Consent order advice?

Happyfairy94

Hi,

I am in the early stages of divorce (still waiting for initial email to be sent to my husband) 

We have had a slightly unusual situation in that we own our home outright (we are in our 30s). We bought this house just after we got married and I paid for it in full with my own savings and a large inheritance I received. 

About 18 months later I received another substantial inheritance which I have kept entirely separate from my husband and not used at all (I spoke to a solicitor and they advised this might help it be considered non matrimonial assets) 

the sum of my 2nd inheritance is close to 50% of the value of the house. 

The marriage has not been happy and in total has lasted 6 years to the month. We cohabited for about 8 months prior with my Mum. 

Obviously I am keen to protect my financial stake in this marriage. My husband and I have tentatively agreed he might accept £100,000 (which is around 1/4 of the property value) and I would keep the house and leftover monies. Neither of us have any other significant assets or pensions. 

Does this seem like a fair settlement for him and myself? There are no children. 

We are fairly low income earners but his share would enable him to repurchase a property and probably need a small mortgage that he could easily manage. 

I have booked I for advice with a solicitor in a few weeks time but this aspect is making me quite anxious. I absolutely want to keep my home as my first priority. 

I understand the court look at fairness and needs, so any advice would be helpful. 

Silvertabby

Are you sure about pensions?  If either of you have a DB/Final Salary pension (more likely if either of you are public sector workers) then their value(s) may be more than you think.

Happyfairy94

Yes both of our pensions are DC and around the same value. 

Cobbler_tone

What is fair?
On paper your husband 'could' probably push for much more. In a marriage it isn't just solely who brought what to the party. The starting point is always 50/50.
I agree that you should be able to protect your inheritance if it has never been in a joint account.

On the surface, what you lay out sounds 'fair' but unfortunately divorce is not always driven and settled on fairness.
My best advice would be to keep things as amicable as possible during the divorce, afterwards you never have to speak to him again! If you can keep him onside with the £100k suggestion then you might get a good deal. Makes it much simpler with the absence of children.
Bear in mind that you need clear rationale as a judge still has to stamp it. They rejected mine the first time around and no changes were required, just an additional letter to confirm we fully understood the settlement. 

In terms of feeling anxious, this is totally natural. I had 5 years of it and it is the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with. Just take a day at a time and don't catastrophise. A good way to picture it is that life is a river and you are just moving down it, just don't drown! When you get to your solicitor, don't let me get in your head with big ideas of what you could 'get away' with. I would also highly recommend mediation. They will provide a safe space to broker your settlement and prepare a document to take to a solicitor. It could save you a fortune.
In the meantime you could download a D81 to look at.

All the best and hang in there.