Please help

Hi all,
I’m representing myself and my ex has a solicitor. Any support with a guide to distribution of assets would be hugely helpful please so that I know where to pitch my negotiation.
Marriage was 10 years long, we have 3 children who all live with me and the ex is in the military and away mostly.
The house is worth 310 with mortgage of 132 outstanding.
My pension is worth 14k and his is 120k.
There are no other significant assets etc. His car is worth the same as my jewellery so that part is similar.
I’m not sure how the court would divide those assets according to need.
Any advise would be greatly appreciated thank you

>>I’m not sure how the court would divide those assets according to need.

In order to give some sort of context to needs (yours, your husband's and those of the children) you would need to give some sort of indication of your respective incomes and earning capacity. I am assuming from the length of the marriage that the three children are under 10 or thereabouts.

Hi, yes sorry,
Between 6 and 12 are their ages. Been trying to get divorced for a while. So his income is approximately 47k annually and mine is approximately 34k. I stayed at home with the children during most of the marriage so only just gone back out to work with a salary.

Well, if you and your husband were able to agree the terms of settlement there is a broad spectrum which would be acceptable if you were both happy about it. If you could not agree then I think in broad terms a court would probably think along the following lines:-

1. The house is transferred into your sole name with your husband having a charge upon the property for about 40% of the net equity. You would undertake responsibility for the mortgage, undertake to remove him from the mortgage if at all possible and in any event to indemnify him against all liability under the mortgage. He would not be able to realise his percentage charge of the property until the children finished their full time education or you died or remarried.

2. There would be pension sharing so as to equalise your pensions.

3. Save for the above there would be a clean break and he would pay you child maintenance which for 3 children is about 25% of his net income although the exact formula is on the government web site which you can easily check for yourself.

For what it is worth jewellery is not equivalent to a car. Cars are generally regarded as means of transport and ignored. Jewellery is usually ignored because it is a personal chattel and of insignificant value. However, if your jewellery is worth as much as his car that suggests it is not of insignificant value unless he runs an old banger.

I should also say that the 40% mentioned above is not set in stone. At a maximum it might be 50% or it could be less than 40% although on these figures I can't see it being less than 30% and it is only likely to be the lower figure if you can actually remove him from the mortgage because unless you can he would be unable to get another mortgage in which case 40% would probably be more likely.

Thank you so much for the advise. It’s really helpful to know the rationale behind the decisions that court may make.