SINGAPORE: A young netizen turned to Reddit for advice after her parents had a heated argument over their impending divorce and the division of profits from their HDB property.
In her post, she explained that her father had been planning to divorce her mother for decades and use the money from the sale of the HDB property to retire in China.
“Since divorce requires the selling of our hdb, he plans to use the divorce to earn a large sum of money for his retirement.”
Her father had insisted that he take 50% of the profits, even though he only pitched in 25% and never chipped in for the house renovations. Her mother, however, stood firm and refused to agree to these terms.
“There was physical violence involved, whereby he hit my mom and I had to step in to stop him. He apologized to me because I was crying, but I had already lost all trust in him,” she wrote.
“This is extremely unfair for my mother, sister and I. Beyond essentially abandoning us as a family, and leaving my mom as a single mother, he is financially exploiting my mom. The splitting of profits is inherently unfair, we will have to unnecessarily buy another hdb or rent.”
While she sympathizes with her father’s struggles with depression and insomnia, which have slowed down his career and left him earning only about S$3,000 to S$4,000 at age 59, she still believes that he should have focused on planning for retirement rather than seeing the divorce as a way out.
“Since divorce requires consent of both parties and my mom does not consent (due to a financially unfair outcome). He contacted the lawyer and wanted to settle it in court. (which I think is a stupid move because it incurs high fees, and I estimate that the odds are against him).”
“He even tried to get my help in filling up information because he couldn’t understand the English words (plaintiff and defendant). It was outrageous.”
Worried about the legal proceedings, she turned to the Reddit community for insights and advice on how best to support her mother through this challenging time and secure a fair financial outcome.
“Financial contributions can be traced so no worries on that.”
In the comments section, a few Redditors explained that her mother is likely to have the upper hand in this legal situation due to Singapore’s clear rules on asset division. They also mentioned that HDB has records of both her father’s and mother’s financial contributions towards the property, which should ensure a fair outcome.
One individual added, “When you sell a hdb, money will first return to CPF then anything left over will be split. (This is the good part of CPF).
So lionshare will be returned back to your mother. All financial contributions can be traced.”
Another assured her, “Financial contributions can be traced so no worries on that. The courts are pretty fair. Source: me, whose parents divorced 10+ years ago.”
Others recommended hiring a lawyer and getting the police involved since this was also a case of domestic violence.
On the contrary, several Redditors argued against complicating matters further, suggesting she persuade her father to resolve things amicably.
One netizen said, “Tell your dad frankly that both getting lawyers to fight over a flat is lose-lose.”
Another individual added, “You still love both of them, and though your dad is abusive, it seems that they are still on talking terms. Especially your dad with you, since he asked you to translate some legal documents.
“Explore your mum buying over the property so it pays him off. Lay out to him that even if he goes to court, with the evidence that you have, he’s bound to lose out.”
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