Divorcing my husband who wants to sell the house & I don't

[Blackjeans88]

Background info : married for 3 years, 2 children (5 months & 2 years old) marriage has broken down. We own a house we purchased together in 2020 for £355k. My parents gifted us £155k, husband paid 30k and we got a mortgage for the rest. My parents loaned us 20k for the garage conversion with the plan I will work out of there once I return after children. Husband had house valued and now around £425k.

I want to stay in the house with the children. I however am pretty much financially dependent. No savings and currently no job as children are so small. Husband has job that pays 40k and a small amount of savings of 15k.

He wants to sell the house and split it 50/50. He is 'happy' to go to court. I do not want to go court at all. So can he force me to sell? I've looked and feel a mesher order, although not ideal could mean I can stay in the house possibly? I'm just very worried and stressed.

I'm also aware as we are married that our money is joint but just included the source of it due to the emotional ties that come with it.

Sorry, I must continue to disagree. This is not about "winning" and "losing." It's about finding a solution that lets both parties move on with their lives. A Mesher Order in this case from a financial rather than a legal perspective looks like a poor choice in which both parties will lose.

For the OP, she will lose because he will probably be awarded 50% of the equity in a Mesher Order that will probably expire when the youngest is 8 and she'll be deemed to have enough equity and enough of a mortgage capacity to move on by then. Even if she gets an unprecedented 17.5 year long Mesher Order she will still probably have to give him half at the end of it having paid the whole mortgage and all the home maintenance in that time.

For the ex-husband, he will be locked out of home ownership and have to rent for years. He might not be able to get back on the property ladder when he finally gets his half (indeed, they might both end up as renters in the future).

The children will also lose out too. Their inheritance would be a lot bigger if both their parents were homeowners and didn't burn thousands in rent whilst they were young.

Legally I just don't see a Mesher Order lasting nearly 2 decades to be imposed but I'm not a lawyer and can only base that on the statistics in front of me so.... probably one for a local solicitor to opine on but the OP's choice of solicitor - I suspect - is more focused on the equity split being in the OP's favour rather than there being any serious prospect of a Mesher Order.

One other thought on the legal side. I think a lot of judges would reject a Mesher Order as unfair on the OP. A favourable equity split just seems so much more likely statistically speaking.

All good analysis. I appreciate your perspectives.

God knows why your STBXH thinks he should benefit from your parents’ money. Has he no pride?!!

A lot of people don't have any pride when they're divorcing. The outcome of Critchell v Critchell might make you cringe.