What happens to the house when you divorce

For most couples the house is the biggest decision and the one with the most feeling attached. There are three ways to deal with it in a consent order, and the right one is usually decided by two practical questions: can one of you afford the mortgage alone, and where will the children live?

Option one: sell and split

The house is sold, the mortgage repaid, and the net proceeds split in the proportion you agree. Clean, and both of you can get on with buying or renting somewhere new. The order fixes the percentage split and usually says how the sale will be managed.

The percentage doesn't have to be 50/50. If one of you is housing the children or earns much less, judges often accept a bigger share to that person when the D81 explains why.

Option two: one of you keeps it

One person stays, takes over the mortgage, and buys the other out of their share, either in cash or by giving up something else such as a bigger pension share. The leaver comes off the title and the mortgage.

The catch is the mortgage. Most lenders will offer around four to four and a half times one income. If the mortgage is bigger than that, the person staying can't take it on alone, and the plan fails no matter how fair it looks on paper. Talk to a broker before you fix this plan. Agreeable flags it when the numbers look tight.

Option three: defer the sale

Often called a Mesher order. The parent with the children stays in the house and the sale is postponed until a trigger: the youngest child turning 18 or leaving secondary school, the resident parent remarrying or living with a new partner for 6 months, death, or choosing to sell. Then the house is sold and the equity split in the proportion the order fixes now. The person who moves out usually cannot get their own mortgage meanwhile.

It keeps the children in their home. The downsides fall on the person who leaves: they usually can't get another mortgage while still liable for this one, their capital is locked up for years, and they're exposed if payments are missed. Many couples who start out planning a deferred sale end up with a buy-out or sale instead.

A variant is the deferred charge: the leaver comes off the title entirely and instead has a legal charge on the property for a fixed sum or percentage, paid when it's sold. Tidier for the leaver's own mortgage applications.

What to write into the order

• Who pays the mortgage, insurance and repairs in the meantime
• Whether the leaver's share is a fixed sum or a percentage of future value
• Every trigger event for a deferred sale, including what happens if the stayer can't keep up the mortgage
• A deadline for the buy-out or the sale to be completed

Judges approve all three options. What they check is whether the children are housed and whether the person giving up the house is left with enough to rehouse.