Divorce – Final Hearing

If the case goes to Final Hearing

If you have been unfortunate to get to the Final Hearing because your divorcing partner has made it very difficult to settle, there are certain things that you need to make sure that the solicitor ensures such as:

•  Can we suggest that the Order provides for finality, and gives prescriptive deadlines for transfer of funds etc, and specific guidance for the sale of the property should that be decided?
•  The Family Home (FMH) – has the agreement reached whether you can buy the FMH or is it going to be auctioned between the parties by making a sealed bid to the judge to make a decision?
•  Sometimes, concluding the division of the largest assets causes a lot of stress. You may want the judge to include in the Order to limit the amount of control the divorcing partner has over the timeline of the sale of the house. i.e. deadlines that can be specified in the Order in relation to the sale of the FMH. If the divorcing partner does not agree to either selling the house to you, (that is if you wish to buy them out) or a sealed auction bid (if that is the option you decide to agree), and that you are ordered to complete a sale of the house in the open market, you may want to ensure that there is no resistance in concluding the settlement of how the house is divided, which can be very stressful. So you may want to come up with a formula, for example, can the solicitor suggest to the judge/court that with the option
   (a) accept any offers within 2.5% of the listed sale price and
   (b) if more than one offer than highest offer to be accepted. and finally
   (c) If no satisfactory offers within 90 days, then your offer to keep the house stands unless you decide not to, then list price reduced by 2.5%.
•  If you have a joint bank account and if you are not able to remove yourself from this joint account without his agreement in writing, you may wish to freeze this account;  or could you place a non operational marker on that bank account until all been resolved so that there is no risk of overdraft which could affect your credit rating and so that you are not liable for any overdraft.

Just for your information, as far as I know, courts can make various orders:

•  property transfer orders – these transfer property (including houses, cars and shares/investments) from one person to another or from joint ownership to sole ownership. Sometimes, the recipient of the property needs to make a corresponding cash payment to the person “giving up” ownership
• sale of property orders – the court can order that property be sold and that the sale proceeds be divided in a certain way

 

Familiarise yourself with “Divorce terminology” here