Settlement

I have been divorced for 3 years now but still in a wrangle over the house. It is worth between £75,000 and £80,000. I am in it with my two teenage children (13 and 16) and have been paying the mortgage ect for the past 10 years+ prior to that I paid all the bills etc as I worked although the actual mortgage payments came out of my ex-husbands account. We initially borrowed £32000 with an endowment attached. This is due to have a shortfall of around £10,000 when the mortgage finishes in 2015.
He has not worked since 2002, does not pay any maintenance or contribute to the upkeep of the house at all. He is demanding a lump some of £25000 either now or when the mortgage finishes. He states that if I can''t raise that money then the house should be sold and he gets it from the proceeds. My son will still be in education at this point. I work as a teaching assistant and will not have the money to hand over or any hope of getting it easily. I have been let down by solicitors several times and given bad advice-my ex-husband is getting legal aid which I am not and it''s already cost me over £2500 to get nowhere. Could anyone advise me what would be a reasonable pay-off?

Is this in court now? divorced three years but still no settled, odd anyway you need to answer the standard wiki questions to start with,

Your respective ages;

The number of children you have and their ages;

How many nights the children spend with each parent;

The length of your marriage and any period of pre marriage cohabitation;

Your respective incomes;

Your respective outgoings;

Your assets - both soley held and joint;

Your liabilities

No It''s not through court yet-I can''t afford to do that as it could cost around £8000

I am 47-he''s 49

2 Children aged 13 and 16

The children are with me all the time and don''t stay over night with him

We were married for 16 years and lived together for 3 years prior to that.

I earn £12000 a year plus my tax credits. He is unemployed (since 2002).

My outgoings per month equal my income-I have no savings or other assets. He lives with his mum who owns her home (worth around £150000) and he is an only child.

Thanks for any help you can give me....

Is the guy disabled or unable to work for some reason?.

No, just lazy......

Then the best he can cope for is a settlement in the future once the kids are adults, if it goes to court that is, having not worked for the last 12 years he could end up with the grand total of just about nothing, and well deserved too.

This is my problem-he''s getting legal aid and I have to pay privately. I simply can''t afford to go to court. I am being bullied into submission from both sides solicitors. The mortgage ends in 2015 when my son will be 16 but he has to stay in education til 18. The mortgage is in joint names so this is unfortunately going to be the turning point. It is so unfair that he can get away with sitting back doing nothing while I work hard and bring up the children (who are incidentally fantastic kids whom he should be proud of) while instead, he is trying to put us all out of our home because I will have to sell.....