jasmine Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 Hi, Just a sad story from a Thai woman I just met. Not very young, in her early 40s, works as a houskeeper, 2 children is still at home so she must take care of them. She met a man (retired Army) , married him, he moved into her house with still has a mortgage. She put his name as a co-owner of the house, is divorcing him nw after 2 years. He claims to own half of the house and is forcing her to sell so he can collect half of whatever has been paid to the house or she must pay him in cash in order to keep the house. Now she does not mind giving the half of the amount they paid together for the past 2 years, but she just wants to keep the amount that she originally paid as the down payment. She bought the house about 1 year prior to their marriage however, the husband claimed that he gave her the downpayment amount in cash, that was why (he said) she put his name in the mortgage as the co-owner at their marriage time. He had proved that such amount (not exactly the amount but very convincingly close) was withdrawn a week prior to her purchase of the house (they were going together then). She has no prove that it is her money which was put down as the downpayment, she said it was from her earnings saved in cash, the down payment was in cash. The amount here is over $50,000, not very small for a woman earning $10.00/hour to save such amount, but very possible. Also, she has been working 2 jobs for the past 10 years. He has never worked since they have been married, just income from his military retirement. At this time, 2 lawyers contacted said she has no prove she will have to pay in order to keep the house. We, meaning I and other Thais don't know how to help her even though we believe her, any idea? On another note, I have always kept certain amount in cash and met a few Thais who has done the same, so I do believe her. Jasmine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 I am not sure how she can win that battle as it looks like she was not a good record keeper and that is coming back to haunt her. If the money was in a bank, then the records are there for the asking. If not, did she keep $50K under her mattress? Unbelieveably risky, if true... Something odd there IMHO as most mortages require proof of where the downstroke comes from (i.e., that it is not another loan). How did she do that? How did she qualify alone for a mortgage on a $10/hr salary? Something is a bit fishy to me here, but you know the lady, so you are a better judge. Anyway, she can probably get the judge to award her alimony, which may be somewhere around half his retirement income. Maybe even child support if she has a good lawyer and he did anything to take care of the children (even signing papers from school as a "guardian" may do it). The laws/judges in the US are very biased towards woman in divorce cases, so be sure to take advantage of that. If she comes up with this move, he may decide to cut his losses and just split without financial requirements. Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shygye Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 Sounds like she was hiding money from the IRS! Otherwise there would be no reason to keep the cash in her home instead of in a bank. It seems she put him on the title at time of purchase of the home. If her story is true, the guy had to place the 50K somewhere. She needs to find ALL his bank/financial accounts to see if 50K was deposited there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJsushi Posted August 10, 2004 Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 Forget fighting over the cash in the house. Ask her lawyers to see if she will qualify for alimony9considering there are kids involved, a percentage of his pension benefits and social security benefits, also any balances on life insurance policies during that time period. If she does qualify maybe they can work out a deal where he pays her a lump sum to void any claims she has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sukhumvit Posted August 10, 2004 Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 Okay, she's been with him two years and now divorcing. Couple of things to consider. How much has the property gone up in value since she bought it? Therefore how much equity is in it? For instance if she bought it for $50k two years ago and it's only worth $60k now then we're only looking at $10k. Thus any financial interest he potentially has in the property is only with regard to his share of $10k. What's that gonna be? A couple of thousand? Possibly $5k? She's got kids, has presumably been regularly paying the mortgage. She can stay there. Doesn't particularly need to take his name off the title deeds. He wants to prove he has a financial interest in the property then let him make an application. If he leaves it for 5 or so years in the hope that the house will go up in value and so he can realise his interest then I'd argue that as he hasn't made any fresh contributions he shouldn't be entitled to any rise in income. Course, things are different between US law and law of England and Wales but we're both common law systems with similar principles. There are some notable differences however such as the fact that you have prenuptial agreements in the States and not in England. So, she can stay put and let him take action. In this country if she wanted to sell and he wouldn't agree then under the Law of Property 1925 she can apply to Court for an order that the property be sold if one of the owners unreasonably witholds consent. Dunno if this helps. Why doesn't she see if she can get a family lawyer pro bono at least for an initial consultation to sound out some of the above theories? If I'm way off beam then fine. It cost nowt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasmine Posted August 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 Hello, Thanks to everyone for the response. The house value is now only $105,000 the mortgage is around $47,000. What he wants is the $50,000 that he claimed he gave her. But she claimes that the downpayment of $50,000 was her money, saved in cash. She put his name as the co-owner AFTER they got married and the house was purchased prior to the marriage, the problem is she could not prove that the money is hers and he claimed that it was his money giving to her to use for the down payment. The kids are from her previous marriages (2 marriages), not his so they are out of the equation. On military retirement, she is not qualified, due to the short time they are married. On alimony, he does not make more in his retirement pay than she does in working 2 jobs. And the lawyers contacted said no way she would get the alimony. The truth is I have lots of doubt myself and I don't know this woman, just a friend of a woman I have known for a while and she asked for help. Now on keeping money in cash, many Thai women do that, including me, however, $50,000 is a tad high in cash but very possible, I met a Thai woman who had a stash of $30,000 something in cash, mostly from gambling. This lady also paid for her new car in cash, around 8 months before she married. Jasmine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted August 10, 2004 Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 I hate to say this, but I don't buy her story. As one has already said, the realator will need proof of where the money came from. Years back, I paid cash for a new car (cheap one) and had to fill out some IRS forms saying where it came from, so as not to be a drug dealer, or other criminal element hiding/laundering money. $10/hr and she had 25-50,000 saved? sounds odd, this is maybe 1-2 years of full tax free salary, and she has kids etc...not buying it. And how does she explain that he withdrew a similar amount 2 weeks before she bought the house? what else did he do with the money? So to fishy here, not able to buy it full on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasmine Posted August 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 Hi, As I said before that this is difficult to believe. However, I always try (not successful all the times) to give people the benefit of the doubt. I just got finished telling her friend(the woman I have known) that I feel that I am not told the whole truth and she needed to find prove on the money. The latest is that she bought a lot of Thai gold and just about 50% of the $50,000 was from selling the gold and she can prove that she had been selling them for the past few years before buying the house. She also sold some jewelry. There is hope here. OH, it is very possible that this woman have had the cash savings for years, for goodness sake, she is about 45 years old, had been working 2 jobs for the past 20 years, that is only the savings of around $2,500 per year, one can save that in 20 years even though she does not make much, but working 60 hours a week, my man, it is possible! She also sells Thai spice plants which she grows herself, sells Thai food in stalls at Thai temples. The friend said that she proved that the money was hers when buying the house, how I had no detail yet. A friend of mine had to sign a statement though that she brought the money from Thailand and they traced it to her parents, that was it. On he withdrew similar amount of $50,000 and what he did with his money, I have no clue, can be under his mattress. Jasmine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 10, 2004 Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 Quote "The house value is now only $105,000 the mortgage is around $47,000. " Math tells me if the house is sold for $105,000 and they owe $47,000 then the profit is $58,000. Split this between 2 people - you have $29,000. If this is right, take the $29,000 and learn 'from your mistakes'. No use fighting over a battle you can not win - the only winners will be are the lawyers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Encore Posted August 10, 2004 Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 bit Naive, MM. The woman has 2 kids, and lives in it. On her income, it would be highly debatable if she could raise another 29K on top of the mortgage to buy him out, or that she'd be able to service a higher mortgage. Selling means no roof over her and her kids head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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