Fair Division Of Assets

Hello,

Trying to negotiate fair split with my stbexw and have the following circumstances:

H 44yrs
W 43yrs
Married 21 years

Children 15 & 12 - No issues over access etc
Wife will have them with H access anytime but at least 2 nights per week

Income
H - 40K plus 7.3K car allowance (essential for job)
W - 19.5K School Term time plus 3 weeks

Assets
Property FMH 415K plus BTL 192.5K
Cars H -17K W -2K
Joint Savings 9K

Debts
Mortgages only at £295K

W looking for 280K to house her and children stating mortgage capacity of £75K - W asking for 205k from split..

My view is properties are available at £260K and with family allowance/ universal credit and maintenance from me of £413/ month she has £9K that can be added to capacity to borrow.

After costs if we can sort this between us we have £330K so with a 50/50 starting point that gives £165K each as a deposit.

Pensions
H CEVT 97K DC
W CEVT NHS 17K DB + LOCAL(SCHOOL) UNKNOWN BUT EST £10K

What is a fair split in the opinion of those informed enough of the pure law aspects?

Man103

How much will a suitable 3 bed house cost in the area?

You don't say how you are splitting everything else but as it stands you have approx £312k in property equity.

If she had £205k from that which is what you seem to be suggesting she wants and also has the £9k joint savings then you each keep your own cars and pensions it would work out at £243k to her and £221k to you or approx 52:48 in her favour.

Given that you earn over twice what she does that would be an amazing deal for you if she agreed to it.

Could you save sale costs by living in the BTL property?

That's equating the pensions at their full value though so given he is a minimum 11 years from being able to realise those values it's not as clearcut as adding the values together

The figures also don't stack up as the value of the houses minus mortgages leaves £312.5k so if both were to be sold you'd have to factor in agent fees and then also stamp duty on the other side for the two purchases

But effectively asking for £205k out of £305k say after fees is 67/33 split with pensions split 22/78

Agree that it's way unlikely to be 50/50 in terms of the equity split due to the mortgage raising capability so trading off pension against equity might be the only option.

That said don't think 52:48 is that unrealistic, if the pensions had some discounting to reflect them not being liquid it would shift the scales towards 60/40 in effect

(Treating pensions as full value for example effectively had me receive 55/45 in my favour on all assets despite an income some 3 times my ex but even then my solicitor was unhappy that I'd settled for that and felt it was too high)

Hi Thank you for your replies,

The figures were based on adding all assets except pensions deducting costs then working out what was left, so we think £330K.
Her proposal is 63/37 in her favour taking into account pensions as offset, or 60/40 without pension offset (No mention of share she would want though)as she wants to buy 280K property with 75K mortgage.
I'd like to offer 57.5%/ 42.5% in her favour using pension diff to offset, giving her £190K. There are ample £260K properties available so this is realistic i feel.
Does this split and keeping our own pensions sound realistic?

TBH, you're looking at a 60/40 split in favour of your wife, which might even go to 70/30. You will also need to share your pension which would be set around 50% of the years you paid in whilst married / cohabiting. One of the principals that the finances work on is that the financially weaker partner should be able to, as far as possible, to maintain her current lifestyle.