the house

asking on behalf of someone else,

the marriage was short only lasting 2 years, 2 children age 4 and 2 and a 12 year old from a previous relationship on her side.
the house they lived in is owned my him was bought with the proceeds of the sale of a home he owned for 10 years before meeting her and some inheritance from a grandmother.
she is currently in the house.
he wants to be able to retain the entire value of the house but allow her to reside there rent free until the little one is 18.
is this possible? the mortgage would be paid by him in lieu of maintenace.

Despite this being a short marriage the fact there are children really makes this irrelevant to some extent. I doubt she will walk away with nothing when the Children are 18. Is she the main carer? does she work?

The childrens housing needs will be the priority. In my view she would be bonkers to accept that proposal. Basically her maintenance payments would be paying off the house that he would eventually retain. Hardly rent free?? It doesn''t sound fair to me.

yes i know what you are saying. However, the mortgage is almost twice the cost of the maintenance. She is unable to get a mortgage to take over the house.

the last thing he wants is for his children to leave their home. He wants them to remain but if she gets 50/50 on the house by the time he has paid the mortgage for the next 20 years what he has to pay out will be more (at current house inflation rates) than what he will get from his 50% share.

She is getting a 5 year old 4 bedroom house to live in rent free for the next 16 years or so. Hardly a poor deal.

If the court forces a sale and she gets (for agruments sake only) 50% of the equity then that means she is homless with £30k in the bank, this means no housing benefit. a tatty 3 bed house in the same area is the best part of £600 a month which means her £30k will last just over 4 years. So, then she can claim housing benefit but the kids will have lost their home and her 50% will have gone.

Are be being naive with our thoughts??

you would need to provide more detail for anyone to advise as to a fair split.

Ages
Length of marriage (including cohabit ion prior to marriage)
All Assets - equity, savings,shares etc
Debts
Pensions and values
Respective incomes including benefits

It is hard to know without more facts although on the face of what you have said I would give up on the legal system completely if a judge allowed this to happen! From what you have said you expect her to leave with nothing after the next 16-18 of child raising with probably limited earning capacity!!! A messier order may be appropriate which could mean when the youngest is 18 the equity is divided between them at a given percentage.

Alternatively if the house is bigger than her needs and is unaffordable a sale may be more appropriate. You suggest however that a large mortgage is paid for the next 16+ years on top of his own accommodation costs, So it sounds like money is not that tight ?