Would you share your lottery winnings with your spouse?

Husbands and wives are not automatically entitled to a share of each other’s lottery winnings, according to city lawyers.

If one hits the jackpot, they may be able to simply walk away without giving the other anything.

The warning comes after a court case involving a woman who had won £500,000 on the National Lottery. She bought the winning ticket with her own money and without her husband’s knowledge.

The couple, who can’t be named for legal reasons, were living in a council house at the time and used the winnings to buy a £275,000 house.

Angela Maxfield, of Andersons Solicitors in Nottingham & Leicester, said there were no problems to begin with but a few years later, the couple’s marriage broke down and the husband moved out of the family home.

He claimed a share of the lottery winnings as part of the divorce settlement but the court ruled against him. The judge, Mr Justice Mostyn, said he was not entitled to an equal share because the wife’s lottery winnings were not “matrimonial property”.

However, the husband was entitled to a share of the proceeds from the family home because when the wife bought it with her winnings, she had converted it into “matrimonial property”. He still wasn’t entitled to an equal share as he had only lived there for a short time.

He was therefore awarded a lump sum of only £85,000, even though the house is now worth an estimated £500,000.

Angela said: “The ruling has surprised many lawyers. Generally speaking, wealth accrued during the marriage is shared equally.

“There’s been growing trend in recent cases for inherited wealth to be protected during divorce proceedings, but this ruling seems to suggest that other wealth acquired by one partner alone could also be excluded from the settlement.

“The judge did stress that if the couple had bought the ticket as a sort of “syndicate” between them, then any winnings should be shared equally.

“The other interesting point is that the case seems to suggest that the wife could have kept all the money for herself if she hadn’t used some of it for the benefit of the family. When she bought the home, she effectively turned that part of her winnings into matrimonial property and that was then available to be shared.”

Angela said that if couples were concerned about how wealth accumulated by one partner alone should be shared, they could consider drawing up a post nuptial agreement so everything is agreed in advance should problems arise in the future.

For more information please contact Angela Maxfield on 0115 988 6705 or email amaxfield@andersonssolicitors.co.uk.