Help with financial split?

[Nemo12251]

I really don't know where to begin with splitting finances/ assets so would really appreciate some input.

Married for 3 years, co-habited for 6 years before getting married. We have a one-year-old together.

He works full time on a shift-based job. Base salary of around 42k but he gets roughly 20% on top of that for the unsocial hours he does. He also gets small bonuses each month (around £200) and he does at least 2 overtime shifts per month as minimum (overtime is always available).

I earn around 15k as I am currently working part time to cover childcare. I was in a minimum wage full time job before we had our child. (His job offers no flexibility for childcare, and we have no family to cover for us. Nursery only had space for 3 days a week.)

He has our child for one day/night every 8 days. I'm currently living in the family home, and he is staying with his parents (5 bed house so plenty of space). I don’t know if this is of any relevance, so I’ll mention just in case. His parents also own a spare 2-bed property that they are currently trying to sell as they offered it to ex to live in, but he declined.

Equity in the house is around £100k. (190k mortgage left to pay)

His pension is around 80k (could be a lot higher, I’ve just took an educated guess)

Mine 6K

I have around 10k in savings.
I’m not sure about his savings, I would guess around 15k.

Neither of us have any signifiant debt.

What would be a starting point for splitting things, I know I need to sit down and speak to him properly with accurate figures, but I just want a starting point to get things going?

To me that says a house sale and 50/50 asset split

Agree with PP I can’t imagine this going any way other than 50/50 really.

With a short relationship it’s not so much the total pension figure that matters, it’s the amount of it thats built up through the marriage, so his 80k isn’t all from the few years you’ve been together. Plus assuming with a 1 year old you are both relatively young you both have time to continue to build on those pensions.

Neither of you are on crazy high incomes so it’s not as if either of you don’t have to worry about ongoing costs of living, the overtime being available is a bit of a red herring because he’s not obliged to do overtime.

Your salary right now isn’t as relevant as what your salary will be, you’ll be expected to maximise your income.

On 15k salary you wouldn’t be able to get approved to take over a 190k mortgage anyway so unless he wants to buy you out of the house it would have to be sold. Him living with parents isn’t really relevant as it’s not a long term solution, you both need to be able to house yourselves.

House looks like it will need to be sold because you won’t be able to buy him out and take on the mortgage.

his parents assets are not relevant, and he won’t be deemed suitably housed while staying at his parents.

you’d probably be best looking to maximise tour share of the capital from
the house and possibly trade that against some pension assuming you’re young but this could possibly impact housing benefits. How much is a 2 bed flat in your area?

you’ll be looking at applying for universal credit and cms based on his one overnight a fortnight.

Just to add, we are both 31. And we both have built up our entire pensions whilst being in a relationship with each other.

The only thing with splitting 50/50 that I'm worried about is that clearly he is going to be able to get a higher mortgage than me. Until my little one goes into full time education I can only work 3 days a week. A 2 bed in our area is going to cost around 200k.

There is no rule that says you have to be able to get a mortgage out of the divorce though OP. On 15k a year you’re not going to be able to get a mortgage even if you kept 100% of the equity if they are 200k.

What would you like the split to be if you could make the decision?

Op you’ll be renting I think.

your income hasn’t suffered from decades of being at home … you were working min wage jobs all this time. You need to work out what your monthly income is with salary/uc/cms and look at rental prices because it’s highly unlikely there won’t be any expectation for him to pay spousal maintenance or the mortgage and bills on the home

His pension will be shared but your child is only 1 …. So until that point you were two adults who each had the ability to work and save with restriction…. So morally that’s not yours even though legally you’ll be entitled to a share.

as pp even if you got 100% equity you won’t be able to buy him out and take on the mortgage

Should say highly likely he won’t have to pay spousal or mortgage

Have you spoken to him about what he thinks is fair?

No, but he got very nasty when we split (he had the affair). From breif conversations since I imagine he wants as much money as he can get.

Make sure that his overtime and his bonuses are factored into your CMS calculation.

I think that you could agree to forgo a share of his pension in return for a larger proportion of the house equity, and potentially achieve something close to a 70/30 overall split of everything in your favour based on current child arrangements; but I agree with others you need to be realistic about your housing options: even if you were to be awarded the majority or even all of the equity, you aren’t going to be able to obtain a mortgage for the rest on your salary; a Mesher Order, incredibly rare in itself at his income level, would be equally problematic as you’re unlikely to be able to comfortably afford the ongoing mortgage payments by yourself on a part time minimum wage salary, either. Is he likely to want more contact with your child as they get older? If so, the starting point is that you each need to be able to afford a home large enough to house them. He isn’t going to want or be able to live with his parents forever, and property they own won’t be taken into account.

Is mediation a possibility? We’re talking about really relatively small sums of money across the board here, which could easily get eaten up in legal fees if you’re both determined to fight.

Your income and your salary aren’t the same thing. You will be entitled to benefits. The problem for you is that there is just enough equity for you to be able to house yourself and the child as a renter but not a buyer. In which case you will have to use up all your capital until benefits kick in.

The problem you have is that although you aspire to be a home owner you dont earn a lot. If the home you need costs over £200k you need an income of about £40pa at the very minimum. In reality with a child you need an income of more than £50k which is unaffordable for someone on minimum wage. This means you either need to find a new partner and become dependent on them. Or you become dependent on the state and benefits and in that scenario forego home ownership for the foreseeable.

You could ask for the sale to be deferred for another few years. It wouldn’t be impossible for this to until the child is 18. It would unlikely this is the case but possible. The problem with this is that unless you address the income issue you are always tied and dependent to him.

All he has to do to force the sale is show that with a decent share of the equity you can rent a two bed property. Once it is reduced to below 16k you would get benefits including money for the rent.