the power of woman charter: Bankrupt man to pay maintenance to ex-wife, children as court orders family flat to be sold

[The_King]

SINGAPORE: A family court has tackled a case where matrimonial assets were to be divided between a bankrupt man and his ex-wife.

While the issue of bankruptcy caused difficulty, a matrimonial flat was allowed to be in the pool of assets to be split as Housing Board properties are generally excluded from the operation of insolvency law because of their unique nature as a form of public housing in Singapore.

In a judgment made available on Friday (Jun 16), District Judge Kevin Ho ordered the flat to be sold, with the ex-wife to receive S$100,000 (US$74,808) from the sale proceeds.

She will also receive around S$219,000 by way of transfer from her ex-husband's Central Provident Fund account to hers.

After assessing that the man's income for the past few years was approximately S$2,000 a month, the judge ordered him to pay his ex-wife S$300 a month in maintenance for four years.

The bankrupt also has to pay his ex-wife another S$800 a month as maintenance for their two children, aged 17 and 12.

THE CASE

The couple married in 2006 and divorced in 2022. They agreed on joint custody with the woman having care and control, with access arrangements for the man.

However, they disputed over how matrimonial assets were to be divided and whether the man should pay maintenance to the ex-wife and children.

The judge cited a High Court case that dealt with the "interplay between a divorcing spouse's bankruptcy and the Family Court's power to divide matrimonial assets".

If a spouse is adjudged bankrupt before the matrimonial assets can be divided under the Women's Charter, the bankruptcy creates a fundamental difficulty, as the bankrupt spouse's assets have been vested in the Official Assignee under the Bankruptcy Act.

This prevents a family court from making any order which affects the vested assets.

However, assets which are generally "protected" and exempted from the automatic vesting include a bankrupt person's HDB property and his CPF monies.

In this case, it meant that only the money in the man's CPF, a UOB bank account and the matrimonial HDB flat fell within the matrimonial pool.

The UOB account money was included because the remainder of a bankrupt's post-bankruptcy monthly income, after deducting the monthly contribution he has to pay to his creditors, would usually not be included in the bankrupt's estate.

WHY THE HDB FLAT WAS EXEMPTED

"The only reason why the matrimonial flat remained outside of the bankrupt's estate was because ... the Housing and Development Act expressly excluded the vesting of such properties when the husband was made bankrupt," said the judge.

If the matrimonial home was a private apartment instead, there would have been no division to speak of as such private homes would have already been vested in the Official Assignee upon bankruptcy, said Judge Ho.

"With respect to HDB properties, the reason they are generally excluded from the operation of insolvency law is because of their unique nature as a form of public housing in Singapore," explained the judge.

"It is the property itself which is protected. If a bankrupt’s HDB flat is sold, his share of the sale proceeds would be returned to him in the form of cash and be subject to the relevant insolvency law regime applicable to him," he said.

The ex-wife had asked for a lump-sum amount of S$324,000 of maintenance for her from her ex-husband, based on a monthly sum of S$900 for 30 years.

The judge found this unreasonable. While the woman previously had documents certifying that she was unfit to work due to her medical condition, this certification expired in March this year.

The judge found that the man was unable to pay the maintenance sought by his ex-wife.

The woman also claimed that the expenses for the children came up to S$1,650 a month, but the judge found that S$990 was a more appropriate figure. 

He also noted that some of the children's expenses were being paid through social service assistance.

The ex-wife has filed an appeal against the court's decision.

Source: CNA/ll(rj)

[The_King]

it like losing your 8th Amendment

[unclefcuker]

Life destroyed