Deed of assignment not actioned

[beagle legal]

Hello, I'm a new member and I'd like some advice please. My ex and I divorced in 2015 and as part of the process, I made a deed of assignment for an endowment policy held in joint names to remove myself from the policy. My ex has not actioned this, two weeks ago I received a letter from the company to say "we gather you have moved house", which of course I have not and I had to call them to let them know I am still here (I was concerned that this confusion may affect any credit purchases I may want to make). Now I have received information that he wants to cash in the policy and I have been asked to sign a document in order to help him achieve this. Sadly, my ex did not act honestly during our divorce and actively withheld information about his work situation from both me and my (now grown up children) and I had to take him to the CMS to get the appropriate amount of child support for our son. I estimated that my ex's dishonesty cost me £7,000. He is a managing director earning at least £50k after tax and NI, he has never been a pauper.
Can I refuse to sign this new document on the grounds that I have already dealt with this matter in a timely fashion? I am not proud to say that I would like to at least make him wait and have to work a bit (i.e. suggest that he consults his solicitor) and at best would like to negotiate some repayment of the sums owed to me.
Thanks for any advice.

[Peridot]

Hi Beagle Legal,

When you reached your financial settlement, I assume this was reflected in the Court Order that was made. So was it stipulated in the Order that the Deed of Assignment was to be created signing the endowment policy over to your ex?

If there is a Court Order stating the above it would be inadvisable to refuse to sign over the policy as you are then in breach of the Order. Don't forget if he involves a solicitor although it may make you feel better it doesn't actually achieve anything practically other than dragging up the past.

Although it can be satisfying getting one over on an ex, it's not always the best bet, when what you no doubt want to do is move on from the relationship, however much we're smarting.

[beagle legal]

Hi Peridot,
I had no notification so I didn't realise anyone had replied.
I don't think we had a Court Order, we dealt with this ourselves and never involved the Court to save costs. If there was no Court Order then what would be the situation?
The reverse action my ex took was to sign over the Title Deed to our property to me and this was done, so I assume that he received the Deed of Assignment but has not actioned it and has now lost the paperwork.
On another site I saw someone post a similar issue - this time the husband had not registered the deed when originally signed, he failed to do so until after the policy matured and the company then refused to accept the deed, telling him that the wife had to send a letter. She was refusing unless she got half the policy - what is the difference between that situation and mine?
I appreciate that many people think that turning the other cheek is best and that I need to forgive to move on, but in actual fact I believe that turning the other cheek only presents that one to get a good slapping too, and being able to get back the money that my ex has knowingly withheld from me (and out two children) is the best way for me to be able to move forwards. I don't need to forgive the miserable tool, just get back what's owed!

[Peridot]

Hi Beagle Legal,
Usually, even if you have managed to agree the division of your assets yourselves, the Court would then consider the draft consent order that you drew up and approve (or not) the agreement that you had reached.
If you never applied to the Court for this, did you prepare a document that set out the terms of your agreement? Was the document signed by both parties?
Whilst a Court Order confirming the agreement is preferable, it is not essential. It can however create issues further down the line as you have seen.
If there is no Court Order then it would be difficult to enforce the agreement that you have made between the two of you. If you drew up a contract and signed it then it will also be more difficult to renege on the agreement. Your ex could sue for breach of contract. If there is no written, signed agreement then it is not clear exactly what was agreed at the time.

I'm sorry if I touched a nerve with my previous post. It was not my intention and I do understand where you're coming from. At the time it was unclear what the position was with regard to any Order being in place. I couldn't advise you to go against ant Court Order and it would be inadvisable to go against any written contract you have.
What is the form the insurers have sent? I assume they have prepared a document to enable the full sum to be paid to your ex? Or is it just requiring confirmation that the policy is to be cashed in? If that is the case then where the policy is in joint names it should be paid equally to both of you once cashed in.

[beagle legal]

Further update - I do believe that we had a Divorce Consent Order (I looked at templates and spotted something that looked familiar), and my ex apparently found the Deed of Assignment and sent it in, but for some reason it was worded incorrectly or they indicated the wrong sections (although I got the paperwork from the Prudential themselves) and ex's solicitor did not check before it went through the court.
Upshot is apparently the policy has been assigned to me! I have called the Pru and explained that this is a mistake and they are now chasing my ex to follow up with him.
What are my options now? I do find that it is ridiculous that, having tried to do everything correctly, I will probably still have to fill in more paperwork to see him waltz off with the money. Maybe they need to say that a Divorce Consent Order is fulfilled at the time of the court hearing and parties must make sure it has been correctly executed within 6 months, as mine was seen in 2015.
Oh well, it's been fun making him wait and squirm......

[Peridot]

Hi Beagle Legal,

You need to get a copy of the Consent Order. Contact the Court that dealt with the divorce and financial application to obtain a copy. Once you have that you can see what it says about the assignment. Then you can make a decision about the correction of the deed of assignment document, if needs be.

Feel free to post the clause in the order relating to the assignment of the policy if you need some help deciphering it. Maybe don't chase the Pru for the moment until you know whether you need to.