Sole debt in divorce

My husband is very difficult to live with - we have 5 children aged 23,21,17,13,and 5.
He is self employed and theoretically should have a good income however he is not working to capacity and i have just discovered he has £72,000 debt - in his own name - I can only think this is to back up where he has not been working - the family has not gained from this, our mortgate is £400 per month, which he pays as well as gas and electricity, council tax, I have had to budget all food, clothes, fuel etc from tax credits and my very little job - my income on my tax return was £2000 last year.

The family have not seen any of this money - no holiday, meals out, not at all - I dont understand what he has done with it and when I ask I just get a rant

The equity in our house is £300,000, my concern is if his debt would be considered to be joint debt in in a divorce - I would need the equity to provide a home for the 4 children who live at home

I do have £10,000 debt on credit cards but have always been open about this as I never have enough money to feed the children - this has been going on for the last 7 years and is getting more unbearable but i am afraid of the outcome now

Much more details needed.

Total assets length of marriage ages etc etc

to be honest unless your children are all in education your need is only for a 3 bedroom house, the oldest three if not in education will probably all be considered non dependent.
Problem with debt is that its got to come from somewhere...it may be that you are able to stay in the house but if you cant afford the mortgage and he cant pay it then you will have to sell...and he will need a house for the children too no matter if he doesnt have them full time.

If you can go into more detail re: ages, length of marriage etc etc...
Once you are topped up benefits wise then your income will be a lot more..you will have an issue however with child maint. if he is self employed.

The question of house size needs and having to downsize, is often misleading on the forum.

It may never be necessary to vacate the FMH. One parent may choose to live in a vast property alone, for that they must trade.

What matters is balance.

The spouse left may wish to trade, Pension, shares in the family Co.,or perhaps another property owned. Many more variables, the key though is balance.

Hi, we have been married 24 years and have one house
the problem is that the premises of his work are actually on site, as well as that as a self employed trader I'm sure he will just stop working

These isssues began when his brother was killed in a road traffic accident 5 years ago and I think he began thinking what is the point. My issue though is that I was not aware that he was building up debt, because our mortgage is quite small I assumed he was making enough to cover outlay and I had to struggle to keep everything else going - I have never been secretive about my financial problems and now I can see that the issues have been about transference - he has told everyone that I am an out of control spendaholic - very convincible

He does have a vintage Bedford lorry which is worth a lot of mone (15,000), an old Triumph Stag and a motorboat, however these have been removed from the family home to his parents, what I need to asertain is if we divorce, the house is sold, does the debt come before the dividing of the equity (about £300) - about (£200,00 to me and the remainder to him) which would leave me enough to purchase another property or would the debt come first - in which case I would be in trouble.

The final issue is that our youngest child is in public school - and he has been vocal about this but would he be able to stop this - would the court allow him to or could it be made an order from the equity from the house?