Coming to financial settlement with adult children at home

[whycantitbecalm]

Ok so this isn’t for me i am already divorced but looking for advice for a friend:

Her husband walked out on her last year, leaving her and their 3 children. (22, 20 and 17) out of the blue, no explanation, he was having an affair

One of the children works full time, the other has a small part time business that is growing but doesn’t make a lot of money, the youngest is at college.

my friend has extended her work hours to earn as much money as she can.

The Only Asset they have is the house.

The ex moved in with his new girlfriend pretty much straight away and now lives with her, they are engaged! And getting married next year.

They have tried to work things out through mediation, but it hasn’t worked, and my friend really needs more than 50% of the house value to be able to provide a roof over the 4 of their heads.
she is a low earner. The ex is a high earner

for those of you that have gone through the courts how likely is she to achieve this or will the adult children not count even though my friend is supporting them financially.?

Spousal is only payable by high earners so she has no chance if hes on £75k. It was already very generous of him to pay into her pension shell be laughed out of court if she asks for spousal too

Has your friend worked out exactly (or near enough) % she needs of the house equity to be able to afford to keep paying the mortgage/bills with contributions from older two children/young adults still at home?

Is selling and buying a cheaper 4 bedroom house an option? If she receives 60% equity, where does that leave her in terms of paying the bills/selling?

FWIW, I don't think her husband sharing marital assets via her pension is 'generous'. It's just what a decent partner should do.

He isn't a 'high earner' at 75k. And it is very unlikely she would get spousal maintenance. All bar one child can move out and be self supporting, a d she can look to increase her earning power as she has no childcare commitments etc.

That is not deemed a high earner. Kids are adults and won’t factor into housing ( appreciate poster upthread but seems much more assets and earnings

it’s really going to be very unlikely that spousal would even be entertained on that salary

‘Kids won’t like living with him’ is a luxury that the eldest two, as adults, don’t have any more. They will either have to contribute and continue to live with you, or choose to live with him with whatever he charges.

Excellent idea!

ok well he’s earning 3x as much as her, so maybe i mean higher earner :)

He has spent the last 20+ yrs building up a family business, which her solicitor says can’t be used as an asset. They both had small equal pensions that they both paid into.
she worked part time while the kids were young, and now works fulltime
One of the adult children works full time and could contribute, the other doesn’t earn enough to contribute

it is all enormously sad

If he's moved out and planning to marry next year, then your friend may have a bit of leverage by dragging things out and not being in a hurry particularly with an impatient fiancé (!) ...

However, getting equal pensions and 60% of the house is already quite decent. If his business is really just his working hours then that's hard to share, though you need to check that the 75k income isn't just part of the remuneration he is drawing (e.g. dividends on top). Any other assets? (savings, investment, assets)?

Note that spousal maintenance counts as income against Universal Credit, so it wouldn't help AT ALL if she ends up on that benefit.

It is really sad op, you’re right. He’s shafted his own dc more than any one, so many 20 somethings are remaining at home whilst they save a deposit atm, and he’s taken that choice away from them.
i would hazard a guess that his affair has been going on a very long time, and he was waiting for his dc to be old enough, then realised in the current climate, old enough is 30.

In legal terms you’d only be looking at spousal if the spouse was earning £115k+. Even then it’s not guaranteed