Is this a fair split?

[PinePinePine]

I know it gets asked all the time. I have a bit of legal advice from last year but things have changed since then a bit. I'd really appreciate your views on whether I'm being fair. I will take all emotion out of it and be as factual as possible.

Married: 6 years.

House: (roughly) £650k. Roughly 50% equity to mortgage. All equity (300k) put in by me from money inherited & saved pre marriage.

Income: £78 (me) £44 (him). Both work full time. Neither of us gave up work for DC or reduced hours. He had higer paying job before but didn't like the commute so quit. He could get higher paying job again - maybe up to roughly same as me - he might argue not anymore.

Cars: both bought by me. both in my name only. worth £8k each. (roughly)

Pension: £35k (me), £250k (him).

Debt: £6k credit card (me), £0 (him)

Savings: Barely anything - he might have a tiny bit. I don't know. But nothing significant.

What about the following offer: (presuming 5050 DC)

He has £50k equity from the house, keeps his own pension, and whatever one of the cars he wants, and he doesn't need to worry about my debt.

Would you think that was fair?

Yes, sorry I miscalculated.

But he should still get more money up front. If I was him I'd swap some of my pension for equity. This would also help balance up the pension situation. A £1 of pension is not worth the same as £1 of equity.

And why should he rent & you keep the family home ? He needs a bigger deposit as he earns less than you; cant raise the same level of mortgage. That might be because he took a lower paying job but I assume that was with your agreement.

Ah, I read it as you got the money before you married.
The issue then is that he wouldn't be in a position to buy a similar property as he cant access his pension for a good few years. The amount you put in and the value of his pension at that time may be similar, but its not hard cash that he can do anything with.

You’re not considering

that equity is a liquid asset now vs pension is not and has a lot of variables ( particularly with new govt ). It won’t be a £1-£1 so you can’t think of that way

50k deposit isn’t much in his salary to get a mortgage and another property - if he’s older that will also impact his mortgage capacity

yiu seem to think you can decide what he gets - that’s not the case - currently his short term needs and ability to house himself vs yours is looking weak . I think any judge might question that

you need valuation of pension and cetv to know what it’s worth in relation to the equity

I don’t think you’re being fair currently

@millymollymoomoo of course I don't think I decide what he gets. I'm posting on here to gather viewpoints from people with experience of divorce to gage what's reasonable so that I can approach the conversation as informed as possible. He may well say he wants a much bigger chunk of the equity in which case I will argue for a portion of his pension as my pension is tiny. I just wanted to gather opinions from people who aren't emotionally involved or know us to help me see things more objectively.

If I got to just decide what happened then there will be no point in me posting on MN in the first place.

It really depends what he values most - cash in the bank or his pension?. My experience was that my ex valued cash over pensions so he didn't go after a penny of my pensions (my pension is worth x10 his). He also didn't want the children 50/50 (finds parenting hard apparently 🤔) so didn't need a "family" home - he accepted the max I could afford in a remortgage situation - £50k (I earn similar to you but my ex earnt significantly less than yours)