Getting a mortgage after divorce - part time job

We look set to end up in mediation & divorce over the next few months. I currently work part time and do not earn enough to get a mortgage. My son is 5, and I don''t want to work full time while he is so young. My husband is dead set on selling the house which will leave me with equity but not enough to buy without a 50% mortgage. He thinks I should just ''go and rent'' which will eat up my equity in no time & leave me with no security for the future. Can he force me to do this? I will be happy to work full time & sell house when son is in junior school in a couple of years. Alternatively I could look for full time work now & have a young child who is at school from 8am - 6pm every day. Has anyone been in this situation? Would staying in part time work as opposed to getting full time job actually give me better leverage? Thanks in advance!

Could you afford the current mortgage with your income if you stayed in the FMH?

How big is it, ie does it exceed your needs?

There is always the possibility that your ex can "go and rent" while you have a Mesher order.

Post more details of incomes and assets

Hello and welcome to wikivorce. It is a shame that you have found yourself here but hopefully it will help. If you are still talking, it may be helpful to go to Relate for some support. It may not save your marriage but it could make the divorce a lot less painful.

When finances are settled on divorce, it isn''t as simple as 50:50, especially when children are involved. The priority is meeting needs first. You each need a two bed property. However if you are the parent with care, your need and that of the child comes first.
Other factors are also important - ages, incomes, length of marriage etc.

The first thing is to work out what is in the marital assets pot. This includes your respective ability to get a mortgage. It will also include pensions, savings etc.

Then you should look at how much it will cost to meet your basic needs - cost of a property, mortgage ability and deposit needed.

If you cannot both be housed from the available pot, then there are options that would allow you to remain in the FMH for a specific time while he retains a share of it. Alternatively you may be given a greater than 50% share of the equity perhaps in return for foregoing pension share.

Generally speaking you would be expected to maximise your income. I don''t think that necessarily means going full time - especially if you may have child care issues. Remember you may be able to claim some form of tax credits as a single parent. The non resident parent will also be expected to pay child maintenance.

There is lots of information on the site that can help you. It may be an idea for both of you to look at it and see if you can work out between you how to organise the finances.

If you want help with this, you can post more details and we will see what we can come up with.

Hadenoughnow

Thanks for the responses. Our mortgage repayments are £400 per month for a 3 bed detached house, rent would be around £650 for a small terrace house in the same area. The house may be worth £280k with around £180k equity to divvy up. The price of a half decent terraced house is £160k.

I also should mention that I have a territorial dog & landlords aren''t usually keen, plus most of the terraces houses have shared access so he would be barking all the time! I currently work 15 hours a week & take home £589 per month. He works full time and probably averages £2k per month but mainly paid in dividends from a business he half owns. Neither of us has a pension, he does have £10k ISA but I think he expects not to have to mention that. He also owns half a business but getting that valued would be very challenging. I think getting him to agree to delay selling the house for a couple of years is going to be a battle. He also assumes he will have our child half the time which I think is impractical as he works full time & isn''t usually home til at least 6.30pm, he also has to go away for work occasionally which means I would have to be constantly flexible. I suppose he will argue that he can change his hours to suit due to being his own boss, however this could impact on his income and he definitely can''t avoid working away sometimes ... I just want some time for my child to get used to the new situation and for me to get into a position where I could raise a mortgage. If he forces a sale at this point I will have nothing for the future & nothing to leave my child. Please note I am mid 40s and not wanting more children. He would probably consider more children with a future partner.

We have been married 8.5 years. I came to the relationship owning 2 properties, he had 1. We sold them all and bought our first house together. I put in more but he paid off some lump sums of mortgage when he had some and also used one of his ISAs (£10k) when we moved to a project house a few years ago. Lost track of all the details of who paid in what but probably equal input ultimately. He has done a lot of work on the current house which he likes to remind me of, but while he was doing it I was looking after our child (2-3 at the time) and I have also done a lot of the finishing work and materials sourcing. Not equal in brawn required but probably as many days work! Anyway, any insight into how strong my case would be for a 2 -3 year moratorium on selling the house would be appreciated.

Additionally his parents recently lent £25k to his sister to build a house. They now have that back so may well be willing to lend it to him for a few years, although obviously this is not something I have any control over but can suggest. My parents also may be willing to loan me £20k to increase my share of house & release some of his equity. Unfortunately I don''t think this would be enough to further my mortgage potential for a move to a suitable house on my current salary. I should also mention I have only been in my current job for 2 months. My previous post was 3 days a week and a better rate of pay but only a 6 month contract on a project. Finding this job was tough!