I have won the lottery, but I want to get divorced!!!

The general approach to assets is that those obtained during the marriage are available for division, regardless of whether they are held in one spouse’s name.  Assets owned prior to the marriage or inherited assets might be ring fenced from division by the divorce courts.  How does this rule operate so far as lottery winnings are concerned?  This problem was tackled in the High Court on 14 October 2011.

The parties married in 1984.  The wife entered into a lottery syndicate in 1999 but did not tell her husband.  The numbers came up and she won £500,000 in January 2000.  She bought a family home, in her sole name, in May 2000 for £275,000 and renovated the property. Although the marriage had been in trouble from an early stage, they did not separate until January 2004 when the husband was violent.

The Judge said that if both parties to the marriage were aware lottery tickets were being bought (regardless of who paid for them) it was easy to see the winnings as joint money to be divided.  In this case she bought ticket from her own money, he was not aware and they were living separate lives; the money would not automatically be divided equally.  However, because the wife had bought the family home from the winnings, the house itself is an asset to be divided.    The court indicated that while matrimonial assets are normally divided equally, this is not always the case.  The husband needed £82,000 now and his needs were in the range of 15% to 20% of the current value of the house.  This seemed fair and the husband received £85,000 with the wife keeping just over £350,000.

I think this is a harsh result for the husband.   He is 55 years old and works as a porter for a hotel in St John's Wood earning £1,217 per month net. He lives in a rented one bedroom flat provided by a Housing Association in South Norwood.  Neither party had legal representation at court.  The court decided that £85,000 can be invested to give the husband an income of £11,250 per annum during his retirement.  I wonder whether the decision would be different if it were made when the parties separated, before the husband secured his Housing Association flat?  He would then have needed to provide a home for himself.  The moral of the tale for the husband?  Get legal advice at an early stage in order so that we can do everything possible to protect his position.