Intention

[balearic]

How can my ex partner prove INTENTION. She says she is entitled to half my house and is basing her claim on intention. She signed a disclaimer on my morgage papers and my will leaves everything to my parents (she was aware of this) So what else can she do, I dont see why after this proof that it was never to be half hers that she has succeeded in getting the matter to court (Legally aided of course) and its cost me thousands to defend.

[MustafaTickl]

Your mortgage and your will mean nothing whatsoever. For proof of intent your ex will produce letters and provide detail of your conversations and personally give evidence under oath to show that on the balance of probabilities there was an exchange of promises between you whereby for the detriment of living with you she gained the benefit of half the house.

[balearic]

How do you produce evidence of conversations? If the Mortgage disclaimer and will are irrelavent, what is the point in having them. If she can lie in her statements I have no doubt that she can lie under oath!

[MustafaTickl]

Neither the will nor the mortgage have any real evidential value in the matter. However, I must warn you that if you push it the will can be turned against you. Your ex will in essence tell the judge that both the direct and indirect promises made by you to persuade her to move in with you were seriously made and that the purpose of your actions persuaded her that the association would be forever and it is only on this basis that she agreed. The fact that you are no longer together (it does not matter who or what ended it) is a breach by you of the contract and she is entitled to compensation as claimed. There may be no hard evidence of any of this, but she is entitled to point to what happened and tell her story and be believed, and to maintain her story under cross examination. Justice in the courts is not a finely balanced thing but is crude, tough and rough and a blind gamble. Legal aid must have assessed her chances of winning at better than 70/30 before it was granted and will also be aiming to reimburse the public purse out of your pocket. A courtroom full of liars is well understood by the judges and their training and the system is designed to weed them out but if you have a bad day or the judge does not like the look of you it will be you who is weeded not her, make no mistake. Letting this sort of thing actually get into court can be a catastrophe, can you not settle even now?

[balearic]

Thanks for your advice.The judgee at the directionally hearing advised making an offer as he said the costs were just ludicrous and to try to settle out of court. I have put in 2 offers, both of which havent really been replied to. She left the property in 2003 but didnt start this action until 2 1/2 years later. I remorgaged my house last year, now her solic says that they want to know where the money from the re-mortgage is before they can consider an offer. Surely I could do want i want with it and shouldnt have to justify it. If she felt so strongly that half of my house was hers, why leave it so long or why not offer to pay towards the mortgage for the years we`ve been apart. She never paid a penny towards my house but now it seems like I`m the loser in all this and will have to pay her off just because its too expensive to carry on. The law is an ass, dont know why every girl in the UK isnt doing this......better than working isn`t?

[MustafaTickl]

Do not under any circumstances (other than by Order of the court) disclose to your opponents where your money is. If you do they will whack a garnishee order on it and you might just as well give them the lot. If your ex knows where you bank, open a No 2 Account immediately and shelter the lot in there. It is sufficient for you to say that if your offer is accepted full and final payment will be made within 14 days (or whatever). I sympathise with you, but you really should do everything you reasonably can to bring it to an end to avoid a hearing. With regard to your last remark, if you were to sit where I am sitting you would certainly become of the opinion that half the girls of this country are are suing a man (or two or three in some cases!).

[balearic]

what is a garnishee order

[MustafaTickl]

It is a warning to your bank to hold all of your money until directed by the court what to do with it. It comes in two stages, Order Nisi and then Order Absolute. It freezes your money and uses up quite a bit in legals obtaining the Orders and the subsequent bank charges. However, if they do not know where to look or cannot find the bank account then they cannot effect an Order.

[balearic]

Thanks for all your advice, could do with you as my solicitor.