When do you separate out the finances in a separation/divorce?

[PatsysDouble]

Hi - I posted this in legal/money, but thought with more traffic over here you might be able to help me.
My H moved out a few months ago, and it's looking like being a permanent thing. I have taken advice about finances and want to get myself in the best position possible to retain the house.
So, from what point/date do you actually separate out the finances and work out what each person gets?
Is it a future date when we agree that the separation is permanent, a date related to divorce or from when he actually moved out, or some other date?
If it makes any difference, he is currently paying half of the mortgage (as it is in both ours names).
Makes sense which ever way round, to be as economical as possible for now, but I want to get my head around it all.
Thanks for any help and suggestions.

How long have you been married and do you have children together? if longish marriage and children involved what tends to happen is all equity ie equity from house/pensions/savings get put in a pot and get spilt 50:50. If you earn a lot less than him it could go 60:40 or even more. If children involved go on the CSA website to work out maintenance for them-for 2 children about a quarter of take home pay. He may pay you spousal maintenance too-if you are SAHM for example

Thanks for reply - do you know 'when' this is all calculated though? Mortgage payments are still being made, capital being repayed, savings (sometimes) saved so the pot is constantly changing..........at what point do you make the cut off and figure out what is actually in that pot?

This is done when you fill in a thing called a form E at the start of the divorce process. On it you fill in all your financial stuff and swap with the other side so timing depends on when/if you are divorcing really. I guess before this you need some kind of informal agreement. For example when exh moved out we split the savings equally and agreed on maintenance for children to at least make a start.

Thanks.
Not sure about when divorcing - not in any rush, but need to ensure finances are secure. Key bit is making sure savings remain untouched on both sides, but i guess I can't do that (other than knowing I won't be blowing the cash) without pushing for a formal divorce agreement.
Have agreed maintenance (kind of) so day to day stuff can be separated.

That sounds good for a beginning it does take ages to sort all this as finances fluctuate as you say-pension for me was the main prob as my ex has v large pension which has now been changed from final salary to career average. I think this is often the main sticking point tbh

I think it might be in your best interests to go to a solicitor and sort out a separation agreement, this can lay out all the financial and childcare stuff until the divorce process starts - which is two years if neither of you want to file for adultery/unreasonable behaviour.

Probably worth getting something down in writing formally for everyone's sake.

Would a separation agreement then mean that the finances are already sorted out completely and the divorce would be more of a formality? Would the financial aspect of that allow us to separate out the finances completely and not need to addess them again on divorce?

Sorry for all the questions - I now realise how much more I should have asked the solicitor!!

My solicitor told me that you can divorce even before you have financial stuff in place although this can cause big problems if anything happens to either of you. If you get it all sorted in advance the court has a look at the agreement and then oks it, i.e. the arangements for children, equity spilt etc, maintenance. If there seem to be no problems it goes through. You can get the degree nisi before all this is done. Feel free to pm me if you want-hope this helps