Ending relationship and selling house

[NotsureWhatName8]

Me and my partner have a mortgage together and two young children, we have recently put our house up on the market and was going to buy a bigger family home, however, I have not been happy in this relationship for a long long time. I would much rather sell our house and find a smaller house/flat for me and my children (I have tried to leave my partner many times before but he has refused to allow us to break up) the question is what happens after we sell our house? Do I rent a flat? Can I get any help as a single parent of 2 young children? I only work 2 days a week as don’t have childcare to work any more and really struggling with finances at the moment.
This will be a huge step for me finally breaking free and putting an end to the revolving door of repeated issue after issue we have had in the relationship in the 8 years we’ve been together

How much equity will you be owed from the house sale? You may not get any help if you have a lump sum above the savings threshold. You'll be much better off moving into a mortgaged property if you can than in going into rented and eating up all your equity on rent.

Are you married? And if not is the house in joint names / joint mortgage?

You'd need to calculate how much profit will be available when you sell and clear off the existing mortgage. That should be split if it's in joint names.

It sounds like you will need to rent as you won't get a mortgage on a 2 days per week salary. How much are 2 bedroom flats in your area? How old are your kids and what sex - this might influence the size of property you need. Can you get your name down for social housing now?

You will probably need to look for a full time job to cover living costs. What will the access arrangements be with your ex partner? Will the children stay there for half the week?

Are you in England? The gov.uk site should tell you what benefits you are entitled to. Or book an appointment at Citizens Advice. I assume you are getting child benefit.

Have you discussed separating with your partner or are you waiting until the house sells?

If we take away the price our house will sell for from the leftover mortgage payment we have we should receive 75,850 is this how it’s calculated? So this would be split between the two of us

We are not married but our mortgage is 50/50 joint ownership

Exactly. Is half of that enough to put down a deposit on a mortgage for you?

Are you on the deeds? That's more important than a mortgage.

If I was you I’d have a look at the Entitled To calculator to see what you might be able to claim, have a look at rentals available, and also have a look at properties for sale & have an initial chat with a mortgage adviser to get an idea of what may be possible.

£37k would be a really good deposit for a mortgage, but if you only work 2 days a week & also depending on credit score etc you may not be able to get a mortgage to buy, so it’s something I’d properly look at now to figure out what your options actually are.

She won't be able to claim anything with £37k in the bank.

If she puts that £37k into a deposit to buy a house then yes she will as it is disregarded for 6 months for that reason.

I will be left with 37,925 which sounds a great deal of money but when I only earn under £700 a month and the money from the house sale will cover only 37 months of rent on its own without everything else shopping, transport, children etc I’m just finding it really hard to get my head around how I would cope

Oh gosh I have no idea! We just have a 50/50 shared ownership mortgage, it’s the first house I ever bought I still don’t understand everything about owning/selling properties I’ve just been winging it

Well done for taking the plunge and leaving.x

Could you work more hours, then your money from the house sale will last longer. Also you may be entitled to maintenance for the children?