Divorce- Financial Split pls help....

[AutumnLover19]

My brother and his wife are going through a divorce. It's all very amicable atm.

However he is a higher earner around 100k She earns 20k working part time 3 days. Have around 200k in the house still have mortgage about 200k.

My question is if they split their asset equally, neither of them will be able to purchase same sized house. How does it work? They have 4 children so will need a big house. They do not wish to split children up. Would like joint custody and split mon-thurs/ weekend childcare.

TIA

They either sell the house and take £100k equity each and choose what to do with it or they make do with smaller properties or they decide that whichever parent is having main residency stays in the house until the youngest child is 18 at which point the house is sold and equity divided or whatever a solicitor deems is fair.

What ages are the children and what age is your brother and his wife?

How amicable is iy?

The reason I ask is two friends who have divorced. They own a large family house and rent a 2 bed flat. The parents move in order to live in the family house 50% of the time and each have a room in the flat.

The kids have all their stuff in one place. I think the plan is the sell up once the youngest has left university.

Thank you for the replies
Bro 40
Sil 41
Children oldest 13 youngest 8
I guess with all the costs of moving/ selling
Makes sense if one parent stay at family home as main residence for children and the other rent/ smaller place

Usually wife stays in the marital home with the children, ex-husband moves out and will have to continue paying the mortgage on the house with ex-wife's help if that is the current agreement until children turn 16/18 and also maintenance for them. Then they can sell the house, unless they agree otherwise to sell and for them to move into a smaller home/more affordable to bring the kids up in. Can get very complicated financially and very expensive if the lawyers and courts get involved. Usually 50/50 split on everything house, pensions, savings, shares e.t.c

They can just accept it won’t be the same value house.

What size is it? 5 bed - move to 2x 3 bed.
Nicest area? Move to second nicest.

They have £100K deposit each and both work. Sounds manageable to both take on a mortgage. She may need to up her hours.

If they both take £100k each, she is going to need substantial maintenance from him so that she can afford to pay her mortgage, as he earns a lot more than her. Let's say they both need a mortgage of £100k to buy a new house. How's she going to afford that on £20,000 pa? Repayments would be circa £1000 pm.

Personally I’d vary the equity rather than have the same but leave her needing spousal maintenance. I prefer clean break.

I live outskirts of Birmingham. My 3 bed is worth £170K. I am 100m from a 5 bed new build sold for £500K. Options really depend on where they live.

The disparity in their earning potential would indicate that your SIL should get the greater share of the house.