This is not an easy question to answer because so much depends on your ability, and your wife's, to service a mortgage as separate individuals, rather than as a couple.
I can be fairly definite in saying that if you both signed the mortgage, then as far as the lender is concerned you are both liable, and you would remain liable if your wife keeps the house, unless the mortgage lender released you.
One option is sale, which should leave both of you with about £120K and it is then a question of how you divide it.
Another option is for your wife to buy you out and as you say that depends on her ability to raise the necessary cash.
In the McFarlane case in the House of Lords, one of the judges ( Lord Nicholls, if I remember rightly )
said that both spouses are entitled to a share in ' matrimonial assets ' ( which must include the
matrimonial home ) regardless of the length of the marriage. What he didn't say is how large that share should be or whether it makes any difference that your marriage has been a short one. I don't know the answer to that and I don't think anyone does. My guess is that a Court's general approach would be to try and make sure both of you could secure adequate accommodation ; so if the wife keeps the house then they might want to see you come away with some cash for a deposit on a house for yourself - but that would depend on your ability to get a release from your existing mortgage covenant.
The only other useful advice I can offer would be to try and settle this by agreement if you can, and get a
Clean Break order dismissing all financial claims that each of you might have against the other. Get a release from your existing mortgage covenant if it can be done. Think about
mediation as a possibility. The last thing you want or need in a case like this is a contested hearing. But so much depends on your mortgage capability.
Mike 100468
