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Legal Advice Needed
Hi Guys,
So the ex and I split 3 months ago and we are selling our home at the moment.
Every single thing is in my name, the mortgage, deeds, accounts and bills.
In order for the ex to be entitled to half the profits from the sale of the house, he is still paying half the mortgage and some of the bills pertaining to the house.
I had set up a current account, solely in my name, which the mortgage and the bills come out of and his share is deposited into this account to cover his share.
However he wants copies of the last 6 months of statements for this account.
My question is whether he is legally entitled to see these statements?
As far as I'm concerned I should only be obligated to show that the mortgage and the bills are being paid, by way of showing him the mortgage statements and paid bills, but I dont think he has the right to see all other transactions regarding this account? am I right?
Thanks in advance
So the ex and I split 3 months ago and we are selling our home at the moment.
Every single thing is in my name, the mortgage, deeds, accounts and bills.
In order for the ex to be entitled to half the profits from the sale of the house, he is still paying half the mortgage and some of the bills pertaining to the house.
I had set up a current account, solely in my name, which the mortgage and the bills come out of and his share is deposited into this account to cover his share.
However he wants copies of the last 6 months of statements for this account.
My question is whether he is legally entitled to see these statements?
As far as I'm concerned I should only be obligated to show that the mortgage and the bills are being paid, by way of showing him the mortgage statements and paid bills, but I dont think he has the right to see all other transactions regarding this account? am I right?
Thanks in advance
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Comments
You could always redact them (cross out with a big black marker) to only show what he needs to know.
You could easily prove the mortgage has been paid with a mortgage statement, and no doubt it would be realatively easy to prove other bills had been paid.
However...if you set this account up just to pay bills for the house why does it matter?
If you have other stuff going through the acount you could just black it out on the copies, or tell him to get knotted, depending on how civil you wish to be.
I dont particularly want him to see the account as it contains info of personal transactions for personal bills too (no he doesn't contribute to these, only myself) and I dont want him to know the balance as that is also personal to me.
At the moment he has made many unreasonable demands from me so I dont honestly feel happy to keep pandering to all his requests if I dont legally have to. He's been quite uncivil, rude and difficult about other aspects of the split and I'm now at the point where I only want to discuss / show him only things he is entitled to know and nothing more.
I think that is it, that he thinks I'm overcharging him, which I'm not and I can prove that with bills and mortgage statements but he says that is not good enough and he wants copies of full statements instead, saying he is legally entitled to see them.
He wont even accept copies with redacted (blacked out) information, he wants to see EVERYTHING.
Then he clearly isn't interested in seeing if the money is going towards his half of the bills but wants to snoop into your private business. Tell him no!
Who says he is legally entitled to see the statements? If he has a solicitor, let him get the solicitor to write to you regarding what he has a right to see.
If it's just him saying he wants to see them, tell him where to go.
If he applies for full and frank disclosure of your financial commitments, savings, pensions etc through the courts then yes, but equally, you are entitled to full and frank discloure of his accounts and financial business too.
In full and frank disclosure, you are providing the informaiton for the court, NOT him BUT as a party he as you would, will see the lot!
This normally happends when there is a dispute over the sale of a property.
I dont even think he has a solicitor, this is just him saying he is legally entitled.
I think I will ask that he sends the request via a solicitor then.
The thing is there is no dispute over the sale of the property....certainly not yet. We both agree it has to go to sale and so thats what we are doing, I have not hindered the sale or caused any delays, as far as I'm concerned I am just as keen to put this whole matter behind me as soon as I can.
No court involvement at the moment, like I mentioned before, I dont even think he has appointed a solictor himself.
And as far as I can tell there isn't even any need to go to court, I have done everything according to the law and there is no dispute either.
So am I right in that, if he wants me to disclose this information then he has to take me to court?
I think it's to do with joint finances!
I'm just offering my own advice and experience, OP is better to consult with a solicitor than ask in a forum tbh.
I'm just offering a possible outcome if you don't cooperate with him. At this time, he is not entitled to this information, if he applies to the court, the situation may shift in his favour!
You don't need a solicitor to take it to court and quite often, not having a solicitor gives you a bit of latitude in court because the judge is aware that the party has no counsel!
I wouldn't have any problem disclosing the information to a court, I just dont want to divulge any info that he is not entitled to know just based on his say so.
But again, without any dispute, I cant see any reason why the courts would grant him disclosure to my personal finances?
Aside from that if both the mortgage and the house is in your name he isn't automatically entitled to half the proceeds from the sale.
If he contributes he could well be able to prove he is entitled to a share but the onus will be on him, legally as it stands it's yours.
We actually have a deed of trust in place which simply states he is entitled to half the profits from the sale as long as he continues to pay half the mortgage, however nothing in it mentions he's entitled to see details of my accounts.
I have no problem with the deed of trust and more than willing to give him his rightful share of the profits once its sold, I am not trying to swindle him out of anything, I just dont want him having access to anything he is not entitled to.
I'm assuming he is paying a share of mortgage and normal household utilities - council tax, water, power.
Is he paying anything else?
You could simply show him the mortgage statement and the rest of the bills and prove you aren't 'overcharging' him, or am I missing something here?
You and me both, if he was worried I wasn't paying the bills then he would see that in the mortgage statement and bills which I have offered to show him, so I dont understand why either.
The only thing he is paying for is half the mortgage, council tax and house insurance. I'm paying all the utilities myself as i'm living there and he's not.
I've not cancelled or changed any of the bills he's paying for.
In that case, to put it in legal parlance, tell him to piss off.
(A friend of mine was actually given that advice, outside court by his QC in response to a demand from the 'other side' in an acrimonious divorce case
Case law changes, but at present it is very difficult to successfully assert a share of ownership merely based on paying a share of the bills, even if that includes making a payment in respect of the mortgage - if it is an interest only mortgage, it is even more difficult than normal as it is the idea of acquiring a share of the equity - which is done by reducing the mortgage - that can entitle somebody to make a claim.
what is required is to know any agreement about the property share, but if there is no agreement about a person acquiring a share, then without a Deed or a hefty capital input, the person is usually out of luck.
there is no legal obligation to give disclosure of documents - i.e. bank statements - in those circumstances. if the OP accepts that he has paid sums to her, there is not even an issue in the case and unless there is an issue, the statements do not become relevant.
redacted is fine if there is an issue.
There is a deed in place which states his share of the property if it goes to sale, which is exactly half.
I am not disputing his share in any way.
However my query is whether he is entitled to see details of the account that he pays his share of the mortgage into? this account is only in my name, but he wants to see 6 months of statements from that account.
From your answer it looks like I dont have to disclose anything to him right?
Not really a possibility. firstly it would mean I have 3 current accounts!
But it would mean having to set up a new account and then making all the changes to ensure the bills and mortgage are taken from the new account which is far too much hassle. Not only that, but seeing as its still in my name then again he wouldn't be legally entitled to see that either!
Personally I wouldn't show him anything as, by asking for unredacted copies, you can tell he's trying to be up to something. Just tell him firmly that the answer is NO and tell him that the discussion is over. Any further requests should be ignored.