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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.

Financial settlement- short marriage, one child

6 replies

TheTroutofNoCraic · 28/11/2022 17:06

I am just trying to work out what I can reasonably expect from my divorce settlement if I bring the matter before the court.
Marriage- 4yrs 7months, separated for 3.5 yrs.
One child together aged 8
Him - early 40s, me - late 30s
House - solely owned by ex-dh bought in 2012 for £120000 now worth £152000. Approx £40k left on mortgage.
We have 50/50 child arrangement.

I left a very early teaching career and stayed at home for 3yrs as our son was high needs from birth...I've not been able to get back into a teaching position since and now work in civil service earning £22k a year. He earns about £28k

He's offered me £2500 after initially stating he wouldn't give me anything.

OP posts:
BlueBellIris · 28/11/2022 17:11

How long did you cohabit for (including before marriage)?

Quizzed · 28/11/2022 17:11

You need to speak to a solicitor they will advise you on what you are entitled to. Don't except anything from him until you have spoken to a solicitor.

TroutofnoCraic · 28/11/2022 17:17

4yrs 7 months is the total of pre marriage cohabitation plus marriage until we split. 3.5years is the time since separation.
I left the home and have been renting since. I have no assets bar a cheap car.
He has about £12k in savings

I can't afford a solicitor. He has plenty of money and has a barrister.

Pleasecreateausername13 · 28/11/2022 20:10

I don’t have any advice I’m afraid but I would be willing to bet you will be entitled to far more than £2500 for a 4-5 year marriage.

BetterFuture1985 · 28/11/2022 20:39

TheTroutofNoCraic · 28/11/2022 17:06

I am just trying to work out what I can reasonably expect from my divorce settlement if I bring the matter before the court.
Marriage- 4yrs 7months, separated for 3.5 yrs.
One child together aged 8
Him - early 40s, me - late 30s
House - solely owned by ex-dh bought in 2012 for £120000 now worth £152000. Approx £40k left on mortgage.
We have 50/50 child arrangement.

I left a very early teaching career and stayed at home for 3yrs as our son was high needs from birth...I've not been able to get back into a teaching position since and now work in civil service earning £22k a year. He earns about £28k

He's offered me £2500 after initially stating he wouldn't give me anything.

It's really hard to say what the outcome would be and to be honest if you go to just one solicitor it's potluck whether they'll give you good advice or not. I find this forum often treats solicitor's views as sacrosanct but honestly a lot of them get it wrong or engage in sharp practices that prolong negotiations. There is one who posts here, MrsBertBibby, who has admitted to unorthodox practices in the write up of Mesher Orders for example, at considerable detriment to non-residential parents that I doubt would ever stand up in court. I spoke to several before choosing one and they all had their own views on the outcome that differed wildly from each other.

The only truth is that if it went to court then they would try and settle it in a way that is fair to you both but all the power will be taken out of your hands as a couple and what was a negotiation will become a settlement ordered by a judge. So they might come up with something you both don't want!

There are some general principles that may or may not apply to you. You might earn less than your husband and therefore benefit from an uneven split of the capital. Normally it wouldn't go any further than a 60/40 split in your favour but 70/30 is not unheard of. In your case though you earn roughly the same and you could demonstrably earn the same if not more than him in the very near future so it's unlikely.

You might get more of the house offset against him getting more of the pension if your housing needs are greater (e.g. because your mortgage capacity is smaller). You might even get a Mesher Order where you stay in the FMH until the child is 18 although that's really unlikely even when there isn't 50/50 shared care.

You'll be expected to work. Staying at home for 3 years isn't much of a career break; claiming you can't get a teaching job in court would probably raise a few eyebrows in court unless you teach a less popular subject at secondary level; and working in the civil service is hardly a step down from teaching. It could still lead to a lucrative career if you have a degree, especially relative to a bloke on only £28k in his early 40s!

I don't know the outcome but I could hazard a guess. 50/50 on the increase in equity since you first cohabited, both the increase in value and the extent to which the mortgage has been paid down (so e.g. it has gone up by £32k which is £16k each but also the mortgage might have reduced by £20k which is another £10k each). No pension sharing, as you have a civil service pension to look forward to. No spousal maintenance. Clean break. And the reasons for that are:

  1. 50/50 shared care, so you have the same housing needs;
  2. Similar incomes and you sound more likely than him to be able to increase your earnings because you are degree educated;
  3. If you can buy houses where you are for £152k, you can probably buy a 2 bed flat for less than £100k which will meet your housing needs and you have the earning capacity to get a mortgage big enough to do that;
  4. The higher earner makes nowhere near enough to pay spousal maintenance and you both work earning similar amounts anyway;
  5. The price of housing suggests you are a long way from London and the South East where divorce settlements are still sometimes over-generous to the weaker financial party.

But I will caveat all of that by saying it depends on the court, which has wide discretion.

rwalker · 28/11/2022 20:46

So you arrived with nothing he arrived with 120k house
which in 10 years has increased by 32k
Married 5 years so in your marriage house has increased by 16k half of that’s 8k

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