The High Court has varied the financial arrangements in the divorce of an anonymised Kildare couple after finding that a Circuit Court order transferring the entire family home to the wife failed to make proper provision for the husband.
The parties married in 1995, separated in 2015 and have two children, born in 2001 and 2003. The husband left the family home in November 2020. The property is valued at €605,000 and has only a small mortgage remaining.
The Circuit Court granted a divorce in December 2024. Its orders gave the wife the entire legal and beneficial interest in the family home and the husband the entire interest in his share of a company. It ordered no spousal or child maintenance and awarded the husband 25% of the wife’s pension.
The husband appealed four days later.
Mr Justice Jordan assessed the parties’ resources afresh, as required when determining whether proper provision has been made on divorce. A significant dispute concerned the husband’s 50% interest in his company. His expert valued that interest at €10,000 to €20,000, while the wife’s expert valued it at €300,000.
The judge rejected the husband’s expert valuation. He found the company was a successful business with solid revenues, profits and bank balances and preferred the €600,000 overall company valuation advanced by the wife’s expert, placing the husband’s half share at €300,000.
Together with the €605,000 family home, the court treated the principal assets as worth €905,000. It considered an approximately equal division appropriate in the circumstances of the long marriage.
The wife may therefore retain the family home if she pays the husband €150,000 by 31 July 2026. If she does not, the home must be sold and he will receive 25% of the net proceeds.
The court also ordered spousal maintenance of €750 per month from January 2026 to December 2029. The wife will retain her pension, while the husband keeps his company interest. The divorce itself was affirmed, and no order as to costs was ultimately made.