Quick couple of questions

In reaching a settlement for me to buy STBX out of FMH should the fact that he hasn't paid maintenance for a year be taken into account?

If he's living with someone, in her house,does that change things.

Can I trade off CM for his half of the equity in the house?
Thanks

BMA

I haven't read all of your other posts but I have had a quick glance through to try and get a handle on your circumstances.

You earn more than him and live in the FMH, and have the children living with you. He pays nothing in maintenance for you or the children and lives with his girlfriend in her house and spends his money on designer clothes and social life.

Firstly, whatever your circumstances he should be paying 20% (I believe you have two children)of his net wage for CM.

Secondly you assume he would be entitled to 50% of the equity in the FMH, this may not be the case, and certainly not whilst the children are still at school.

Thirdly you don't mention pensions, whose is larger? Savings should also be taken into consideration.

You are thinking of offsetting CM against equity but you don't appear to have factored in any of the other things that are in the marital "pot". Without knowing what is there it is impossible to say whether this is a fair deal.

The fact he is living with someone would appear to be largely irrelevant in your case. Her wages/assets are not in the marital pot and don't come into play. His housing needs are currently met and therefore there is no immediate call on the equity in the family home to house him so this is not a case of needing to sell the home so he is not homeless. The fact that he is sharing his household bills with someone else frees up more money to be considered for spousal maintenance.

As an aside this scenario always brings a wry smile to my face. It is poetic justice that if one spouse leaves the other to live with a third party, then the leaver will have smaller outgoings than if s/he were living alone. The presence of the third party actually means more money is therefore free to be considered for spousal maintenance. My twisted sense of humour turns the cry of "she's stolen my husband" into "she's bought him"!

I digress: You may have already done this but to get a fair valuation of your circumstances you need to post the full list of circumstances suggested in "ancillary relief-read this before posting"

Hi
I'm not interested in spousal maintenance. That wouldn't be fair due to me earning more.
Our pensions have come out roughly the same. Savings of about 500 quid an ISA worth about 6k linked to half the mortgage an endowment in his name worth 5k that we used for savings and two lots of sharesworth about the same. Nothing complicated really and that's probably why I focus on the equity on the house and forget about the overall pot.

I was just mulling things over and thinking that when he finally has to pay CM he won't have much leftcash wise each month.

My imediate concern is housing me and the kids and was just wondering if it's 'normal' or heard of to offer him not to pay CM but to offset what he would have paid out of the pot eg I keep a bigger share of the pot and he doesn't pay CM?
Thanks