Asking for a friend (really!), because what’s happening seems so unfair but I don’t know much about finance on divorce. In a nutshell, she ended the marriage with her DH in March. They own a house jointly, 2 children. She had been a SAHM until the youngest started school, now has a part time job in a shop earning v little. It’s acrimonious, he claims she’s acting on a whim etc etc and is very aggrieved. He earns a decent amount, they are comfortably off, but he sees it very much as his money. They agreed over the summer to put the house on the market and part company, got offered the asking price, then he changed his mind and said he wanted to keep the house and buy her out. She is borrowing money from her dad to help her buy a new smaller place so she can move out with the kids.
So:
For her mortgage application, her only income is her part time one and she’s not sure she’s going to get a mortgage on that basis, even with her dad lending her what he can. Yet once the divorce is settled, she’ll get maintenance from her DH. But she wants out now - he is being really nasty, she is sleeping on the sofa etc, she’s a wreck, and she has found a house. Can lenders take future maintenance into account before a court order has been made?
The legal fees she has incurred so far because of all this exceed her annual income, because he has been so obstructive (changing his mind about selling, dragging his feet at every turn). Will a court order cover her fees so that she can take them from the matrimonial pot? Otherwise her debt is just going to increase and it seems incredibly unfair.
If anyone has been through something similar I’d appreciate any advice - she is at rock bottom and I think she’d accept any way out, even if it cost her, just to get away from him. From where I’m standing it seems really unjust, but she’s worried about incurring more legal fees by asking her solicitor what to do. TIA