Paying for mediation

I have decided to attend mediation next week to make my wife happy.
I will take my bank statement and P60 to prove my income.
I will also take a recent valuation of the FMH.
I assume that will be the financial disclosure sorted.

I will then ask the mediator why he told my wife that mediation was compulsory and why failure to attend would result in me being forced to pay my wife''s solicitors fees.

I think next Wednesday afternoon will be very interesting indeed.

You can''t be certain that it was the mediator who told your wife mediation is compulsory and that if you refuse to attend you are liable for her legal costs.

Rather than go in with all guns blazing looking for a fight, perhaps it would be better to just attend the MIAM with an open mind, not be confrontative and allow the mediator to do his/her job.

I remembered today that I had the house valued on 26 Jan 2016 by an online estate agent called Purple Bricks.
I ignored their valuation because it was £50,000 lower than valuations from other estate agents at the time.
Purple Bricks valued the house at £190,000.
Luckily I still have the valuation report on my computer so I have printed it off to take with me to mediation.
Now as my wife has a 50% interest in the house then my equity is £95,000.
I understand that I will be fully entitled to legal aid for mediation as my equity is below £100,000. Great stuff, so the tax payer will fund the mediator £130 per hour to resolve a dispute that doesn''t exist.

You may be required to have a local estate agent value the house as these online agencies can be well wide of the mark as Zoopla was with mine. Nearly £100k to be exact!!!!
We had to have a local agent complete a valuation report which cost £300.

When you attend mediation the first time they will complete a form to means test if you are entitled to legal aid or not.

OK thanks for your reply. The chap who valued my house from Purple Bricks lived locally so no problem.
Valuation reports from estate agents are free around here. The other estate agents who valued my house did it for free. I didn''t even ask them to value my house. They put cards through my door offering free valuations.

We had to pay for a single joint expert to value ours which was an estate agent we both had to agree to. As the house wasn''t going up for sale at that time it was understandable that he charged.

I have been reading from the mediation information the following.
If mediation fails then the case will go to court.
The mediation information mentions nothing about failing to resolve desputes that don''t exist.
Now in my case, mediation is bound to fail because there is no dispute to resolve.
I therefore assume I will end up in court for a judge to resolve a dispute that doesn''t exist.
Any court judge who can resolve a dispute that doesn''t exist is either excepionally clever or excepionally stupid.