My husband and I are divorcing but cannot agree on the financial splits or maintenance.
A few details:
Relationship length 20 years (Married for 7 years).
My earnings: £15050 (also UC £400, Child Benefit £140 a month)
His: £80000 plus bonuses (equating to around £100k usually)
House worth: £210k, left to pay £127k (the house is in his name only)
Pension pot is worth around £170k (40k/130k).
We have 2 children, 9 and 13. They live with me and stay with him every other weekend for 2 nights, sometimes 1.
He will pay £950 a month child maintenance.
We are trying to sort out the financial splits, I cant afford solictors, he can. Here lies my problem.
Everytime I suggest a split, he flat out says no. He says I can have 50% of his pension (£70k) and 50% of the house, he is happy for us to stay in the house until the children are 18, at which point he wants to sell and split the equity. And will pay £300 a month spousal maintenance until the children are 18 or I move in with someone else.
I have asked for:
House split: 65/35 (my favour)
Pension: 35/65 (his favour)
Spousal Maintenance: £400
Child Maintenance: £950
I will continue to cover the mortgage from my maintenance payments.
This isn't the first offer I've made, I've been doing as the solicitor advised by calculating all the values and trying to be as fair as possible. I'm worrying that in 10 years time, I wont be able to afford a mortgage based on my salary. I work in Local Government so there are absolutely zero chances of my salary increasing to anything significant.
He would rather have a higher share in the house than the pension, where my only concern is affordability of a mortgage in 10 years on a reasonably low salary as in 10 years, I will lose child maintenance and other child related benefits that I currently get. He keeps telling me that if I want more than 50% of the house then he will only pay me £200 a month sm. Ive had to buy a car as the family car was leased and going back, Im also looking after the children and the 2 dogs and basically just keeping my head above water. I dont think Ive been unreasonable in my offer but he knows that I will struggle to afford legal representation.
I've had quotes from a solicitor which are way out of my budget, I just don't have that kind of money to pull out. Are there other options available to me?