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Why you need to consider it…. If you are separating or already separated and you own your property as joint tenants (see posts ‘joint tenancy‘ and ‘tenancy in common‘), you need to think what will happen if you die while you still own the property. In a few months’ time, when you have reached agreement on financial
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A couple who own their property as tenants in common own their shares separately. The shares may be equal shares or if they choose (for example if one contributed more to the deposit than the other) unequal shares. If one of the tenants in common dies, the share that had belonged to the deceased goes in
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‘Joint tenancy’ is one of two ways of owning a property jointly. The other way is ‘tenancy in common‘. The expressions are a little confusing because they have nothing to do with rented property. A couple who own their property as joint tenants own the property jointly on the basis that if one of them dies the other automatically
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A person whose spouse or civil partner owns the couple’s home in his/her sole name can register their ‘home rights’ at the Land Registry. The effect of doing this is that the property cannot be sold, because any prospective purchaser will insist on the home rights notice being cleared off the register before proceeding. This protects the
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CAFCASS stands for ‘Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service’. CAFCASS will be involved in most court cases involving children, usually at the beginning of the case trying to help the parents reach agreement and sometimes later in the case preparing a report and recommendation for the court. For more information on CAFCASS, visit their website: Previously
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Sorting out the finances when you get divorced – how much will it cost? The question is notoriously difficult to answer, but it helps if you understand the work that may be involved. Before you start negotiating a financial agreement you must have full financial disclosure. Each party assembles all their financial information, with documentary evidence (for
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When you get divorced, there are usually two lots of legal costs that you have to pay: the costs of actually getting divorced (petition – decree nisi – decree absolute) and the costs of sorting out the finances (disclosure – negotiation – court order). If there is a dispute over children, or there is an
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An order for costs (see 10th August) can be made against a party regardless of whether they are privately funded (i.e. paying their own legal costs) or in receipt of Public Funding. However if a judge makes an order for costs against a party in receipt of Public Funding the judge must then go on
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At the end of each hearing during a case, the judge will consider whether he should make an order for costs. ‘Costs reserved’ means that that the judge is postponing making a decision on the costs of that hearing. The judge may specify when the decision is to be made, e.g. ‘Costs of today reserved
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‘Costs in the application’ usually appears as a provision at the end of a set of directions made by the judge during the course of a case. Most cases don’t go straight to a final hearing – there is at least one ‘directions appointment’ along the way. ‘Costs in the application’ means: “At this stage
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