Divorce settlement property finance, structured around your deadline

A separation often comes with a date attached. The consent orders or a binding financial agreement say one party keeps the house and pays out the other by a set day. You have the equity. What you do not have, yet, is the cash sitting ready to release it. Windsor Finance arranges the finance to fund that settlement, structured around the deadline you actually have to meet.

Most people who reach this page are in one of a few spots. You are keeping the family home and need to pay your former partner their share. You are the one being paid out and need short-term funds to settle into a new place before the family home sells. Or a property is being split between separating parties and the timing of one transaction depends on another. The pressure is rarely the amount; it is the timing. Family law settlements run to fixed dates. Miss the date your orders specify and you risk the agreement unravelling, a forced sale of the property, or a fire-sale price because the clock ran out. A standard bank refinance can take four to eight weeks once valuation and credit assessment are done, and that timetable does not always fit a settlement window.

Windsor is a finance broker. We hold no capital of our own and we approve nothing. We take your deal to a panel of Australian bank and non-bank lenders, then package and place it with the one that fits on rate, leverage, speed and appetite. For a property settlement, that usually means one of two routes. Bridging finance. Short-term lending secured against the property, used to release a lump sum to pay out the other party, with a clean exit planned from the start. The exit is normally a longer-term refinance into a standard mortgage once your position settles, or the sale of another asset. Indicative bridging cost on bank and near-bank lenders runs roughly 6% to 12% per annum, with private bridging higher; terms typically sit at 6 to 12 months and LVR goes up to around 75% of value on standard security. See bridging loans. Private or caveat lending, where speed matters more than the headline rate. Private lenders can settle in 3 to 10 business days where the security and the exit are clean. The money is the most expensive on the panel, commonly 9% to 16% per annum or priced monthly, but for a deadline you cannot move, certainty of funds is the point. See private and non-bank lending.

Separation often leaves income looking messy on paper. One household has become two. There may be a recent change in employment, child support in or out, or a business that needs a fresh set of financials, and standard bank serviceability can struggle with that picture. This is where a broker panel helps. Different lenders read income differently, and non-bank and low-doc lenders assess on alternative evidence such as an accountant’s letter, business bank statements or a BAS. The point of placing the deal across a panel is finding the lender whose policy fits your situation, rather than being judged by one bank’s single rulebook. See low-doc and non-conforming finance.

Windsor arranges finance. We do not give legal advice, family law advice or tax advice, and we do not draft or interpret your consent orders or financial agreement. Your solicitor handles the settlement itself, and we fund it. Where the lending is for a genuine business or investment purpose it falls outside the National Consumer Credit Protection Act; where it is consumer lending against the home you live in, responsible lending obligations apply and we will tell you which side your deal sits on. The purpose of each deal is confirmed in writing before it proceeds. Every rate, fee and LVR on this page is indicative; the lender confirms the final position on application once it sees the security and your file. Our structuring and lender shortlisting cost you nothing at the indicative stage, and every cost is disclosed in writing, up front, before you commit.