Abused wife wants share of property

Dear Mrs Macaulay,

I have been married for the last fourteen years and we share four children. I have been abused physically, emotionally, and psychologically to the point where I had zero confidence, became suicidal, and have been through depression. Each time he curses me and wants me to leave the house. He has been travelling on the farm work programme for eleven years now. I am left with the burden on childrearing, home duties, visiting and overseeing the farm, as well as I am a full-time secondary school teacher. He has threatened to take my life and also threatened that if I don’t leave the house he will burn it down or hit it down. I have contributed to the building and maintenance of this house during the eleven years since he inherited it from his grandmother.

I need your advice on my rights in this matter when I decide to file divorce.

It is such a pity that so many women, because of the adverse and disabling effect of the frequent abuse of their husbands, are forced to remain in completely abusive marriages and are rendered quite ineffective in seeking their legal rights or even in finding out where to go for help to enable them to take steps to protect themselves and their children. Their children, merely by being in such abusive homes, are also victims of the spousal abuse by being forced to grow up in a violent, disrespectful, loveless, angry household. This actually creates in them the attributes of victims and abusers, and this starts cycles of violence from their generation to the next and onward.

Your letter indicates that you have suffered a great deal of abuse. But you are now fully aware what an unsafe and unhealthy life you had been living and to which your children have been subjected to, and you are at the stage where you have decided to take your life into your own hands and to rectify your situation and that of your children. You have not mentioned whether your husband has been contributing financially to the maintenance of the children, yourself and the household.

The first thing you must bear in mind is that you can and must act even before you file a divorce petition. You must take immediate steps to protect you and your children by legally bringing the abusive lives you all have been living under to an end. You must therefore go to the Family Court in your parish and tell the intake clerk that you need to apply for protection, occupation and ancillary orders; and also for maintenance orders for the children under the Domestic Violence Act in order to protect yourself and your children. It does not matter whether the property is registered in your husband’s sole name because it is your family home and he has threatened to burn it or destroy it by knocking it down. You have the right to apply for and to obtain orders of protection, occupation and all necessary ancillary orders under the Act. These you should try to obtain now as they will protect your person and the home and ensure provision for the children in the interim, while you contemplate the filing of divorce proceedings.

Protection orders will ensure that his verbal, physical and mental abuse cease, as the orders you should apply for, with the assistance of the clerk, are that he would reside elsewhere and does not come within a certain distance of you, does not telephone, follow you or harass you in any way while you and the children occupy the home until your respective interests therein are decided and you proceed with your dissolution of marriage proceedings. The occupation order is what will give you the right to continue to occupy the home — and remember to always include your children. The ancillary orders will enable you and the children to continue to use the furniture and appliances which are his during the period of the occupation order and also that he continues to pay/contribute to utility bills and any existing installments of mortgage/loans.

These orders are provided by the Domestic Violence Act in order to ensure that members of a family with an abusive member are granted legal protections, and that victims can have the stability of continuing to reside in their homes in peace, while the abusers have to live elsewhere AND continue to meet the financial obligations for the home.

The children are entitled in law to be maintained by him while they are minors, that is until 18 years of age, and this order can be extended to cover the years they spend pursuing their undergraduate studies or training of any technical kind after school.

Please try to get and retain receipts for what you spend on them and for provision in the household, so you can produce them if and when necessary. You should have all this information to give to the clerk of the Family Court to record to be used in the preparation of your applications for the children.

The fact that he inherited your home will not automatically deprive you of a legal interest in it. It is a matter which must be decided under the Property (Rights of Spouses)Act by the court examining the evidence of what kind of inheritance it was and whether it was specifically for him solely or not. Then there is the issue of the value of your contribution towards improvements of the structure to which you are legally entitled. For the property interests, I suggest that you get a lawyer to assist you. Remember that you cannot be left adrift if you do as I have suggested and take legal steps now, by immediately going to the Family Court to obtain orders which will protect you and your children. Once you obtain the orders under the Domestic Violence Act, please ask for and obtain certified copies of the orders and keep a copy with you at all times, so that if your husband breaches or attempts to breach any of the orders, you can call or go to the police, report him, and show them the certified order. This will enable them to act immediately.

I hope I have clarified the position for you so that you understand that you have nothing to fear as you have strong laws on your side and that of your children which can not only protect you, but also give you and them peace of mind and a peaceful existence.

I wish you and your children a very happy New Year and that 2022 will give to you all hope, good health, peace and the opportunity and strength to solve all your difficulties and to finally live dignified lives.

I also take this opportunity to wish my editor and the staff of All Woman and the Observer and all my readers God’s blessings for healthy, peaceful, happy, tranquil, safe and fulfilling lives throughout 2022.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.

DISCLAIMER:

The contents of this article are for informational purposes only, and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney.