Financial statement - Divorce. Anyone help?

[DCSsunhill]

I have the slowest solicitor in the world. I first saw him 8 months ago and I still haven't filed for divorce yet...

Anyway, H and I divorcing due to the fact that he now lives with his girlfriend.

He earns around 17K pa. I earn £8k plus tax credits and all child benefits. We have two DC aged 8 and 6.

Our house is worth around £138K. I am paying the £20k mortgage solely, so there is around £118K equity (before all costs). I've spent around £5 on recent improvements as it is a renovation project.

Solicitor seems to be pushing me towards a Mesher Order, whereas I definately want a clean break. I can't bear the thought of H being a part of life financially for the next 12 years.

What happens from here? H won't attend mediation (mediation have completed the paperwork saying that he won't attend) and when I try and discuss it with him he keeps saying stuff like "£50K and no child maintenance, and I'll walk away...".

What will happen in court?

Did he say whether the £100 was for you as spouse, and on top of CSA maintenance? Usually if you can raise the money you'd be expected to do so. Depends on whether you could rehouse yourself in a cheaper property too.

No, he meant £100 as the sole child maintenance.

Moving wouldn't be great. We just relocated from Australia and the children have had mega upheaval. DS1 has ASD and does not cope well with change.

If your mum can get you the money then go for it. You can then look for a better job and start paying her back. At the end of the day it sounds like you need to keep your house and if your ex isn't paying you enough maintenance you can always go to the CSA and get 20% of his income. I divorced my ex a couple of years ago when my dc were 7&6 and we got a clean break agreement - my ex was heavily in debt and is now bankrupt due to his excessive living with the OW. I am SO glad we got a clean break and I wasn't linked to him financially.
Please stop feeling sorry for him - he has cheated on you and left you in this mess.

For what it's worth in the CC my divorce went through I got a 89/11% split in my favour (I was earning £11k) and 4 of my friends went through divorces in the same court and every one fo them got around 80/20 give or take the odd percent. their children were all of similar ages to mine and yours.
As someone who has gone through a similar thing and is not a legal bod (I still thank momoverseas and others for their fab help to me - I was using another name then!!) going to court is horrendous and very very expensive.I had a fantastic solicitor, he was brilliant and I would recommend him to anyone, but he admitted my divorce was unfortunately the one in 1000 that becomes a complete and utter nightmare. He has even given me free advice cos it got so messy. So if you can avoid court, do so. My ex only paid me spousal maintenance for 2 months and it has taken 15 months to finally get an arrears payment throught he courts - they can make orders etc but it takes forever to get them enforced. very draining and expensive.