Divorce and financial settlement

My spouse and I got married in beginning of 2015. I have two young kids aged 8 and 4 with him.
I have not seen him since 2021 december. He moved to Dubai with his new partner mid last year.
I live in matrimonial home which I am not on the deeds/ mortgage.
I was recently contacted by my spouse that he wants a clear break and divorce. He wants me to move out to a social housing with kids. I want a roof on my kids head and some child maintenance to get on my feet as he disappeared one day and I haven't asked for child maintenance as he paid mortgage.
I am now in a place where I live with a fear that one day I might receive a notification of divorce by him. But I would like to get financial settlement so I can get a peaceful place for myself and my kids but not sure what my rights are if he lives abroad. And he is in his early 50s.

Can someone please advice?

There is not much you can do to stop him applying for a divorce.
However, you are entitled to a fair financial settlement and that includes meeting the reasonable housing needs for you and the children.

In order to provide more tailored advice you would need to speak to an expert and provide them with some financial information such as:
- the amount of equity in the property (house value minus mortgage outstanding)
- your salary and your ex's salary
- information on other assets (savings/pension etc)

If you don't know the financial information then he will need to supply that information.

To help you understand what your next steps should be I recommend that you speak to one of our advisors, book an appointment using this link:
divorce.wikivorce.com/contact-us/book-a-free-appointment.html

I have spoken to few solicitors. But I was mnt assured with confidence if they could reach him in Dubai and what if he doesn't comply.

He is 50 so would that be considered and checking my affordability I can't afford to pay a new house and this one is to expensive to move on my name.

Last I spoke to him to find out what he wants out if the process I could only gather that he wants to cash out of the house and wants me and kids to move to social housing.
There was domestic violence involved but I never charged him and now it's more important to secure my kids future than anything else.

If he is in Dubai it will be very hard indeed to enforce any kind of maintenance orders against him (even child maintenance) and therefore unless he has been a good payer of child maintenance for the past three years then if it goes to court the judge is going to work very hard indeed to have an immediate Clean Break between you or at least orders that he cannot easily breach without any means of enforcement.

That might mean an equity split in your favour and possibly retaining the family home until the youngest is 18 although you will need to be able to afford the mortgage with no recourse to maintenance for the court to be comfortable with that. Don't expect any kind of spousal maintenance, that is very unrealistic when someone is living in Dubai if they show any sign that they don't intend to pay it.