Husband quit work after seperation

Hi
I am 42 my husband is 40
Married 17 years cohabiting 20
Two children 8 and 10 and I gave up a professional job paying £50K once whien first child born.
We have continued to live under same roof since my husband told me he want ed to seperate last October. We told the children in January and were due to then start divorce proceeding but he had a nervous breakdown and quit his job in February. He told me he would take summer off and then return to work but now he says he won't go back to work till we are divorced " so that we are on equal terms when we leave the marriage". Originally I had agreed we would work together amicably to draft up a Consent Order with a solicitor rather than go down the messy , fight for the max approach. We would therefore hopefully leave this marriage without amnesty and continue to raise our children as a separated but still friendly set of parents. However I am now feeling betrayed and vunrable.
Husband was in £165k job.
We have a £1.5million home no mortgage
And approx £1million total assets.
I was told by a solicitor , whom I consulted back in October I should expect to be rehoused in a £750k home and 50:50 assets and then a spousal income and child maintence based on maintaining current lifestyle.
But now my husband has no income, where does that leave me?
He is now also pushing for a 50:50 split of children's time but I feel they should have a main home from which they commute to and from school during the week to give them stability. I feel one night a week with him at weekend or two nights every other weekend is more sensible. I will be the one paying over the odds for a house in an expensive area in order to make sure they get into a good school, while he can live in a cheaper area.
Soon to be moving out into rented as our FMH is due to sell. If I keep the children average 5 nights a week and him two nights will he have to pay me child maintence even though he doesn't not work , from his share of assets ? Or will I get a bigger asset split because I am providing main home for the children? He can probably go to a gp and get signed off work permenatly if that's what he wanted to.
I have already been told by friends I should go to a solicitor but I am trying to maintain an amicable split by not antagonising him, also we are still under same roof so don't want to start a messy, solicitors battle.
Just looking for a bit of info if there is a general rule on how things work when both couples don't work , but one has just quit a highly paid professional job and is claiming ill health for not returning to work,( but will definately return to work as soon as divorced)
Thanks
J

Forgot to say, due to investments he will have to declare an income of £30-£40k this year in self assessment

Welcome to wikivorce. Have a good look round the site and read up on financial settlement on divorce. It is good to be as well informed as possible.

The thing with financial settlement is that there are no hard and fast rules because every case is different.

There are though some general points that may help. If he has been a high earner, has voluntarily quit and is fit to work, a court may well make an award based on earnings potential.

You would be expected to maximise your income as well.

SM may still be a factor, especially if you need to retrain in order to earn a decent income.

As far as CM goes, income is income from whatever source. His liability as non resident parent may be reduced if he has the children with him part of the time but he will still need to pay. If you agree 50:50 shared care that would change. In that case he would need to live near the school.

There is a lot of money here. Even if you agreed a settlement between you, you still need legal advice before going ahead with the consent order. I think you would be well advised to get that advice sooner rather than later. Find a good specialist family law solicitor. You don't need to end up in court. Perhaps mediation may help you to sort this?

What is happening to the money from the sale of the property. It really should be held by a solicitor until the finances are sorted.

Hadenoughnow

thankyou
We will definately get on with mediation before the house sale goes through but hadn't thought about having the money held, thAnks

why would you quit a £50k job just to have children? Why put yourself in that kind of position? Could you not resume that job once you were off maternity leave? The decision s people make in order to have kids is absolutely shocking and irresponsible. If I was the main worker in the house and my wife suddenly wanted my income then I’d quit my job to otherwise there’s less incentive for her to go back to work

Well you have a chip on your shoulder. FYO
My Husband wanted me to quit my job so I could support him in a business start up and be a full time mother and housewife as he had a stressful job with long hours and wanted me to keep the house and look after HIM and our home as much as the children. We both agreed we wanted our children to have the benefit of a full time parent at home when they were young. My husband ended up earning £300k and I was running a large country house and land - a job in itself and doing a one hour school run twice a day . So I ended up switching my £50k professional paid job for job running our household and business. Everything we had built up in assets we built together with different roles.
Also any divorce always aims to put children’s needs first and keep their lives consistent . So me going back to full time work when my husband could easily go back to a £300k job and say spousal maintenance tor 4 yrs till they left primary school was not an unreasonable request.
I would need extensive te training and have tk take lots of exams to go back into my field of work after 10 year absence

as it's several years since the original posts what was the actual outcome in your case River song? Did you have to go through solicitors in the end due to the circumstances of your husbands stance?