Any ideas?

freddie2

Wondered if anyone can come up with any suggestions?
My partner divorced 2 years ago and has a daughter now aged 15. In order to protect his pension a settlement was negotiated and he signed the former marital home over (equity approx 120k) some savings and pays 15% of his salary in maintainence. Since the split he has made strides in his career and pays approx £900 ( not via CSA) We have no problem with this arrangement. However daughter has now said that she would like to come and live with us once she has completed her GCSEs. My partner would be delighted if this were to happen but it will have an impact on our living arrangements ( we will have to buy a house as we currently live in a flat). Obviously we will expect his ex to pay maintainence (and I am sure she will) however it seems a bit unfair she gets to keep the 4 bed house when the child will no longer be living there
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speedster

not being funny, but he should have thought about that before signing the house over.

especially as the child was already a teenager and therefore only a matter of perhaps 4 years or so that she could be living there.

i would also be dubious to expect maintenance when daughter comes to live with you, as the ex was not only happy to take 120k equity but then have the nerve to have 15% of his earnings too. i don't think she's gonna be over the moon and willing to part with a penny once her gravy train hits the buffers.

just my thoughts, i may be well off the mark. but hey ho, public forum and all that!! :T

Caz3121

Is the ex supportive of this. My stepson wanted to do exactly the same when he completed his exams but his mother did her sums, worked out how much she would lose in benefits and maintenance and stopped it....

kelloggs36

Just because she had the equity doesn't mean that she should go without maintance - equity doesn't pay the bills unless the house is sold. You can't assume she won't pay - and she will have to pay 15% of her net income in maintenance but that is all her obligations are as it was the NRP's.

freddie2

She also earns a substantial salary (they worked in the same field) so paying the bills is not an issue.
Hopefully we can sort it out in a civilized way, the daughters happiness is most important, we will just have to manage!

kelloggs36

Under Child Support law equity is not taken into account - he still has a liability to maintaiin the child/ren even if the ex can do it by themselves.

freddie2

Maintaining his daughter has never been an issue. However if she hopefully comes to live with us it does seem rather unfair that we will have to struggle to purchase a home ,we live in the SE so even with a high salary buying a house will stretch us, whilst his ex lives alone in a four bed house.

speedster

kelloggs36 wrote: »

Under Child Support law equity is not taken into account - he still has a liability to maintaiin the child/ren even if the ex can do it by themselves.

same old, same old. "csa law this, csa law that" utter tosh. so everything he's paid in and worked hard for he gives up then to add insult he gets the priviledge of handing over 15% too??

if that's the case then they should have split the equity 50/50.

what on earth gives ANYONE the right to 60k + 15% for 6 or 7 years??

that's just greed.

mind you, money grabbing PWC's like it that way.

missmontana

It might be unfair, but if that was part of the divorce settlement then thats just the way it is! He wanted to protect his pension, otherwise i would assume she'd be entitled to half of that aswell? I can't see her wanting to go back on that agreement.

Would you consider renting somewhere bigger? If she's 16 now, who's to say she's going to want to stay at home much longer anyway... she might want to go to Uni, or travelling....

kelloggs36

I can't see why you get so angry at me stating what is fact Speedster - it is a fact that since 1993 it has not been possible to offset equity in property against child maintenance and judges are well aware of that fact. It is not greed, it was what was negotiated in court.

freddie2

Oh dear...I seem to have started an arguement!
Her having the house was negotiated and was not a problem as it was daughters home! He hadn't thought she would want to come and live with him (although he is delighted) My partner has just bought a flat to live in...whilst he does earn a good salary, no deposit meant that was all he could afford. He really does not want to have to go back to renting...but that may have to be the short term solution. We had planned to set up home together in the flat but will need to rethink that!
You are right he wanted to protect his pension.....he wanted a clean break ( his ex wanted to end the relationship, not him).