Is this a good offer?

hi jaymdee

thanks for responding - yes if you take cm into account the incomes for both of us are broadly the same.

However I will be a household of 4 and he will be running a household of 1 person with the kids staying for 1 night a week.

Would solicitors and courts not take this into account that we would both have the same money but I would have far higher outgoings?

thanks for your response in advance.

Hi
I seem to recall that there was some guideline figure that was used when SM wouldn't be concidered, I have a feeling it was around 2.5k, so if he is giving up a large proportion of the equity SM might not be on the table.
If he is offering to pay CM at 1200/month then that is pretty resonable you end up with 2700 / month and him with 1500.

One word of caution : If the CM is written up in the concent order, after one year and a day he can go to the CSA and get it assessed down.

LB

with take home the same after cm is taken into account i dont a judge would order sm but would recommend a nomial amount of £1.00 a year in the event you would need it. a court wont leave one strapped for cash and if you walk away with a larger portion of the assets then i wouldnt count on any SM.

LB the general figure is 2.5k you are right its not set in stone but used as a general guidline.

He still needs a house big enough for all the children as do you, housing needs will be the same, but you will probably be entitled to a bigger share of the pot to leave you with less liability post divorce.

One of your major outgoings will be the mortgage. Could you sell and move to a cheaper smaller place? It may be that your stbx would need to be on any mortgage at least in the short term. A court would probably want to ensure you could afford to live without too much support.
Do you have a pension of your own?

Hadenoughnow

Thanks everyone for your messages.

I could sell and move to a cheaper property. I only live in a 3 bed house now so it is not too big for my needs. It is just an expensive house because of the period.
I could probably move to another 3 bed in the same area for approx £200k. This would enable me to stay in the catchment area for my youngest to go to a very good local school.
I could move in the same area for cheaper, say 170k but the schools in that area are not very good - would a court take this into consideration. Schooling was very important to me and my ex when married and is still paramount to me now.

I do have a final salary pension scheme. I have one which i paid into for approx 10 years and then i changed jobs into another final salary scheme and have been with them for 4 years. Most of my working life I have been part time, maternity leave or career break like now so my pension is not as good as it could have been.

The offer of £1200 per month is only until I return to work - after that he proposes that he will pay me only £700 child maintenance as per the csa calculation.

So potentially when I return to work term time I will earn approx £1400-1500 per month plus child benefit of £185 plus CM of £700 per month which will give me £2285 or thereabouts excluding any working tax benefits which i may be entitled to.

Just another question, aside from asset split. When I return to work I will be liable for child care costs for at least my youngest child - does CM cover this or could my ex be liable to pay half of these costs?

thanks everyone
x

Child maintenance covers everything unfortunately!

If you ex has the children on a day that requires childcare, then its not unreasonable to expect him to contribute towards this cost.

However all other childcare will need to come out of cm. If childcare cost are involved you might be able to claim working tax credit or join the nursery voucher scheme (assuming its still up and running by then)

Your pensions will be taken into consideration, also I believe that your actually 10year younger than your ex so that fact will also come into play when deciding if a pension share is necessary.

As you both have final salary schemes then it will be slightly easier to compare the values.

Dont look at the 'value' but look at the amount of defined benefit you have already accured. It will be easier to compare.

As how long have you be married and how long have you been paying into the pension scheme. In most cases its only the years within the marriage that are included

Sorry if I am the bearer of bad news, but I think its better to have a realistic idea of what your entitled to rather than a inflated idea.

Unfortunately my partner ex was told at some point during his divorce that she was entitled to this and that, it was completely inaccurate and has taken two years to sort out and a lot of expensive solicitors costs and she has ended up with what was offered by my partner in the first place.