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Divorce/separation

Here you'll find divorce help and support from other Mners. For legal advice, you may find Advice Now guides useful.

Original poster

Divorce - asset split- housing needs (starting the application)

32 replies

markotsg2 · 20/04/2022 13:00

Hello

We will be starting new no fault divorce
we have kids boy 11 and girl 8
we live in 3 bed house

my salary is 4x of my wife
and we also have BTL property
i was going to offer assets to my wife in split 60-40 in her favour and i could keep BTL and small savings for clean break

we want to agree together on assets and both want clean break.
If we agree on split, can court still reject this at the time of consent order? what happens then?

we cannot afford with net profits from house to buy 3 bed property for wife and kids, but they could have 2 bed and kids can still attend local school
I could get myself 2 bed as well

Can judge and court reject 2 bed for wife and kids, even if we agree?
I cannot afford wife staying in house and me paying both properties

Wife is eligible for Universal credit once she has no savings and shares in BTL property (after devorce) do we put estimated UC in E81 form? How do you determine if spouse M payable or not?

would you wait for consent order before seeling and buying properties or is it better to sell before and move into 2 bed properties now?

OP posts:
millymollymoomoo · 21/04/2022 13:13

I don’t understand why you’re not really answering questions

hiwever. Courts have the power to award 100:0 if that was deemed appropriate, so there is no max 70:30. It’s based on needs and your wife and children here have greater needs and less income ( by quite an amount it would appear)
a 2 bed is not appropriate for your wife and children

there are many variables and outcomes which is you you should both seek independent legal advise to guide you through those.

in my opinion your ex should not be agreeing your proposal

OnceUponAThread · 21/04/2022 13:44

Your figures seem confused and it is hard to follow what everything is worth. For us to suggest what a court would deem reasonable we need to know.

  1. how much equity is in family home
  2. how much equity is in BTL (I think you said £160k).
  3. how much a three-bed costs in your area. (doesn't need to be as nice as the family home, but near enough to schools)
  4. how much you earn (in actual money)
  5. how much your wife earns (in actual money)
  6. how much there is in total savings
  7. how much there is in pensions (yours and hers)
  8. how old you both are

It would also be handy to know what sort of childcare split you are considering.

wobytide · 21/04/2022 13:45

How much is the mortgage on the existing property? If the BTL is sold and the proceeds and the equity plus her mortgage capacity are combined would that leave an excess which you could then use as a deposit along with your earning capacity?

How much is a 3 bed property(and the 3 bed you currently own)?

As others say by skipping over questions you aren't going to get the right answers. 70/30 certainly isn't the maximum either

Mumof3confused · 21/04/2022 14:29

The court may well decide that she should stay in the family home until the kids leave for university while you stay in your BTL. You need to get legal advice and stop guessing, your wife should get legal advice too before agreeing to any of this. what are you basing your calculations on, ie house valuations and mortgage capacity? You need professional advice on this as well.

Sleeping on a pull-out sofa bed is not sustainable in the long run and if she has the kids 5 days out of 7 she doesn’t have a lot of capacity for increasing her work and income. I struggle to see how this would be in the best interest of the children, which is the court’s first priority. They won’t want to move the children unless absolutely necessary. They will probably think don’t need a 3-bed if you only have them 2 days pw.

OnceUponAThread · 21/04/2022 16:43

Incidentally - even without concrete numbers, the salary multiples alone could suggest a departure above 70 / 30 on all the equity / savings.

You earn four times what she does.

Let's imagine she earned £20k, and you earned £80k.

Your mortgage raising capacity is around £320k (4x salary). On her low income 4x salary is top and she might get less. But let's say that someone will give her that so £80k.

Assets seem to be in the region of £400k. (What I can glean from your vague numbers from house equity plus savings of £50k. Not sure if BTL equity is included here - it should be).

A quick calc suggests that you'll be on an equal footing if she takes £320k of that. So probably all the housing equity.

You take 80k as your deposit. That gives you a housing budget of 400k each.

Your problem with your 70/30 assumption is that you're neglecting to include your salary multiple for mortgage or your salary generally in that calculation.

Since you earn so much more, she needs a far bigger slice of the pie to house herself and the kids appropriately.

If she had £240k and you took £160k (as you have suggested as a 70/30 split) your housing budget would be £580k (the £160k plus your mortgage capability of £320k)

Meanwhile hers would be just £320k. Clearly that would be very unfair, particularly if she ended up in an unsuitable two bed.

Obviously I've made up your salaries - but this is the calc you should be looking at.

Generally I think you have a few options.

  1. you stick to your 70/30 split, but I think she'd have a strong case for spousal maintenance to plug the shortfall in mortgage capacity. (So no clean break).

  2. you give her enough of the equity to house herself in a three bed with a small, affordable mortgage. Meanwhile you leverage your far higher earning to get a chunky mortgage and house yourself. (Clean break).

  3. she stays where she is till the children are both 18. Then the house is sold when her needs are less and you split the equity. You may get a slightly higher portion TBD. In the meantime, you live in the BTL (if happy to do so), or sell that and use your portion of the savings to try and get a property with enough bedrooms for the kids. Might be tricky if you're still on family home mortgage. (Mesher, rare, not ideal in this case).

Pension split 50/50 in all three cases.

Original poster
markotsg2 · 21/04/2022 20:51

thank you very much for your response

I engaged two diferent solicitors and two differnt answers, really dont know which way to go but your post was very helpful

thank you

OP posts:
Original poster
markotsg2 · 21/04/2022 20:51

OnceUponAThread · 21/04/2022 16:43

Incidentally - even without concrete numbers, the salary multiples alone could suggest a departure above 70 / 30 on all the equity / savings.

You earn four times what she does.

Let's imagine she earned £20k, and you earned £80k.

Your mortgage raising capacity is around £320k (4x salary). On her low income 4x salary is top and she might get less. But let's say that someone will give her that so £80k.

Assets seem to be in the region of £400k. (What I can glean from your vague numbers from house equity plus savings of £50k. Not sure if BTL equity is included here - it should be).

A quick calc suggests that you'll be on an equal footing if she takes £320k of that. So probably all the housing equity.

You take 80k as your deposit. That gives you a housing budget of 400k each.

Your problem with your 70/30 assumption is that you're neglecting to include your salary multiple for mortgage or your salary generally in that calculation.

Since you earn so much more, she needs a far bigger slice of the pie to house herself and the kids appropriately.

If she had £240k and you took £160k (as you have suggested as a 70/30 split) your housing budget would be £580k (the £160k plus your mortgage capability of £320k)

Meanwhile hers would be just £320k. Clearly that would be very unfair, particularly if she ended up in an unsuitable two bed.

Obviously I've made up your salaries - but this is the calc you should be looking at.

Generally I think you have a few options.

  1. you stick to your 70/30 split, but I think she'd have a strong case for spousal maintenance to plug the shortfall in mortgage capacity. (So no clean break).

  2. you give her enough of the equity to house herself in a three bed with a small, affordable mortgage. Meanwhile you leverage your far higher earning to get a chunky mortgage and house yourself. (Clean break).

  3. she stays where she is till the children are both 18. Then the house is sold when her needs are less and you split the equity. You may get a slightly higher portion TBD. In the meantime, you live in the BTL (if happy to do so), or sell that and use your portion of the savings to try and get a property with enough bedrooms for the kids. Might be tricky if you're still on family home mortgage. (Mesher, rare, not ideal in this case).

Pension split 50/50 in all three cases.

thank you very much for your response

I engaged two diferent solicitors and two differnt answers, really dont know which way to go but your post was very helpful

thank you

OP posts:
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