The answer to your question is, I am afraid, not straightforward and anyone advising you would need to know rather more before being able to give a clear indication. You should think about getting some specialist legal advice – the web site of the family law group Resolution might be a good place to start if you don’t have a personal recommendation, as they have details of specialist family lawyers across the country.
Looking at the inheritance first: as a starting point, a couple are entitled to share equally everything that has been built up during the marriage. However, although inherited and gifted property cannot be excluded it’s looked at in a different way, particularly if you received it towards the end of the relationship or after separation. If you haven’t yet received your inheritance you may be able to avoid sharing it, but this depends upon whether each of your needs can be met without the inheritance being divided. If your husband has somewhere to live and a decent pension, that will help.
As you husband is living with someone else it may not be a problem that he has lost his job and it would certainly be difficult for him to claim maintenance from you. However, the lack of income might have an impact on your husband’s needs and make it more difficult for you to keep the inheritance out of the equation completely. If he is likely to get back into work soon, there may be some advantage in waiting for that to happen (although I do not recommend you delay getting legal advice). However, if that is an unknown you may be best just getting on with it.
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