26th April 2010

A man who gave up his share of the matrimonial home in a divorce settlement so that his daughter could remain living there is proposing to go back to court after discovering that she is not his biological child, the Sunday Times reports.

The Buckinghamshire man gave up his 40 percent share in the Surrey home when the couple divorced and the presiding judge is even reported to have noted that it was a generous gesture to sign away ownership of the property to his ex-wife.

However, now the ex-husband has learned that the 17-year-old woman he thought was his daughter is not his, he feels that his decision to give away any financial stake in the property was based on a lie.

He says he has no wish to make the teenager homeless, but feels that once she finishes her studies and moves out of the house, now valued at around £470,000, it should then be sold and the profits divided between himself and his ex-wife.

Although DNA tests have become an established tool in UK divorce proceedings during the negotiation of maintenance agreements, cases of proving paternity fraud, where deceit on behalf of the mother has been deliberate, are still rare in family law.

A family law expert told the Sunday Times that although divorce settlement maintenance agreements are routinely varied through the courts, the overturning of a capital agreement would be "very, very difficult".