Pension equalisation and equity in the FMH

I would appreciate some opinions on the following situation:

My son is 10 months into his separation from his stbx and I am helping him along the way as much as I can. The petition is in the system with the first appearance in court on 12th March. He has a solicitor (expensive of course) who has filed form A. Forms E are due for exchange by the 31st of January. So far so good.

Ages: He 42, she 37. Two children aged 7 and 5
Equity in the FMH after costs of sale are £120k.

She lives at FMH with the children in a large semi with 3 beds plus box room and large garden. A year before the split they installed a £25 k new kitchen plus utility and new furniture of which she still has the full benefit of.

He now lives in a pretty basic first floor flat in the area and has the children overnight two and often three nights per week.

Both work NHS shifts and are amiable sharing the children to allow the shift patterns to work.

He paid half the mortgage for six months and then stopped as he couldn’t afford both rent and mortgage payments anymore.
He continues to pay child maintenance as per statutory requirements.

Both equally share repayments of a £5 k loan.

He has been to mediation to try and sort the finances, but She has twice refused to mediate and refused a roundtable meeting discuss the finances. She has been intransigent in negotiations since the split.

He wants the FMH to be sold and split the equity 60/40 in her favour. Several paltry offers have been made to him to buy him out which were no way near the 40% mark and she has rejected his counter offers hence the need at this stage for form A and a court appearance to try and agree a fair financial division of the assets which are the FMH and the liability of the loan with little or no cash to hand.

Final salary NHS pensions CETV values:
He 1995 scheme £62K
He 2015 scheme £25k so total is £87k
Her £38K

His solicitor suggests the latest offer from him to be:
49K net cash from the sale of the FMH. She gets net £71k
Her to pay off the £5k loan
Pension equalisation

Does this offer sound fair for him to make as I don’t know the implications for him or for her with pension equalisation? He has a further 23 or more working years ahead and she has almost 30 working years ahead.

Thank you for reading.

Works out as 53.5% split of the total pot to her and 46.5% to him.

From your earlier posts he earns more and previous offers were for a smaller share of the house equity.

If he offers to let her keep more of the house equity to keep more of his pension they will probably snatch his hands off. It's a long time until either of them can realise any of the cash tied up in the pensions and you can't live in a pension.

Thanks for the reply.

Her monthly net income now exceeds his when her salary and benefits are taken into account.
A round table meeting is now planned so I hope a fair agreement can be reached.

PJ123 wrote:

Thanks for the reply.

Her monthly net income now exceeds his when her salary and benefits are taken into account.
A round table meeting is now planned so I hope a fair agreement can be reached.

But she has the children the majority of the time and he earns more so going forward more will go into his pension.

The starting point is always 50:50 then it moves based upon circumstances and need.

This offer gives him 3.5% less than half of a £240k pot. How much time, money and energy is it worth spending arguing over less than £8500?

If this gives him the opportunity to have a deposit and buy somewhere to live most people would suggest snatching her hands off and agreeing to it.

What does he actually want and what is he prepared to give up from the current offer?

He is asking for 40% of £120k from the equity on the house after sales costs bearing in mind she has some hidden assets abroad which may or may not add up to much. We just don’t know.

40% of £120k would be £48k.

They have offered £49k?

No, that is his proposed offer.