Case No. NP20D02617

52.I am satisfied that at the time the PNA was negotiated and signed W was vulnerable by reason of her past experiences. She was desperate for the relationship to work for all sorts of reasons of which her faith was just one. She had invested a huge amount emotionally in this relationship and could not contemplate any other scenario. However, the pressure that she was under was self-created.53.H’s behaviour is relevant only as to whether it led to W entering into the agreement. I do not find that H’s behaviour can objectively be described as coercive or controlling or that it led to her entering into the PNA. To put it another way, whilst W’s psychological makeup and previous history of relationship breakups had deprived her of being able to make a rational and considered decision as to what was in her best interests, this was not caused by H’s conduct.54.I very much regret that so much energy has been devoted to exploring this subject. The emotional and financial consequences on the parties has been considerable. It has also been entirely unnecessary.55.In my view it is clear that this agreement did not adequately meet W’s financial needs. H’s argument that it put W into a far better position than she had been before the parties were married is valid but only insofar as it goes. True it is that W having signed the agreement had the benefit of (a) her main property with its mortgage of £83,000 paid off and (b) the small home that she purchased in 2013 mortgage free when H had discharged the mortgage of £53,000. That meant that she had a rental income from that property of some £7,000pa gross of expenses and tax which she had not had before.56.But, whilst the agreement provided for the meeting of W’s short-term needs, provided her earned income held up, it failed to enable her to meet long-term needs. Once her working days were over, W would have been left with her rental income, her state pension and a pension from employment of some £6,000pa net. This was not an adequate provision for someone who had been for the best part of 8 years (summer 2012-March 2020) the wife of a relatively prosperous professional person and did not enable her to meet her needs at much more than a near-subsistence level.57.H at the time seemed to have accepted this. The parties discussed H providing by will for W from his pension fund in the event of him predeceasing her, which actuarially was likely. He had agreed to take advice from his IFA, but he says that he was later advised that such provision was not possible, although he could not recall why.