Divorce agreement - unable to pay

appletara

Hi asking for a friend, long story short divorce agreed 4 years ago, she remortgaged and bought him out of house but owed an additional 20k or so that she had to pay monthly for for years with a lump sum at the end. Due to very bad advice at the time her solicitor told her to give up all rights to his pension etc. Now, fast forward four years friend has reduced working hours/salary due to ill health, absolutely no access to any additional funds and cannot even afford a solicitor. His solicitor is sending demands for the lump sum (about 10k) and she has no clue what to do. Again, she cannot go to a solicitor and cannot afford to pay a lump sum - any suggestions as to how she should proceed? I wondered if she wrote back making an offer to continue with the monthly payments until the 10k is paid, she is terrified of going back to court and has nobody to help out.

C3PO

My guess is that her ex wouldn't be very keen to go back to court either for the sake of €10k particularly if he knows she hasn't got it or the means to pay his legal costs should he get a judgement! If he has any sense he would be amenable to the continuation of monthly payments rather than the lump sum.

appletara

I'm hoping as well that he sees sense, he is very vindictive which is the concern here, bullying/abuse throughout the marriage which is really why she is as nervous/anxious as she is now. Realistically I think he will push to get her to court really out of spite he knows how upset she gets - she was hospitalised over stress during divorce.

So, solicitor has written demanding the money, should she write back to solicitor setting out her issues and just wait until he tries to bring her to court?

C3PO

appletara wrote: »

So, solicitor has written demanding the money, should she write back to solicitor setting out her issues and just wait until he tries to bring her to court?

Keeping in mind the forums charter on legal advice I would suggest that your friend ensures that her ex's solicitor is fully aware of her health and financial issues. other than that she will need to seek her own legal advice!

idnkph

appletara wrote:

Realistically I think he will push to get her to court really out of spite.

I honestly don't think its spite. Maybe he was abusive etc but at the end of the day she owes him 10k and he has every right to go after it.

alibab

She owes 10 k and he is entitled to it . I have been through a divorce one where I came out the worst of it believe me but at the end of the day she agree to the agreement and needs to come up with a way to pay be that in installments etc . He hopefully will be reasonable and accept that . Also it is very common in divorce to give up the rights to each other’s pension and succession right etc that’s all very normal . She was happy with the agreement it’s not his fault her situation changed