Spouse Maintenance Help

LonMan

Hi everyone,
Look for some advice please and your general opinions.
Been married to my wife for about 13 years. Have three young children ranging from 6 years to 12 years old. Bought a house two years ago and basically for the past 9 months we have been seperated but still living in the same property, taking turns every other day to stay there whilst the other leaves to sleep outside the family home. We've both now had enough of this and want to go our separate ways.

She has been asking for a divorce for years and for the past 6 months I have been trying to get her to agree to how we will split the assets and property fairly. From the sale of the house we will have about £500,000 left after costs and paying back the mortgage. My net take home pay is around £60,000.
We will have the kids 50/50 and she is asking for 50% share of the sale of the house and £1900 per month for the next 13 years (until my youngest is 18). She says she doesnt want to work and might do a bit of part time work here and there.
I initially offered her 60% of the sale of the house and child maintenance of £950 per month which she refused.
She contributed nothing financially to the house.

I feel £1900 per month is too much of a burden for me to be able to support myself and my family when they are with me. My income isnt always guaranteed as I have two businesses and the income can fluctuate. If I go to court to get a financial arrangement, I'm worried the Judge may give her a bigger share of the house and the £1900 she is after. It could also go the other way and the Judge may feel that £250,000 in her account and £950 is adequate considering there is no reason she cant go to work.
What does everyone think?

Accountant_Kerry

if you net take home pay is around £60k I will assume your gross is £100k ish. 
Given you will have the kids 50/50 no child maintenance is due. Although she is likely to get more than 50% of the house 70% is possible, she did pay into the house, she stayed at home and looked after it and the children that's seen as much of a contribution as yours. 
She is unlikely to get awarded spousal maintenance for a period or more than a couple of yours given all your children are of school age, she will be expected to work full time by the courts but could need supporting through a period of retraining, if she gets spousal maintenance it will get taken £ for £ off any benefits she would be entitled to.

LonMan

Thanks for the feedback. Yes I realise she contributed to the house, I just meant not financially. Just to make it clear.I don't think she would be entitled to any benefits seeing as though she will have around £250,000 in her account.

LonMan

Also, with the child maintenance, according to the CMS calculator, I still have to pay her £930 a month even though I have them 50% of the time.

Accountant_Kerry

nope the child maintenance is not payable if the split is genuinely 50/50 
https://www.gov.uk/calculate-child-maintenance check a couple of bullets above the start now button

Accountant_Kerry

will she not look at buy a house with the £250K?

LonMan

Thanks. That's interesting, I hadn't realised. £250k isnt enough around here to buy or even as a deposit unfortunately, especially if she has no other income. 

Mojisola

LonMan said:

Been married to my wife for about 13 years. Have three young children ranging from 6 years to 12 years old.
We will have the kids 50/50 and she is asking for 50% share of the sale of the house and £1900 per month for the next 13 years (until my youngest is 18). She says she doesnt want to work and might do a bit of part time work here and there.

Your wife is going to be in for a shock if she thinks that's how life works!

You may find www.wikivorce.com/divorce/ a useful site to learn from.

theoretica

Accountant_Kerry said:

nope the child maintenance is not payable if the split is genuinely 50/50 
https://www.gov.uk/calculate-child-maintenance check a couple of bullets above the start now button

But could be a rather large incentive for her to resist equal child care arrangements.

LonMan

Thanks for the link Mojisola. I used the calculator on there to check what the settlement could be, quite scary. They say I would have to give her 70% of the property sale and £1975 per month! 
So it that were to be correct, after 13 years (until the youngest is 18) she would have received the £628,100 whilst I would be -£170,100 even though we have equal child care?! 

I know it's just an estimate calculator but pretty scary if it was any where near accurate.

Accountant_Kerry

the calculator on Wikivorce is awful, ignore that. it doesn't take into consideration the 50/50 childcare arrangement its not even a good rough guide, although the website itself is very good generally. 
get some legal advice, for a couple of hundred £ you can get a full assessment of the likely outcomes and I promise it wont be anything like the wikivorce calculator