Dispute over family home arises 10 years after divorce settlement

Man took ex-wife to court over property they agreed to live in, when he remarried

- Selina Lum

As part of their divorce settlement, a couple agreed to live together in their matrimonial home for 18 years, until the property is sold after the youngest of their three children turns 21 years old.

The husband also agreed to pay $2 million in maintenance to the woman and children, while the wife agreed not to lay claim to his other assets, which included a condominium in Shenton Way.

But a dispute over the matrimonial home arose 10 years after the agreement, when the man remarried in March 2023 and decided to move out.

On his wedding day, the man took his former wife to court, asking for the property to be sold immediately and for her to shoulder half the mortgage repayments.

On Dec 12, the Appellate Division of the High Court ruled that it was "just and equitable" for the former wife to bear half the mortgage repayments from July 20, 2023, the date a district judge first made such an order.

The three-judge court ordered the woman to do so by reimbursing her former husband out of her share of the sale proceeds when the property is eventually sold.

The man had appealed to the Appellate Division after a High Court judge ordered him to bear sole responsibility for the outstanding mortgage repayments.