VIC Who gets what when one had nothing to start with.

[Joybelle48]

Hello,
A friend has been separated from time to time and now it seems this time it will be permanent.
There has been domestic violence directed at her within the marriage. The Police have been involved a few times. That may be irrelevant to my question.
At the start of the relationship she had a house with her ex husband that was sold she received $130,000 from that sale.She lived with her current husband (before marriage) in a rental and then she bought a block of land solely with her money it cost $80,000 (rural area.)
She obtained a loan in her name and a house was built.
She sold her car for $20,000 and the money was used to buy a heater etc for the house.
They moved in and were married sometime later. Two of her children were living with them.
She has always worked and contributed to the family finances he has been in and out of work but overall they may have contributed the same amount to the household.
All the services have been in her name (including his mobile phone and car) all payments are from her accounts, she is the only one on the title.
She has been living with her mother for a few months because her step Dad is terminally ill and she is helping. Her husband has been living in the family home.
There is an AVO against him and the police advised her to get him out of the house.
She let him stay for fear of more abuse but he has willingly left now but before he did he changed the locks (lawyers advice as far as I know) but then sent her a message to advise where the key is.
He has been to a lawyer and she received a letter stating he wants the house sold as quickly as possible and once $200,000 mortgage paid the funds are divided as they agree.
I assume she has to give him some proceeds of the sale. He wants 40%.
I am wondering if she is entitled to receive the $100,000 which she contributed to the land and house opposed to his $00000 and then profits divided as they agree.
Also how far can he go with forcing her to sell the house, which she does want to do at some stage but not when he demands.
Bearing in mind she is the only one on the title not sure if that makes a difference.
She won't be moving back in.
The power was in her name but he has managed to have it changed to his name a couple of weeks ago. She called the power company and they advised he told them she had moved out, so she said well I am telling you he has moved out put it back in my name they said they can't unless he agrees..another issue she has to deal with.
I am wondering if the lawyer would have told him to do that to prove he lived there????.
Thank you for reading this and please help if you can. Very much appreciate this forum.

 

[AllForHer]

So, property settlements can be anything the parties agree to - if she agrees to sell the house and split the assets 60/40 in her favour, great.

But if they don't agree on a property settlement, they both have 12 months from the date their divorce is finalised to file for a property settlement through the Court.

If the Court is asked to decide, it asks four questions:
1. What's the value of the shared asset pool?
2. What were the financial and non-financial contributions of each party?
3. What are the future needs of each party?
4. Is the settlement just and equitable?

When talking about the $100,000 initial contribution, it's important to understand it is a financial contribution to the shared asset pool, not an asset of its own volition. The Court won't reduce the value of the shared asset pool by $100,000 to accommodate the initial contribution of the wife, but it will likely award a larger share of the asset pool to the wife because she made a $100,000 financial contribution toward the purchase of the house.

Are there any children of the relationship, or only the two kids from the preceding marriage?

 

[Joybelle48]

So, property settlements can be anything the parties agree to - if she agrees to sell the house and split the assets 60/40 in her favour, great.

But if they don't agree on a property settlement, they both have 12 months from the date their divorce is finalised to file for a property settlement through the Court.

If the Court is asked to decide, it asks four questions:
1. What's the value of the shared asset pool?
2. What were the financial and non-financial contributions of each party?
3. What are the future needs of each party?
4. Is the settlement just and equitable?

When talking about the $100,000 initial contribution, it's important to understand it is a financial contribution to the shared asset pool, not an asset of its own volition. The Court won't reduce the value of the shared asset pool by $100,000 to accommodate the initial contribution of the wife, but it will likely award a larger share of the asset pool to the wife because she made a $100,000 financial contribution toward the purchase of the house.

Are there any children of the relationship, or only the two kids from the preceding marriage?

Thank you so much for the informative reply ...I appreciate it very much.
Only children from her previous marriage they are older now and living with their Dad because of the abuse.

 

[AllForHer]

In regards to the kids question, I just wanted to say that if there were kids, the parent with majority care would have that in their favour as a future need. Without kids, it's significantly less complicated, but the husband may have his work (or lack thereof) situation in his favour as a future need because of less earning capacity. I don't think that will be as influential as the financial contributions, here, though.

 

[Joybelle48]

Thanks so much..