Wondering whether you really need a property settlement.
Wondering whether you really need a property settlement?
Our very simple answer is YES!
When you finalise your relationship, you really need to finalise your financial ties to your ex-partner ensuring the other party is unable to come back at a later time and make a claim for your property.
It is a little known fact with the majority of clients; that unfortunately the court doesn’t look at the date of separation when it comes to property division, and only at the date of proceedings. This means that anything acquired after a separation or divorce (even if it’s acquired with someone else) can be included in the property division pool.
A property settlement not only ensures you get what is fair and equitable when it comes to assets and finances that have been acquired together. It also protects you from losing assets and finances that are acquired after your separation. Other things to consider in the process are very practical issues around responsibilities on debt repayments such as your mortgage, loans or credit cards.
We cannot recommend highly enough the need to seek sound and practical legal advice from an experienced lawyer as to your own individual financial entitlements and your individual obligations.
Smart Legal Family Law specialise in helping you achieve a property settlement that is fair and equitable. We can advise you of your entitlements and with your instructions, draft a letter to the other party and do our best to try and reach an agreement without the need to go to court, helping to reduce your overall legal costs.
Our biggest tips in helping to achieve a result that you are happy with, are centred around some very personal choices.
We suggest you consider your actual needs and the benefits some of your assets bring you. This is a considered and heart felt approach where we think outside the box in terms of dollars and overall benefits. Thinking you want to keep the house is one thing but if you are on your own, the extra space and maintenance may have more negative, long term impacts than positive.
Even more outside the box is considering your ex-partner. No one has greater insight into their needs than you at this time. Pushing pain, hurt and anger aside in the effort to move on can have some seriously beneficial consequences. By helping to meet the needs of your ex-partner, you may just find it not only eases some of their own concerns, but expedites your property settlement and may even allow you room for negotiation.
And lastly, despite everyday seeming unending and daunting, as if there may be no light at the end of the tunnel, rest assured that the sun will shine again. It may be the hardest time to consider what that eventual time will look like, but if you can think about it at all, consider your future. What will 5-7 years’ time look like for you? Thinking along these lines will give you a head start into planning for the future and trying to figure out what you really need out of your property settlement. Your dreams may change and that is ok, but having any plan is better than having none.
We really are to help get you through this. Our staff support couples through separation and divorce daily. We see the pain and the suffering and we see the impacts negativity can have on the outcomes. We are here to guide you through it all.
We hope that this gives you a glimpse into what our service can look like for you and your family and if you have any questions, be sure to contact us for a no obligation chat.