Newbie Guidance on Divorce - Maintenance & Mortgage Payments?

Hi ,

I'm fresh to this so please bear with me.

In the event of divorcing my wife of 15 years and given we have two children aged 9 (twins) I'm trying to understand how it will bottom out in relation to who gets what.

I'm the bread earner and have been paying mortgage & bills from the start.

The property is in both names.

So I'm wondering in the event of divorce could I be bought out. If so presumably this would be market value of property less mortgage outstanding and then split 50/50 with the wife settling my 50% to buy me out?

Re the children if she dug her heels in would she automatically be entitled to remain in the house with me then having to continue paying the mortgage as well as child maintenance payments etc. ?

I appreciate each case is on it's merits but what is the general rule of thumb?

All advice & guidance appreciated.

There is no general rule of thumb. All cases are different and depend on the figures. Apart from the length of the marriage and ages of the children there are no other details and those details are needed in order for anyone to be able to give a meaningful answer. Basic information would be things like the approximate value of the house, the amount outstanding under any mortgage, your respective incomes, whether there are any other assets such as pensions or savings etc.

Also agree with David Terry.

Few things

1. The presumption is of equal and joint parenting not motherhood or indeed fatherhood.

2. Primary consdieration should be your respective capital and income needs and how you can each meet those needs with some reasonable adjustment. Finding a way where you can both live in a modest home and manage the day to day expenses is the ultimate goal. If one of you can't manage that at present, the look to see how the other can offer support for a duratio of time until the other can achieve greater financial independence.

3. Children are the FIRST consideration. They need somewhere to live. Ideally somewhere with both parents. They do not need to live at the family home because it's familiar to them, particularly if there are sufficent resources for all the be housed in cheaper accomodation so long as that accomodation does need their reasonable needs and is not horrifically different to the marital standard.