay for the same fees I mentioned above (the rental income does cover it and when we lived there it cost even more obviously). She asked me to bring her laptop down from upstairs today and it was turned on. I noticed she had a file open which was essentially a “building depreciation report”. For those that don’t know, this is a report from a 3rd party which shows you how to make tax claim reductions on your property. We have a joint account where all joint expenses come out of. As I said above, I contribute to every single debt, or if something new is needed for that apartment she asks for money. However, I noticed that this report came out of her own account not the joint one, she did not mention any of it to me and she initially contacted them over a month ago – so she’s had sufficient time to mention it to me. The report says she can claim up to $6k a year back every year, all the documentation is in her name, no mention of me.
To me it looks like she is trying to keep the tax rebates herself. However, there is a small chance I may be wrong, maybe I am not entitled to any of it, legally? I was wondering if someone could give any guidance on this. Even if due to the legality of it I am not entitled to it, she should still tell me of it and plan to give me half of the rebate herself if I’m paying for MORE than half of fees to keep it running.
I know most people her will say to talk to her about it or confront her. But if she is up to no good, she will lie her way out of it like she did with the mortgage deeds. I will bring it up with her, but I want to know where I stand first.
Thanks,
