Separation, maintenance and selling home

Hi all,
I’m a newbie to this forum but would love to get some advice on selling our house.
My wife and I separated over 2 years ago. It is an amicable separation and we are on good terms all the time. We are both 55 years of age. We have 3 children; the youngest was still at home when we separated as was going to college. She is now finished her education and is 22 years old. When we separated we agreed that she would move to rented accommodation and I would pay her maintenance every week and that we would sell our house and divide the proceeds once the youngest finished college. We don’t have any formal agreement between us. My wife didn’t work outside the home and mine is the only income.
It is my intension to put the house on the market later this month. I would hope it would make around 300K and we have 45K mortgage on the property.
My questions are; do we need a formal agreement before selling the house and once we sell and divide the proceeds should I still pay maintenance. Is my wife entitled to any benefits?

I have moved your question to the Askaboutlaw forum as this is really about whether your should pay your wife maintenance or not.

You have already agreed to split the net proceeds of sale of the house.

I am not a lawyer, but my understanding is that you have an obligation to support your spouse, and she has an obligation to support you. If you have an income and she has none, you will be obliged to support her. If she has an adequate income in her own right, you probably would not have such an obligation.

As you are getting on well, you should consider first approaching a mutually acceptable solicitor or mediator who would advise you both and who would come up with a separation agreement which would be fair to both sides.

Assuming you agree, then you should probably both take separate, independent legal advice on whether the agreement is fair or not.

Brendan

Thanks Brendan, sounds like good advice.