The parties were married in 1982 and separated 4 years later after having one child. Although they separated, neither took steps to divorce. The wife said that the reason for the delay was that she did not want the anguish of a divorce whilst her son was a little boy.
The husband received an inheritance after the parties separated and invested this in property. He sold the property in January 2008 for £1.1 million. The wife then applied for divorce and made an application for financial provision. The wife argued that the husband had failed to provide for her and her son after they had separated and therefore she had been financially disadvantaged.
Whatever the length of separation, the court still considers the same statutory factors and the court accepted that the wife had a need for financial provision and, as the only real asset was the inheritance, then this had to be used to satisfy her financial need. The reason why the court took into account the inheritance, despite the fact that it was received after the parties separated and was therefore not a contribution matched by the wife, was because the wife needed a sum of money for her financial security.
This case is a stark warning to people who have separated but failed to obtain a divorce and financial order. It must be noted that, even if a divorce had been obtained in this case, as long as the woman had not remarried the court could still deal with an application for financial provision if it had not been previously dealt with.
Helen Bowns