In this particular case the wife won £500,000 on the lottery. She used some of this money to purchase the family home, but invested the balance.  The Court decided that the money which she invested was a non-matrimonial property and so the husband should not be entitled to a share of it, whilst because the balance was used to purchase the family home, this should be treated as matrimonial property.

However due to the fact that they were only together for three years after the lottery win, the Judge used his discretion and only awarded £80,000 from the lottery winnings.

This case does raise a number of questions and therefore uncertainty about when a windfall, such as an inheritance or a gambling win, becomes a matrimonial asset.

The basic principle remains that all assets are considered matrimonial assets unless there is evidence to support the argument that they should not be.  There however can be no certainty as to whether a certain class of asset will be considered matrimonial property or non-matrimonial property, as each case will turn on its own facts.

Clearly however, whether you are the person who has received the windfall or the person married to that person, you will need to seek legal advice to see whether the facts of your case will lead the Court to decide that the asset should be considered matrimonial property or non-matrimonial property.

In May 1985, a case’s parties purchased a property in joint names for £30,000. The woman contributed £6,000 and the balance of the purchase price was raised by means of an endowment mortgage.

In 1986 a further loan of £2,000 was taken out for an extension, built and paid for largely by the man. This enhanced the value of the house by abut £15,000. The man and the woman shared the costs of the home.

They separated in 1993, with the woman staying in the property after which time she took over sole responsibility for the outgoings on the property.

In May 1996 the man bought another property for £57,000 which he in part funded by his share of a life policy which they owned and divided equally.

It was initially decided that because the property was bought in joint names, then both parties should have a 50% interest in the property, regardless of what has happened since the property was purchased.

However, the Supreme Court has now decided that this presumption can be rebutted if there is evidence that it was agreed either when the property was purchased or at a later date that this should not be the case.

This means that whereas before if a property was owned jointly then that was the basis on which the property would be divided, the facts of each case need to looked at to see whether either as a result of discussions had or the way they have acted, it would be fair and reasonable to infer that the shares in which the property is now held should be different to when the property was first purchased.

It is believed that this may open the floodgates to further litigation and so if you have separated from your partner and you believe that you should be entitled to more than half of the property, then you should seek legal advice as this recent decision may help support your case.

A void marriage occurs when at least one party to the marriage was not eligible to marry in the first place. Common examples include where one party to the marriage is under the age of 16 or where one party to the marriage is already married.  This means that your marriage is not valid and you are not legally married.

A voidable marriage is where the marriage can be annulled.  Common examples include where the marriage has not been consummated, where one party did not consent to the marriage or one party was already pregnant by a third-party. In the press, this is often called an annulment.

In most cases, the only ground on which you could rely is non-consummation but if you have had sexual intercourse since the date of marriage, you cannot rely on this ground.

If the marriage is neither void nor voidable then you will have to wait until you have been married for one year before you can bring your marriage to an end.

If the marriage is void or voidable, then rather than applying to have your marriage dissolved, you apply to have your marriage annulled.

The process which needs to be followed is in many ways similar to that if you were getting divorced and as such you should seek legal advice if you were considering applying to the Court to have the marriage annulled.

If you do apply to have the marriage annulled, you will need to have your partner’s consent, otherwise the Court will only be able to annul the marriage if they are satisfied that the marriage is either void or voidable and so should be annulled.

When you marry, there is no longer a distinction between assets held in the name of one party and jointly owned assets. For the purposes of a divorce, all assets are treated as matrimonial assets and the presumption on divorce is that those assets should be divided equally.

Sometimes it will be possible to separate certain types of assets on the basis that it is either an asset owned prior to marriage or it was acquired either shortly before separation or after separation has taken place. However, whether this argument will be successful or not very much depends on the facts of each case.

For example, if you have only been married a short period of time, there are no children and one of you brought into the marriage all of the assets, then there is a good chance you would be able to argue that the assets should not be shared equally.

However, by contract if you have been married 15 years, there are children and you owned the house prior to the one you are living in now, then there is less of a chance that the fact you owned the house prior to marriage will be considered a good enough reason not to share the assets equally.

If you have brought assets into the marriage, then it is not too late to protect them in the event of a divorce.   You or your spouse could enter into a Post-Nuptial Agreement which is an agreement entered into after marriage which sets out how the assets of the marriage should be divided on divorce.

If you do not have a Post-Nuptial Agreement, then the assets of the marriage will be divided based on the needs of the parties and this will often mean that the fact you brought assets into the marriage will be forgotten about.

However an inheritance could be one reason, on divorce, why an equal split of the assets is not appropriate.

There are a number of other factors that have to be considered at the same time and as such each case turns on its own facts.

Some of the other facts which need to be taken into account include:

i) Length of the marriage

ii) Value of the inheritance

iii) Date you received the inheritance

iv) Whether any other contributions were made during the course of the marriage

v) Your respective ages, your income and whether there are any children

vi) The value of all the other assets

If you received your inheritance after the divorce, then there is a stronger case to argue that you should keep it than if you received it when you first got married 10 years ago.  Equally however, if the inheritance is the only asset, then the needs of both of you need to be considered and this sometimes does mean that there is little option but for the inheritance to be divided.

If you have received an inheritance and you are getting divorced, then it is extremely important that you seek legal advice in respect of your rights and obligations.

For example, you will need to agree whether the person who is transferring the property is going to receive a cash settlement and/or whether their name is going to be removed from the mortgage.

Any agreement reached should also be set out in writing, and the written agreement should be entered into before the transfer of the property takes place so as to prevent there being any future arguments about what was agreed.

If you are going through Divorce Proceedings, this agreement would be called a Consent Order. If you are not getting divorced, then this agreement would be called a Separation Agreement.

There are always going to be a number of issues which need to be considered when transferring a property. For example, a deadline will need to be agreed by which time the property needs to be transferred. Also the person who is transferring the property will want their name removed from the mortgage.

Therefore consideration needs to be given as to how the monies which need to be paid to the person transferring the property are going to be raised and also how the person keeping the property is going to get a mortgage in their sole name.  If these points cannot be agreed, then it may be necessary to sell the property.

In order to complete the transfer, you will need to instruct a solicitor to prepare the necessary documents which are signed by both parties (and sometimes the mortgage lender) and then sent to the Land Registry whose job it is to update the title deeds.

Before can apply for a dissolution, your civil partnership must have lasted at least one year and you must be able to establish that your civil partnership has irretrievably broken down.

To do this, you must be able to show one of the following:

i) Your civil partner has behaved unreasonably

ii) You and your civil partner have lived separately and apart for more than two years and your partner agrees that your civil partnership should be dissolved

iii)  You and your civil partner have lived separately and apart for more than five years

iv) Your civil partner has deserted you

Assuming that you can establish one of the above facts, you can apply to have your civil partnership dissolved.   Depending on the reason for the breakdown of the partnership, you also have the right to ask for your civil partner to be responsible for the costs of the dissolution.

Once you have issued your application for your civil partnership to be dissolved then your partner will need to confirm their agreement to the dissolution. Once they have done this you can apply for a conditional order of dissolution and then after a further six weeks and one day has passed you can apply for your dissolution order to be made final.

However, you should not make your dissolution order final until you have reached a financial agreement with your partner about how the assets of the civil partnership should be divided.

Assuming your partner is in agreement, the cost of dissolving your civil partnership will be between £650 to £750 + VAT and Court fees. However if your partner does not agree to the divorce or does not cooperate then your costs could be much higher.

You should always have a Separation Agreement. This Agreement will set out the basis on which your assets are going to be divided and therefore you can protect your assets from your partner making a claim against them in the future.

If you do not have a Separation Agreement, then there can be no guarantee that your assets will not end up being divided because rather than your assets being divided by Agreement, they will have to be divided in accordance with what the Court decides and this can be often be very different to what you had hoped or intended.

If you are not married, then it is also advantageous not to have any savings in joint names, as otherwise, the presumption is that you are both entitled to an equal share of the balance.

A Separation Agreement should be entered into by every married couple who are not planning to get divorced until they have been separated for more than two years and by every unmarried couple who are planning to divide assets.

This is because if you do not have a Separation Agreement, then there is no evidence of what has been agreed and this means that your former partner could potentially make a further claim for an additional share of the assets in the future.

It is therefore extremely important to have a Separation Agreement.

A Separation Agreement most commonly sets out how any assets are going to be shared and whether either party is entitled to a share of any other assets registered in the sole name of one party.

When you enter into a Separation Agreement is it important that the Agreement is prepared by a Solicitor and both parties obtain legal advice on the terms set out in the Separation Agreement.

A Separation Agreement can help prevent you becoming involved in expensive and protected legal proceedings because you will have already set out in writing what was agreed at the time you separated.

If your partner does neither of the above, then they are less likely to be able to argue that they should be entitled to a share of the property.

This is because if their name is not on the title deeds, then they will only be able to establish a right to a share of the property if they have invested a lump sum into the property or if there is evidence to show that you intended to share the property.

If your partner does not make any direct contributions towards the property, then it is going to be difficult for them to prove that you intended to share the property with them.

If you also had a Living Together Agreement, this would provide you with additional protection as your partner would be voluntarily entering into a document which would confirm that it is not intended for them to have a share of the property.