Hiya
One of the ladies I work with (she's a lovely lovely girl) is just setting off on the hell that is divorce.
Hubby effed off to work overseas when she was 4 months pregnant (hey, they'd only been trying for 11 years, so meh, so what right) and has only seen his son twice - he's now 2 and a 1/2....
These are some of the pertinent facts:
- She is the only one with her names on the deeds
- She has always paid the whole of the mortgage herself (he only ever paid council tax, a few bills)
- He's never paid a single jot of maintenance
- He wants 'half the house'
- She's really worried about the financial side (I don't know what her equity in the house is yet)
- She terrified about (but wants to do) mediation because he wasn't always very nice to her physically or verbally and she's quite afraid of him. She is like I was at one point, on an immediate response list with the police due to one time when she had to call them as he was being rather a twat outside her house. She's also panicking about the mediation because she's very very anxious about his controlling and nasty ways - she literally doesn't want to be in the same room as him.
Realistically, he can't get half her house can he? She's probably on about £40k a year, he's on about £60k (tax free because of where he now lives and works) but she was, when they were together, always the higher earner.
What do you think might be the 'typical' way things would be divided up? Could she get spousal maintenance (and might it be more likely since he's not paid any maintenance)?
It's been over 9 years since my divorce and I want to support her - she's a real sweetheart and she's really scared. She's also scared about if he forces contact with the son but that's a way in the future yet and at the moment he's living overseas and of course has never spent any meaningful time with the child, I would like to be able to give her some idea about what she should be asking her solicitor, to make sure the solicitor fights for the right result and she gets the settlement she deserves.
Thank you.