Looking for some kind of incline on divorce settlement

I have currently separated from my wife and looking to divorce. One of my concerns at the moment is our home. We have two children, aged 4 and 7 and I have conflicting information in that the solicitor she has spoken to has informed her that she will get the house until the children are 18, whereas a solicitor I have spoken to has informed me that this won’t be the case. Another I have spoken to has laid the options out but made it sound like she may get the house until the kids are 18 too.

My income is £45k and hers is about £15k so I don’t think she’d get a mortgage if we sold up and divided the equity despite the house being half paid for and not do I think the bank would let her remortgage to buy me out.

I am keen on a clean break where we divide the equity of the property so I am therefore free of the mortgage on the property to mortgage another home.

I have currently left the family home and am being housed by a friend but will need to look for something more permanent soon. Will my name appearing on the rental of another property work against me as in demonstrating I can support myself in another home or should I return to the family home? Footing child maintenance, half the mortgage plus renting a property for myself is not going to leave me with a great deal of money come the end of the month so I don’t believe spousal maintenance will come into play?

I just want to split our ties together financially so I can move on with my life other than for being there for the children. Anyone with a similar background or experience to mine that could give me some incline what I should expect on the outcome?

Whether the house gets sold now or whether it is retained until the youngest child finishes full time education doesn't depend upon abstractions. It depends on the figures. If, say, the equity in the former matrimonial home is £800,000 and it is possible to buy a suitable home for each spouse for £400,000 then selling now would be inevitable. On the other hand, if the matrimonial home is worth £300,000 subject to a mortgage of £250,000 then it is almost inevitable that the lower earning wife would have to remain in the matrimonial home. In the latter circumstance there is not enough equity to buy suitable alternative properties and the wife has a low mortgage capacity. These examples are clear. It is obviously possible to have some intermediate position where opinions can reasonably differ.

Thanks David. It’s a very common sense way of looking at it. We are at a point we walk away with approximately £70k a piece if we split 50/50. It’s not an insubstantial amount but arguably pointless if you cannot get another mortgage on current earnings.

Frankly, I do not think the equity is going to be split 50/50. The fact is that there are two dependent children and you earn three times as much as your wife. The equity is going to be split more in her favour than yours. On these facts and figures a 50/50 split looks very unlikely to me. It depends where the property is (because that has an impact on the likely cost of suitable alternative accommodation) but on these figures it may even be in your interest to sell the house and let your wife have all the equity in return for a clean break. Then there is a possibility that she might be able to buy a place and you will be free of the mortgage and able to take out a new one in due course.

The other obvious alternative is that she stays in the house with a charge for a percentage of its value in your favour but which you will not be able to realise until the youngest child ceases to be dependent. In that event you would get some share of the equity (say 40%) but only rather a long time in the future and in the interval you would find it next to impossible to get another mortgage because you would almost certainly remain on the mortgage of the former matrimonial home. Faced with this choice the first scenario may seem more attractive.

Thanks David. I really appreciate it. I’ll crunch some numbers and speak to my lender.