Divorce Settlement - Your Valued Opinions Please

cymro

The mrs and me have agreed to a divorce and rather than get into a bun fight through solicitors want to make an agreement first (and then go to the solicitors to rubber-stamp it).

To get the ball rolling I want to put something under her nose - Opinions please:

We have 2 houses:
1. Equity 170K - family home
2. Equity 110K - rented out in another part of country

What I want 'ideally' - leave the mrs and kids in family home (stability for kids etc). The mrs says she will have the family home and I have the other which I am easy with but with a 60K differential in equity don't feel it is a partcularly good deal for me. The mrs does not have much/any money to 'buy me out' :-( so thinking out of the box please.....

Thanks in advance

Becles

When couples with children split, it's not often a 50/50 split of assets. Usually the one with residency of the children gets a bigger slice of the pie. This is because generally they have more expenses to pay bringing up the children, and may work reduced hours or have to pay childcare costs.

Do you have any other assets, such as a pension or savings/investments? It should be a split of everything you have not just the house equity.

In my case, I kept the house but I was written out of his pension. I was happy to do this as keeping a roof over my childrens heads in the immediate future was more important than planning for retirement which is years away.

hobo28

A lot depends upon your circumstances. Ie. how long u been married, how old kids are. Local housing prices etc. etc.

If it were me, I'd probably go for it but maybe say that she doesn't try to claim on your pension (assuming you have one!). Or perhaps agree to split the difference once the kids have left home?

happysinglemum

I got less than 50% of the total equity in the 2 houses we owned when we split 5 years ago (and ex-hubby stayed in the marital home - largely because I wanted to move closer to my parents).

The reason I got less was because we came to a private agreement regarding child maintenance, and he paid considerably more than the CSA would have decided. Not really sure about where you'd stand regarding equity, etc, but I would advise that if you come to a private agreement over child maintenance, make sure the solicitors present it in court at the same time as your divorce papers. If they don't, it is not legally binding, and could be changed at any time by either party! I found this out to my cost (my solicitors didn't present our maintenance agreement with the divorce papers), so when ex-hubby decided to cut his payments to me by 60% when his new daughter was born, there was nothing I could do about it.

Having re-read that, I'm not sure how relevant this would be to your situation, but it might help someone else in a similar position.

Hope you manage to work everything out.

xx

pusscat

Hard to be specific, but as a very very general idea......

A "rule of thumb" for a clean break settlement with kids is 70%/30% of the "assets of the marriage" to the PWC (Parent with Care) (in this case your wife?) .... it is normally somewhere between 60/40 and 80/20 dpending upon individual circumstances

Equity is not the only asset - so it depends what else you "own"!

On top of that the PWC could also expect to recieve maintainence for the kids along the lines of the CSA guidelines - 20% of NRP's( Non resident parents) income for 2 kids.....

Hope this gives some idea - but please make sure that you get proper legal advice before committing to anything.....

Forgot to addd - if you are not having a clean break then anything could apply.......

Puss

loftus

As the others have said without a more detailed breakdown of your (as in you and your wife) assets/liabilities it's hard to say what would be fair. Plus you have to look at your respective earning capacities etc.
You can reach an agreement on child maintenance but after a year, I think, either party could go to the CSA for an assessment and that will over-ride any agreement reached previously.

cymro

Many thanks to all who have given their opinions so far. Without question, I am planning on giving (at least) 20% of all my earnings for the kids so not sure this will affect my claim on the rest of the assets. If as pusscat suggests it 'usually' ends as a 70/30 split then I may have to be thankful if get away with the 2nd house. I was hopeful (over-optimistic?) I could table something more equitable e.g.:
1) Wife has family home and I get 30k (differential in equity) when both of the kids reaches 18 or if another adult moves into the property
2) As 1 but with inetest on 30K

Thanks again to all.

TAG

Hi sorry to hi jack this thread a bit hope you don't mind.

What can happen if you don't make a clean break agreement?

TheWaltons_3

TAG wrote: »

Hi sorry to hi jack this thread a bit hope you don't mind.

What can happen if you don't make a clean break agreement?

Courts will decide!

pinkshoes

Well, how about she has the family home and stays with the kids, and you get the other house.

If it was being split 50/50, then obviously that would be £140k equity each. So, the rest of your equity (£30k) is a 17.6% share in the family home, which you could have when either:

1) all your kids have finished their education or
2) if your ex wants to remarry and can buy you out at 17.6% of the house value.

I always feel fathers get a raw deal when it comes to a divorce where kids are involved, because the mother ususally gets the kids, regardless of whether the father wants them too, and then she gets the lions share of the equity because of this!! The above way is a fairer way to do it, because the kids won't miss out financially, and eventually you'll get your 50%.

TheWaltons_3

pinkshoes wrote: »

Well, how about she has the family home and stays with the kids, and you get the other house.

If it was being split 50/50, then obviously that would be £140k equity each. So, the rest of your equity (£30k) is a 17.6% share in the family home, which you could have when either:

1) all your kids have finished their education or
2) if your ex wants to remarry and can buy you out at 17.6% of the house value.

I always feel fathers get a raw deal when it comes to a divorce where kids are involved, because the mother ususally gets the kids, regardless of whether the father wants them too, and then she gets the lions share of the equity because of this!! The above way is a fairer way to do it, because the kids won't miss out financially, and eventually you'll get your 50%.

Yeah I think this is fair - put it to your wife. That way you both get 50%.

How much will you paying through the CSA?