subject: Avoiding The Pitfalls When Making a UK Prenuptial Agreement [print this page] Avoiding The Pitfalls When Making a UK Prenuptial Agreement
A prenuptial agreement in the UK can help prevent pre-marital couples from falling into a dangerous financial trap, however they also have their own pitfalls which you should know about.The biggest problem you may face is where a UK court will ignore your pre-nup wishes if you fall outside of these requirements.For example, any prenuptial agreement (or prenup as it is often known) will probably not be enforceable in the UK if it can be shown that one or other of the parties did not get independent legal advice. This would kick in where one party suffers as they did not take legal advice when putting together the conditions of the prenup. Ideally UK courts want to see that both parties have been separately represented by an independent solicitor with experience of prenuptial agreements. Should either have been misrepresented - or not represented at all - the potential agreement will not be worth the paper it is written on and will therefore be discarded.Also a UK prenuptial agreement will be challenged should either party not make a full and proper disclosure of his or her financial assets at the time it was entered into. This means all assets need to be identified, disclosed and, where appropriate, included. There is an exception in the UK case of Crossley v Crossley where the court ruled that detailed disclosure may not always be necessary in a short marriage and when both parties were very wealthy at the time of the marriage.Considering the potential pitfalls, it is advisable that you allow good time for your prenuptial agreement to be made. Ideally you should be looking for the contract to have been implemented by your solicitor at least a month or so before your wedding. If your prenup is created the moment before the wedding this could raise suspicions of duress which could be brought up later on.Should you even consider delaying the date of your wedding in order to conclude a satisfactory agreement? The answer could be 'yes; if those issues which have arisen are crucial to you. You must consider that the process of drafting a prenuptial agreement can take as little as a week where there are no complex issues or it can take a lot longer.When deciding if to use a prenup you must look from the perspective of it potentially saving you lots of stress and money during a divorce. The case involving Karen Radmacher showed that the UK courts will acknowledge the contents of a prenuptial agreement when dealing with divorce.
