What sort of settlement should I expect?

My husband has decided he wants to split up with me & refuses to try to save the marriage, so we will be separating pending divorce.
Im interested to know what im likely to end up with after the split. Ive spoken to two solicitors who both said different things with regard to spousal mantainance.
We have been married just under 10 years & have 2 children under 10 who will live with me. I gave up my (unskilled) job prior to having the children & have been unable to find any part time work since the children have been at school because I have had to fit in with my husbands erratic work patterns. I would hope to find work (probably minimum wage) in the future to fit in with term times or re train for something new. My husband brings home around 2k after tax a month. Our house will have around 310k equity after the mortgage is paid.
Advice ive got so far by one solicitor is that I would be entitled to SM & around 60% of house, or no SM & 70%, but the other solicitor says im unlikely to get SM & would get around 70% of the house. What do you think?

Please? Anyone?

Try using the calculator on this site to get another perspective on your entitlements, it should not be taken as clear cut, other issues may crop up

Courts tend to want to see as much of a 'Clean Break' as possible and could therefore err on a larger property amount instead of SM

First consideration is to the children’s needs and s2bx will have to pay towards them from his income, usually settled by CSA figures or better if he agrees.

When looking at SM, you should consider the whole picture, you will be able to work, albeit maybe starting off on the bottom rung, but s2bx also has ongoing needs and this will be taken into account.

It is not unusual for you to receive 70% of property and Child Support, without stbx having also to pay ongoing SM

When inputting information into the calculator, you will need to best guess your s2bx's future outgoings.

Hope some of this helps and good luck

Thanks.
I did the calculator & it came up with 70% of the equity & two different figures for what ex2b should pay me. £730 based on outgoings & £887 based on household & childcare. Why is that? According to CSA figures the CM would be around £400 a month. The 70% & £400 CM has been pretty much standard advice, its the SM thats the one im getting differences of opinion on. So according to the calculator I would get either £330 or £480 SM. Theres a huge difference between these figures & £0. If its possible I can get SM I want a solicitor who is going to fight to get it for me. There seems to be no clear cut method of working this out.
Would I be better off trying for a higher % of the house with a clean break & forget about the whole SM thing?

The calcualtor is not clear cut, and I know the differences shown can be enormous, they seem to be only based on total income and expenditure and then split into two.

If you fight for SM, it will cost a lot if H prefers or agrees to a larger % of property, even if you were entitled to Legal Aid, it would be repayable sometime in the future by a charge over the property.

So best to take a larger property share and have a 'clean break' as such, if you can agree that between yourselves and put it into a Consent Order, then that part of it cannot be changed in later years.

If H were to find himself out of work or downsized then he could go back for a reduction on SM

Hope this helps

It is difficult to advise without knowing the full facts, and the state of the law at the moment is such that I would guess that
both solicitors are giving you outcomes which are well within the range of the possible.

The first thing is that he'll have to pay child support, probably at 20% of his net salary, but you could try the calculator on the CSA website for a more accurate assessment.

Secondly, I would not be at all surprised if you had the right to live in the house until the children grow up. Whether that is possible depends on what you can get in child support, your own earnings, child benefit, tax credit and spousal maintenance, if any. If this occurs, your x2b has to find somewhere to live, and the Court must also consider that.

Whether spousal maintenance on top of child support is a possibility may depend on whether he can reasonably afford to pay any more. As Josh says, a large capital settlement in the region of 70% will usually mean much reduced spousal maintenance or none at all - but each case is different.

Mike 100468

Thank you for those very useful replies.
So id probably be sensible to forget the SM & concentrate on getting as big a piece of the pie as possible?
Not sure if id want to be stuck in this house until the children are grown. Too many unhappy memories & I would literally be tied here & unable to sell up or move on without ex2b`s say so. Also its an expensive area & running costs of this house, particularly council tax are astronomical. Not worth living on the breadline for the sake of staying here.
Think I know what im doing now. Many thanks.