Deferred clean break payment unfair

Milton v Milton [2008] EWCA Civ 926 17 July

To achieve a clean break the district judge ordered the wife to pay the husband £60,000 but allowed her 36 months to pay it with no provision for interest. He took ‘judicial notice of the well-publicised fact that mortgages may now become more difficult to obtain in view of the credit difficulties which have beset the City of London and indeed the wider world’. The Court of Appeal was not persuaded that such a long delay could be said to fall within even the generous ambit of the discretion. The variation to be made to introduce fairness could be achieved in one of two ways: either by shortening the period for payment, or leaving the exceptional length but imposing an interest provision. The simplest solution was to abbreviate the period for payment to one year. If unforeseen future circumstances arise it would always be possible for the payer to apply to the court for an extension.