Share of equity once house is sold

[JemimaBobbins]

My ex and I want to draw up a consent order before we proceed to decree absolute. We have agreed 50/50 pension share and he is paying me child maintenance which we worked out using CSA calculator. He earns over twice what I earn.

He continues to live in the marital home and is paying mortgage and bills - I contribute half to any maintenance costs. I am renting a house for myself and our son (he spends 6/14 nights with dad).

We have the house up for sale. So on sale of the house can I expect 50% share of the equity? Or should he be able to claim more because he's paying the mortgage therefore decreasing the size of the mortgage each month.

I do have a solicitor but hoping to come to an agreement before seeing her again to reduce costs.

It's complicated and it depends on what you each contributed to the property.
Most divorces now don't touch the pension pot, they prefer a clean break settlement which doesn't involve the pension. Maintenance for a child is usual but not for an adult.
Sorry to say but I think you need to get your solicitor to advise you. Good luck.

If it helps, I've been paying the mortgage for years, but that's not been considered when splitting the assets. I believe the assumption is that you've both contributed to the marriage overall, therefore who pays the mortgage is irrelevant.

There's also the legal board under 'other stuff' which might be worth considering?

Certainly me and H decided everything verbally and then got the solicitor just to draw it up into legal language, which was a lot cheaper. However, it might be worth seeing them for a one off appointment first, to find out what you should be aiming for? You can then come to an agreement which is broadly fair.

I dont necessarily agree with Katy above although i am not a lawyer.

I think in general clean break settlements are preferred, but in order to achieve that the total assets of the marital pot are considered in their entirity, not each one in isolation. Then a whole bunch of other factors come into play, length of marriage, ages of children, earning capacities of both, financial sacrifice of SAHM and contributions made in terms of raising children, value of the assets etc etc. It could be you are entitled to 50% of the house equity or it could be less or more - you really should seek legal advice and look at everything rather than try to split each one...e.g you might get a large share of the house if you dont get so much of pension and so on.

And i dont think it matters from a legal % who made what financial contributions although whether that is morally right is a whole thread by itself.

The split of the equity will more likely be based on the ability to house the children. If you share residence then the provision will be to enable you both to provide suitable place for your children to stay. If you earn less you may be able to claim more equity as you will need more deposit to purchase a suitable home. Worth a try x

Jemima - am going through this and just today managed to agree a settlement with my ex. It has been a long road. Talk to your solicitor about what is reasonable. Like you, my ex earns x 2.5 what I earn, yet we have agreed that I get the Child Tax Credits and Child Benefit, which helps. We split the house proceeds 50:50 and I was able to buy a small house with my pot - my solicitor said that I could have fought for more though.

If you are looking at going to court, you have to weigh up how much it will cost you (upwards of £10k) and the damage it will do to your (already fragile?) relationship with your ex. Like you, I am sharing custody of the kids and I felt it was important to avoid court if poss.

I don't think that he could expect more than 50% of the house sale. Yes, he's paying off the mortgate now but you are having to pay rent, presumably because it's untenable for you to live together. My guess is that the court would award you slightly more as a) your earning potential is less and b) you have greater custody time of your child. But everyone is right - I'm afraid only your solicitor will be able to advise you properly.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone x