The aim when couples divorce is to rehouse both in similar housing commensurate with the standard of living during the marriage and taking into account all the factors of the case. What that means is that in an ideal world both parties would have a house similar to each other and the one they have left. Often this is not possible due to lack of money. What then happens is that the capital that is available is shared.
The starting position is a 50/50 split but one party can get more if they need it. How do you work that out? Taking account of each of their earning and mortgage capacity.
Typically the husband earns more and can get a bigger mortgage so the wife will get a bigger share of the capital or the husband will have a charge on the wife's house to be paid back when the youngest child leaves secondary education.
The situation would be reversed if the wife earns more. According to The Telegraph Pannones have a number of high earning female clients who are annoyed that they lose out in divorce and do more of the housework. What about male client's whose wives spend their day lunching and having beauty treatments who then end up with an income for life and half the capital? I think the time for women to complain is when they have a non earning spouse who spends his time watching sport, drinking beer in the pub and playing xbox...
