Divorce and debt!!!

[Summerbubbles]

I know I need to get real legal advice, however I'm looking for a bit of starting advice.
I want to divorce my husband after 18 years together and 10 years of marriage.
We have a house with mortgage, approx 70k in equity.
3 children.
The children will remain with me full time, and possibly never overnight with ex.
When we bought I paid all legal fees and deposit.
Ex has significant debt. All taken out by him, unable to be accounted for and kept secret from me until very recently (a major reason for the divorce).

When planning a financial settlement will I be expected to pay half of his debt?
I had hoped to buy his share of the equity and take on the house as my own, but wouldn't be able to if I have to pay half of his debt.
Any advice or people's experiences would be really helpful, thanks in advance.

If the debt is in his name it is his debt. I split with exh for running up debts.

All his to pay.

Same - my exH kept the debt that was in his name only when we split

Thank you for your replies. Did your ex's keep their debt through choice, or is that based on legal advice?
I have a kitchen that was paid for on credit but nothing else. Ex's debts are so high I literally won't be able to divorce him if I have to take on any of it. We're talking huge sums. I already bailed him out I £7k before I knew the extent of how bad things are, and that wasn't even the tip of the iceberg.

It depends. If you're joint tenants it's 50% of his house irrespective of you paying legal fees/deposit. It's a joint marital asset so that's the basis for consideration. You need to remove feelings about his behaviour from this pretty quickly if you want it to advance comparatively painlessly.

Mediation may negotiate around this in terms of what to do about debt and his financial position. He may for example agree to be accountable for his own debt if there's something in return. Give him a greater share of equity if youre selling up so he can buy down some of it? Cars? Other assets? A reduced CMS figure?

If you go to court the debt has to be considered about what would be reasonable given his position, again, in spite of whatever you think about his behaviour.

The best comparison I saw was closing down a LTD company. You'll both have debts and assets on the accounts, you need to find a way to balance it out.

If accumulated the debts during the marriage, its likely to be thought of as a "company" problem.

We bought the house as tenants in common with a 55% share in my name and 45% in his.
I'm very much trying to see him as nothing more than a "grey rock" in terms of emotions right now.
I just need to know if I can afford to keep the house that is my children's home or not?
If I have to pay half of his debt it's absolutely not feasible.
As for other assets, I have 21 year old run around, he has a much newer, nicer car. I have paid for all the contents of the house but honestly don't care about what he takes or leaves. Neither of us has any investments.
I earn about half of what he earns. Our pensions are similar because I started paying in to mine much sooner than he did.

Also all house bills have always been split 50/50. I've had to be very good with my money to manage. He earns enough to live comfortably.

And every penny locked up in equity in the house still wouldn't cover his debt.

In my experience, all debt and assets are part of the marital pot and split accordingly. I’ve only ever seen it where one party agrees to assume responsibility for the debt as part of a trade off for a larger slice of the assets. If the debt outstrips the house equity then that won’t be feasible.

You need proper legal advice but I think a likely scenario here is that the house equity is used to clear the debt and your husband assumes responsibility for the remaining debt, as a trade off for you having the children full time. He will of course be required to pay child maintenance. I am very sorry this has happened to you.

Thanks @ChickPeaChic I feared that might be the case.
So looks like me and the children become homeless because of his actions.
I'm not even holding out much hope of ever getting child support from him, he never contributed when we were together, so I can't see him doing so now. He'll just lie to get out of it.

Hey, just wondering did you start the divorce process and what happened with the house? I'm in a similar situation

I just saw this as another comment brought this question back on the 'divorce/separation' page. Although it's been a year, I wanted to share this with you in case it might help you moving forward. I used it to help me keep costs down as I couldn't afford to keep using a solicitor who barely got anything done in my case. https://www.iamlip.com/ it takes you through the entire process for free. Hope this helps xxx