morgage seperation

pilgrims_journey

Hi, i am currently going through a seperation, and we have started to talk about what to do with the house. We have a joint morgage and so im trying to find out as much as possible about what help i might get if he leaves. I would have to get someone to rent with me as i wouldnt be able to afford the morgage on my own as i only work part time as i have a 2 year old, so until i can find some one to help with rent and obviously find a full time job, im wondering wether there would be any help i could get to help with the morgage and other bills.
Any help and advice would be greatfully recieved.

FantomX

pilgrims_journey wrote: »

Hi, i am currently going through a seperation, and we have started to talk about what to do with the house. We have a joint morgage and so im trying to find out as much as possible about what help i might get if he leaves. I would have to get someone to rent with me as i wouldnt be able to afford the morgage on my own as i only work part time as i have a 2 year old, so until i can find some one to help with rent and obviously find a full time job, im wondering wether there would be any help i could get to help with the morgage and other bills.
Any help and advice would be greatfully recieved.

Err...he pays his share of the mortgage if he leaves. If he doesn't pay up and you both default on the mortgage then both of you are liable! Other help you will get is child maintanence payments whether that be voluntary from him or the CSA squeeze it out of him...his choice but if he has any sense then he'll pay up without CSA involvement! The CSA calculator on their website will give you an idea of what you should expect from him - 15% of his net wage.

As for renting out a room and/or letting a stranger in, that isn't such a good idea due to you having a 2 year old. If my ex had done such a thing I would not have been very happy at all! Bottom line is you cannot take over the mortgage (by the sounds of it) so that leaves you some options:

1) ex moves out but he still pays his half for the mortgage
2) depending on equity you both sell the property
3) ex moves into the spare room until you can think of something better than moving in a stranger.

State help for you will be Child Benefit, Child Tax Credit and possibly Working Tax Credit and of course CSA breathing down his neck if he don't cough up.

P.S. I'm a man but I believe in fathers supporting their kids regardless of what happens between mum and dad.

pilgrims_journey

Hi thanks for the advice, id be looking at a family member moving in, id never have someone i dont know, i wouldn feel safe because of my little un, and the house wont be worth what we paid for it, so if we sold it know wed end up in even more debt, and i couldnt make him pay half the morgage if he wasnt living there it wouldn feel right, thats why i was thinking of havn some one rent with me, i have a cousin whos thinking of moving out but cant afford to do it alone.

ViolaLass

pilgrims_journey wrote: »

i couldnt make him pay half the morgage if he wasnt living there

It's an entirely reasonable thing to do. You then split any profit you make when you eventually sell (and his child is 18).

FantomX

To be honest, you need to address the main issue here and I suspect that it is keeping a roof over your little one's head. The most pressing thing on the horizon is servicing the secured debt i.e. the mortgage. You need to be pretty damn sure that it can be paid every month! Ok a family member renting a room is fine...until they move out! What then? You're facing a shortfall you cannot cover!

As difficult as it sounds, you need to come to an agreement with your ex...his name is on the mortgage so his neck is on the line if you cannot pay the monthly payment. So you need some security in place and you need to toss out the feelings of what's fair and what isn't fair. I strongly advise that you both come to a financial agreement on your little 'un and on the mortgage! Whatever you do you need to secure at least half those payments from him.

Please don't rely on a family member to rent a room for the lifetime of the mortgage...it's not going to happen and I've heard some pretty damn terrible examples of such arrangements going wrong.

Your ex is now your ex, everything from this moment forward is purely business!

stringsmk2

As the Fantom quite rightly points out, he needs to pay his share of the mortgage regardless of whether he is living there or not.
If this is not an option, could you potentially rent the place out and rent elsewhere (somewhere smaller perhaps). Depending on your mortgage, it is quite possible that the rent will more than cover the Mortgage or be close to it. That way, you could both potentially win in the long run or share an costs on 50/50 type basis.

orangina

You may want a clean breakwith him financially so i can understand why you want to rent the room to the family member and stand on your own 2 feet, however, what is "fair" about him leaving you to provide for the roof above your little ones head and being able to take no monthly responsibility for the joint commitment you both entered into? Fantomx's advice is spot on!