Once you marry, engagement and wedding rings are considered the property of the person who has received them[1]. So, if a divorce petition is filed, the person who gave the ring cannot ask for it back because of the divorce alone.
That being said, if a wedding ring has a realistic resale, salvage and/or melt value of £500 or more, then it will need to be disclosed as an asset during the financial disclosure phase of divorce proceedings. It will then contribute to the total amount of assets deemed to be held in your name when weighing up who should get what. So, whilst a court is unlikely to order that a ring be returned or sold[2], possession of particularly valuable jewellery may impact how much of the rest of the matrimonial assets a person is able to lay claim to.
What are other Lawyers Saying?
A surprising number of top law firms get this question wrong by conflating what happens to rings upon divorce and what happens to rings if two people get engaged but never actually marry.
- Raydens, for example, says ‘Under section 3(2) of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1970, “an engagement ring is presumed to be an absolute gift”. This means that, in most cases, the person who receives the ring is entitled to keep it, regardless of how or why the engagement or marriage comes to an end…however, this presumption may be challenged’[3]. It is wrong here to reference marriage or to cite the 1970 statute in an article on divorce. It applies only to engagements that are subsequently called off. Other leading law firms like Vardags[4], Jackson Lees[5], and Kingsley Napley[6] all make similar mistakes.
- Belderboss Solicitors appears to be the most unaware that getting divorced and calling a marriage off are not the same thing – heading one of their articles with the question ‘when getting divorced, who gets the engagement ring if the engagement is called off?’[7].
I’m Ricky Hepburn. When every lawyer claims to be an expert, yet different lawyers reach different conclusions, it can be difficult to know who to trust. Many solicitors are glorified paper-pushers who delegate tricky legal analysis to their favourite barristers. I actually read the law and understand it. You can verify this by looking at the citations that I include in my online guides, and in any advice that you ask me to provide.
If you’re considering getting a divorce and are curious about how the finances might be divided, get in touch, and I’ll give you my preliminary thoughts and an outline of how your particular case might unfold.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Do I need to disclose my wedding ring on my Form E?
Yes, if the realistic resale, salvage and/or melt value of the ring exceeds £500.
- How can I protect my wedding ring from being taken in a divorce?
If you are already married and did not sign a prenup agreement, you can still create a postnuptial agreement now with your spouse which sets out what you wish to happen to the rings if you separate.
- Can I get my wedding ring back if we divorce?
Probably not, unless you (i) explicitly agreed in writing that the wedding ring would be returned, (ii) the wedding ring is a family heirloom with sentimental value, or (iii) its value is unusually large relative to the rest of the assets.
- Can my ex force me to sell my wedding ring?
A court can require you to sell your jewellery if doing so is necessary to enable you and your ex to meet your day-to-day needs after separating. That being said, forcing the sale of a wedding ring would be a very uncommon thing for the courts to do.
- Are wedding rings matrimonial assets?
Yes, but if the value of the resale, salvage, and/or melt value of the ring is less than £500, it is not an asset that you will need to disclose to the courts during your divorce.
[1] Cohen v Sellar [1926] 1 KB 536, per McCardie J at Para.549: ‘if the marriage actually takes place then the engagement ring or like gift will, in the absence of express agreement to the contrary, become…the absolute property of the recipient, and that property will not, I presume, be divested by subsequent divorce’.
[2] Such an order might be made, for example, if the value of the ring is extraordinarily large relative to the rest of the matrimonial assets, or if it is a family heirloom with particular sentimental value to the person who provided it.
[3] https://raydensolicitors.co.uk/blog/when-diamonds-are-not-forever-what-happens-to-the-engagement-ring-on-divorce/
[4] https://vardags.com/faq/divorce/who-keeps-the-rings-on-divorce
[5] https://www.jacksonlees.co.uk/rules-engagement
[6] https://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/our-insights/articles/rings-rolexes-and-renoirs-what-happens-to-the-engagement-ring-and-other-gifts-made-during-the-marriage-when-a-couple-gets-divorced/
[7] https://belderbossolicitors.co.uk/blog/when-getting-divorced-who-gets-the-engagement-ring/