What happens to the house

First post so forgive a newbie!
I'm thinking of divorcing. We have grown apart and I have found a new partner. Divorce seems inevitable. We have a house for which I pay the large mortgage and my wife pays the bills, school fees etc. This is a fair split in relation to our salaries.
I can't afford to buy or rent a second place as things stand but it would be good if she and our daughter could remain in the house.
Guess this just doesn't work and selling the house, splitting the equity and buying two smaller separate homes is the only way to go?

There are a number of ways in which a Court can deal with the marital home.

In summary :

1. Transfer it outright to one spouse.
2. The same, but ordering the transferee spouse to make a lump sum payment to the other ( ie a buy out )
3. Selling the house and dividing the proceeds.
4. Deferring a sale till a later date, usually when the youngest child reaches 18. This is usually known in the trade as a Mesher order after the case where this type of order was first made. The order will have to specify how the sale price is to be divided on eventual sale.

The point is that which of these options the Court plumps for will depend on your needs and how to meet them. As you have a child the Court is required by statute to give priority to the child's needs for a home. Another consideration is, whether the wife could afford to live in the FMH with the aid of her salary and such maintenance or benefits as she might be entitled to.

Your own needs are also relevant but you mention a partner. If you set up home with her the Court is likely to say that your housing needs are met and therefore any order may, from your point of view, be more disadvantageous than it might otherwise be.

However, in the final analysis a Court must always leave you with enough to keep a roof over your head. To assess which of the above options is most likely in your case, I would need to know rather more.

Mike 100468

Thanks Mike - we are a little way away from making this happen but very useful at the moment.