Help on annulment to a british national

She (my ex wife) is British by birth. I remarried to a Filipina.

The point I was making was that it does not always follow that divorce in the UK can lead to large financial gain by the wife, even through the court system. It depends very much on the range of circumstances on a case by case basis and the kind of factors I mentioned in my earlier post.

I wonder how the CFO would view that?

That used to be the case, it is no longer. The last Labour government introduced changes in the way in which divorces are handled by the Courts. These changes were introduced and trialled in Wales in 2007 and came into force in England a year or two later. The two major differences between the old and new regimes are:

1. The financial settlement part of the divorce is now a separate legal process and is not related to the divorce proceedings. This means that the Courts no longer take into consideration any bad behaviour committed by either of (or both) parties.
2. The Courts now assess the financial settlement on the basis that the husband hands-over 50% of his assets and income to his former wife. That 50% is the starting point for the Court and is applied regardless of the length of the marriage or the reason it was terminated.

correct

no--she cannot apply for her fiancee visa for another 6 months--unfortunately. this is nothing to do with her annulment--just a new problem we didnt see coming.

she was here on a tourist visa 18 months ago when she started the annulment proceedings throgh her lawyer in the filis. she got the tourist visa to come and visit her sister who is settled here. nudge nudge. i doubt she would have got that visa just to visit me. wink wink.

she applied twice for that visa--first time refused on a technicality--an error on the paperwork. the second decision took a few weeks--i think. she didnt tell me till she got it--as a surprise.

Okay. We were divorced circa 2008.

Are you sure about the 50% of income? Where did you see that? That doesn't seem correct.

In terms of assets, 50% of nothing is nothing, though. That is also a factor.

I got divorced in 2011. What it means is you split everything 50-50. Of course, if the woman starts with nothing and comes out with 50% of what the man owned beforehand, then she's done pretty well out of it!

this was the case with me. I owned the house before getting married, and also had a 50% share in my mum's flat. My ex wife got 50% of the house plus she went after 25% of my mum's flat (bless her!).

She ended up getting my old house for about £20,000 and I had to let her have it for that to prevent my mum having to sell her place. Which seemed a bit harsh to me!

So it does seem, particularly if the woman isn't working, that the man is giving up a lot. But in reality you are splitting the assets equally. You have to accept that if you are married then the house belongs to both of you, even if it was yours before you got married.

With regards income, she has no claim on my income (apart from the regular child support).

Thats fine as long as the debts are split to lol

Exactly.

That is what the District Judge told both my and my ex-wife's Solicitors right at the outset of the proceedings - ours was the first case under the new regime for both our Solicitors. Whether an award against income is made - for maintenance or child support - depends entirely on the circumstances of the wife and in Kath's case, she probably has a good case for maintenance based on what she has said here. Your second point (50% of nothing) is, I suggest, likely to be untrue as he is in a relationship with another Filipina and has a child.

The other thing for her to bear in mind is whether or not the husband has married Filipina #2 and if so, he's guilty of Bigamy which is a criminal offence. She could use that knowledge to her advantage and suggest that he gives her a quickie divorce and, say, a modest cash settlement (say £5000). The Divorce Decree will enable her to have her divorce recognised in the Philippines but only if she is NOT the one who petitions for it; there would then be no need for her to file for an annulment here.

my most recent (ex) wife did ok out of me. we married in 2008---and within a year i had found out she was a pathological liar with huge debts. she offered to move out there and then. it was my house. like the soft hearted fool i was i suggested she stay --and see if we could make a go of it. she had no job--certainly no money--and nowhere to go.

a few months later she started a new job. ( she is highly qualified in her field ). she then started to pay me £400 a month to cover her share of the household bills--council tax--food--and petrol in the car i had bought for her to use. ( that £400 would not have even covered the rent she later had to pay )

exactly 25 months later i came home from work to find she had gone--no warning--just left a note and her rings. end of.

a few months later we got back in contact--but it was all too late--and i was with my new lady by then. i subsequently filed for divorce--and sold my house. i wanted the money released to fund by partners sponsorship--ive been renting ever since.

my ex was sniffing around for some money--so i offered her £10,000 if she agreed to sign a clean break agreement--with no further claim against me or anything i will inherit.

she nearly ripped my hand off. the £10,000 was --to me--like the £400 a month times 25 months that she had paid me in housekeeping. so in effect she got her money back--and it in effect cost me nothing.

why did she leave me ? i later found out it was because i had changed the car--and insurance. she was my named driver on the policy. the insurers wanted copies of our driving licences.

slight prob--SHE DIDNT HAVE ONE !!!!---never had!!! driving for 30 years without a licence--never even took a test. yet another whopper of a lie. she knew when i found out i would have thrown her out.

for what its worth--when--if--i do get married again--we are having a pre-nup--for certain.

Similar story with me - started divorce proceedings in 2011 when my Filipina ex walked out - as I later found, to be with a man she had met through the dating site "Plenty of Fish"! Divorce was held up for a long time as her lady lawyer would not agree a Decree Absolute until the financial issues had been settled. Finally got Decree Absolute last June. Sold the house, she got half of everything and kept the house I had given her in the Philippines. She did NOT get a share of my pension which is what her lawyer had been angling for. I got the children but have not sought maintenance from her.

Ha ha. we're all divorced on here!!

A clean break agreement is a good thing to have. We had one too. I agreed not to contest her claim on my share of my mum's flat if we had a clean break.

Not sure I'd chuck my wife out for driving without a licence though. Thankfully my wife never left me recently when I got a speeding fine!

Likewise. Only got married 4 years ago (anniv reminder in calendar for May 6th ) at the tender age of 43 Worth the wait too

Nothing wrong with living in sin oss, I would have preferred myself not to have been forced into marriage by the UKVI, not that I have any regrets, quite the opposite in fact, I just don't like being forced into marriage for a settlement visa.

i'm on old hand at marriages--had 3 already.

the only reason i'm still in the UK is my old dad is in a care home near me--i'm all hes got and i'm not leaving him. but if he passes i'm on the next plane out. its tearing me up not being with her when she needs me.

I am in the not so elite divorce club too, married August 1986, separation court October 1986, I had been working in the Dom Republic and Haiti and made the dreaded mistake of bringing something home with me that I hadn't packed in my suitcase.

I got screwed badly as most chaps do, my ex wife died a couple of years later, best funeral I've been to, not that I'm bitter or anything

28 years between marriages, not bad

Proud of you bigmac, very good to look after your dad like that, I lot of people wouldn't.