I've been separated from STBXH for nearly a year. It was a mutual decision to split, and as a result of that we're very amicable, and co-parenting our 5 year old son pretty much as well as you could imagine.
I'm still in the family home, paying the whole mortgage, and I hope to be able to partially buy STBXH out, probably with a bit of a Mesher order too (or some other form of IOU!). I've had agreement in principle from our lender that I could take on the existing mortgage on my salary alone. STBXH is renting just round the corner which has been great for sharing childcare, but he's itching to get the finances sorted so he can buy somewhere, as he resents paying £10k+ a year in rent, when he could be paying off a mortgage.
Because we're friendly, and we expect to continue to see each other almost every day for the next however-many years, neither of us wants to divorce on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour. But nor do we want to wait another 18 months (realistically) before we can move on with our separate financial futures.
We would need another discussion about the details, but from previous conversations I hope we're roughly on the same page about the asset split, pensions, life insurance etc.
In these circumstances, would it be possible/sensible to draw up a separation agreement with a lawyer now, disentangling our finances completely, and taking STBXH's name off our mortgage so that he could purchase another property? And then sort the formalities of the actual divorce and consent order at a later date...or is this a highly risky/completely inadvisable suggestion?
A potential complicating factor is that he runs his own business (as a limited company). I'm currently minded not to include that in the considerations, as it doesn't hold any tangible assets like goods or premises, its success is purely based on his expertise/intellectual property, so I view it very much as his income stream to profit from...is this a foolish position for me to hold?