what are my chances.....

Hi

A bit of background - I have been married for about 10 years and with my wife for about 15 years. We have 2 children - one pre-school and one at primary school.

We have a four bed house with a small mortgage. Most of the equity in the house is mine because I contributed most when we started living together and a couple of years ago paid a lump sum to reduce the mortage.

A few years ago we had a role reversal. I lost my job and after a fruitful search we ended up with me taking on the majority of family/household care and working self-employed partime, whilst my wife continued to work fulltime.

Whilst I don't consider myself a 'full time mum' since between 9-3 the children are at school/preschool, I am responsible for shopping/cooking/cleaning/school runs etc, and this obviously has a big impact on my income.

Nonetheless between my savings and my low income I have managed to always pay half the household costs but my wife is by far the major earner.

For a while our relationship has been deteriorating and despite efforts it's obvious that divorce is on the cards.

Which brings me onto my questions. Bearing in mind our relative contributions to both household finances and family management what is the likely court decisions on the following:

1. Will I be considered the main carer of the childern? If so what are my chances of getting custody of the children?

2. Is it the case that whoever gets custody will remain in the family home?

3. The house is 4 bed so there is a possibility that it could be sold and still provide suitable accomodation for the children with some left over for the other partner. How likely is this?

4. In fact my wife does have sufficient savings to buy out my half of the houe so might a court rule that she should do this?

5. If my wife gets custody of the children and I have to leave our home can I expect any financial support from her at all?

After being the main breadwinner, circumstances forced us into a role reversal whereby our finances have also reversed so I am in a position very smilar to many housewives. I suspect that my gender will result in a court treating me very differently?

hi, in answer to your questions,
1 yes you will be considered the main carer and as regards custody that depends on how much of a fight your wife puts up and whether she changes her job and goes part time, couldnt tell you how that will end up.
2 usually both sides agree that who ever has the children stay in the FMH
3 the court can order a sale if one of you cant afford a new home but it is unlikely.
4 the court will only rule on that if you cant agree, if as you say she has savings then half of that is yours anyway.
you can arrange to give her less equity and not take the savings.
5 yes you can but it wont be for much as you have the opportunity to get full time work and when you get full time work the spousal maintenance will more than likely stop and you will have to pay child maintenance.
please remember that all assets and liabilities are taken into account, it doesnt matter who paid for what as the marriage was a long one it is all classed as marital assets.
you also need to remember that pensions, cars anything worth over
£500 is taken into account.
hope this helps
kind regards
dawn