My friend, as you have a solicitor, you are recommended to take his advice,
which looks perfectly OK to me, but undoubtedly, the main issue for you
will be housing.
Your solicitor is right, the Courts will put
the children first, and often this will mean that the Courts will give
priority to the needs of the custodial parent. On occasions this can lead
to particulrly nasty results, I saw one the other week - but the
circumstances were admittedly unusual. And at the end of the day you must
have somewhere to live too.
So there is likely to be an issue as
to wether she could afford to live in the
FMH with the aid of such resources as she has or could
acquire. These might include maintenance ( child and spousal ) tax credits,
benefits, including JSA,
Council tax benefit, child benefit, etc etc etc.
It may be that
this will turn out not to be possible ; in that case there is no option but
to rent. In that even she could claim housing benefit as well.
My usual advice in such circumstances, and I see no reason to depart from
it, is not to go until you have to, be as nice as pie to all your family (
which may not be easy ) and as you say, enjoy time with your kids. You
seem to be doing things in the right way, and the ideal solution is to make
sure that the children have regular
contact with both
parents.
LMM
Forum 
England and Wales 
