How to get 50% of a house sale?

You may want to elaborate a bit.

One party "the wife" speaks Vietnamese and know how the system works
The other party is a Foreigner who does not speak Vietnamese but knows enough about how the system works to be on his guard.
They are married and do not want to divorce
Wife wants to use all the proceeds to speculate on real estate and other ventures
Husband want to be more cautious and put the money in a bank for the interest.
Both have their own merits so I'm not sure what to tell the husband. He suspects that the amount of money involved will turn his wife's head and she may end up getting scammed and will lose the money  over time.
It's a tricky one and I'd rather not be involved but I am a friend of the husband who has asked for my opinion. Don't want to see him getting ripped off and ending up with nothing. It was his money that bought the land and built the house many years ago.

another one bites the dust......

Does he have any paperwork to show that it was his money that bought the property.

Not as far as I know. All he has is the Marriage Certificate and the House Deeds which was built after they were married.  My first advice was for him to see a lawyer but after hearing some horror stories about lawyers in Vietnam, he's very cautious about going down that road. Thought there may be someone on site who could point him in the right direction

Well, the house will be in her name so it wont be easy. It sounds like the wife is not interested in selling and your mate can see problems arising.Surely the guy has some bank documents to show how he brought the money into VN.

blunders wrote:

All he has is the Marriage Certificate and the House Deeds

Honey I can't find the red book... 

I assume this is an extra house? Or they wouldn't have anywhere to live.
Compromise is not an option? 50% in bank, 50% for investments.

Optimism: he takes more risks , they analyze the investments together, teamwork to reduce fears and control, happy ending

Pessimism: wife is on the way out anyway, trying to finagle assets while still together.

No conclusion: Not enough details about relationship and personalities, financial situation, what percentage of assets is house, influence of her family, etc.

If this is in Saigon I know a good lawyer who may be able to help.

Maybe your first post has the answer.

He obviously has reason to worry, doesn't trust what will happen to the sale proceeds and is sceptical about the whole thing.   Unfortunately this is dodge city.   A German guy here was in the same situation.

Wifey just mortgaged the house to the hilt & pissed off. 

Google  “Phuket property nightmare”   It's a BBC i news article with YouTube clip about two guys there that had that happen.   Having the deeds in this part of the world doesn't always help.
Their  wives fraudulently signed mortgage documents and fleeced these guys for about 5 million dollars between them.

**

Sounds like renting forever is the way to go. Yikes.
That Phuket property nightmare story just scared me off for good.

Yep....scary stuff.
I know two other Aussie guys that had the same thing happen.   They bought upmarket property's in Phuket .  3 years later a bank put For Sale signs up in front of their houses. 

I met one of them, he's suffering health issues from the stress of it.  $400k down the shitter.   He's had thugs run him out of town.  He got a lawyer, but the lawyer got threatened & dropped the case.

Turns out the corrupt developer never repaid the loan on the land subdivision the houses were built on.  Gotta watch those unregistered mortgages in this part of the world.    I'll be in Phuket next month ,,wonder if he got it sorted🤓