Please could somebody help me re: CSA and moving house

HMM1234

Hi there,

I am new to this so not sure if this is in the right place but here is the situation:

I live with my partner in rented. He has two children with his ex (never married and she lives on the council). They have an agreement between them that he pays £200 per month and pays for uniforms etc and takes the kids out and has them every other weekend over night and every weekend for at least the day.

We are now in a position to buy a property through hard work and parental help. His ex has found out we are buying and is now kicking off saying that she is going to go through CSA because we are clearly not paying enough and we should not be allowed to afford a house when she cant and so on.

My question is:

1. Is there any paperwork my partner can sign that means my wage cannot be taken into account. I love the kids and spend my money on them when they are with us but that is my choice. I will not be paying for my partner to live and indirectly paying for his ex to not work.

2. If he did go through the CSA and we sold the property at a profit. Would his half of the profit be taken into account and a percentage given to her?

3. If the above is true, how can I stop that happening?

My partner and myself have no problem paying through CSA, it would actually make life a hell of a lot easier, but I am so wary of other areas being affected. My parents have put money into our property as have I and I do not want either mine or my families money to be considered. My partner nor his kids are my financial responsiblity.

Any help would be really appreciated, this is all begining to stress me out.

Poppie68

Which CSA is he on....to be honest though she may need reminding the CSA as people know it now is soon ending, they will still be dealing with and collecting money on some cases but she will have to pay for their service as will your husband. You need to have a google and have a read....


EDIT: It was only CSA I that has taken the NRP partners wage into account, but other versions did include some tax credits into their caculations.

HMM1234

He isn't on any CSA at the moment, she just uses it as a threat because she doesn't want us having anything she doesn't have....feels we are showing her up in front of the kids...you know because 5 and 3 year olds care!!

I did hear it was ending and something called child Maintenance service is taking over. I didn't realise you had to pay for that, I am sure she will change her tune!

I will look into it, thank you for your help.

RAS

HMM1234 wrote: »

My partner and myself have no problem paying through CSA, it would actually make life a hell of a lot easier, but I am so wary of other areas being affected. My parents have put money into our property as have I and I do not want either mine or my families money to be considered. My partner nor his kids are my financial responsiblity.

I assume that you have a trust deed covering the eventually that you and your partner split, to protect your parents and your own contributions to the house? If not, you need to see a solicitor fairly promptly.

With regards to any capital appreciation, she was possibly entitled to a share if he got more than £75K. Not sure under the current rules.

Go to the CSA web-site and work out how much he will have to pay if she goes to the CSA (used to be 20% of net income but it is a smaller percent of gross income (his only) now.

Poppie68

HMM1234 wrote: »

He isn't on any CSA at the moment, she just uses it as a threat because she doesn't want us having anything she doesn't have....feels we are showing her up in front of the kids...you know because 5 and 3 year olds care!!

I did hear it was ending and something called child Maintenance service is taking over. I didn't realise you had to pay for that, I am sure she will change her tune!

I will look into it, thank you for your help.

:rotfl:Of course they aren't using the CSA now....i apologise for be a wally:D

If you go onto the CSA website and use the calculator you can work out how much they say he will have to pay....the calculations are pre - new system. This may also give her a figure she may not like, or you i'm afraid.

Poppie68

RAS wrote: »

I assume that you have a trust deed covering the eventually that you and your partner split, to protect your parents and your own contributions to the house? If not, you need to see a solicitor fairly promptly.

With regards to any capital appreciation, she was possibly entitled to a share if he got more than £75K. Not sure under the current rules.

Go to the CSA web-site and work out how much he will have to pay if she goes to the CSA (used to be 20% of net income but it is a smaller percent of gross income (his only) now.

Was this under CSAI, and was'nt that only if they/he had bought the property while they were still together?

bll78

They will only take into account his income not yours. My partner's ex was never impressed that she couldn't get a percentage of my wages even though he was giving her £400 a month, but the rules don't take your wages into account.

For 2 kids the cost will be about 20% of his wages after tax etc.. although how much he has the children will slightly decrease this percentage. Beware she may decide to reduce his contact in order to get a higher payment once she realises this. Thankfully most mums are not like that, but the occasional ones are.

Any other income like profit on house sales,redundancy payments, insurance claims are not counted at all towards CSA.
I should add these are the current rules not the older ones, but they are the ones that will apply to you.

HMM1234

Thank you for all the advice!

I dont have a trust deed that I know of but I am not sure what my parents have put in place. I know there was paperwork we had to sign regarding their rights to the money invested plus a percentage of profit if appropriate. My Solicitor has all the paperwork at the moment so when I see her, I will question this.

Thank you bll78 it is good to hear that my income doesn't get taken into account. Unfortunately his ex is the sort of person who will go for as much as she can. At the moment she has got in a huff about us buying a house so she isn't answering her phone or answering the door out of spite.

We did the Maintenance calculator online which states he should pay an extra 98 pound on top of the 200 he gives now, however he couldn't afford that because he would have no money to buy food or take the kids out when he see's them.

I don't know how it works but I spoke anon. to the CMS and they said, if it came to it, that we could get my partners ex to return over 3.5k worth of benefits that she was not entitled to as she did not declare the money she was recieving from us. And on top of that, she lives with her new partner who earns a full time wage which she has not declared, so that gives me a bit of hope!

NotSuchASmugMarriedNow

It would be very unpleasant of you to get your partners ex in trouble with the authorities. Please don't do that.

Going through the CMS means that your partner would pay 20% of his salary. If that doesn't leave him with enough money to take the kids out when he see's them then the CMS will merely tell you not to take them out. Kids are find just spending time with the absent parent, they don't need to have loads of money on expensive days out.

Plus as someone else said, he will get a reduction if he has them more.

shoe*diva79

Your wage will not be taken into consideration although bll78's advice above is incorrect. Their advice is based on the 2003 system. If your partners ex goes to the CSA then his case will be on the new 2012 system where CM is worked out on gross pay figures with different %

In addition, CM isn't taken into consideration when your partners ex claims benefits and this has been the case since April 2010. Given their youngest is only 3 (i think you said?) then she hasn't fraudulently received CM and not declared it.

shoe*diva79

I just wanted to check as well, you said you had used the calc online to work out payments. Double check you used gross figures and not net as advised by several other posters. If you used the correct figures and the estimate is £98 more then your paying now then that is what he will have to pay. The calc asks how many overnight visits are involved so the discount will be applied within the calculation.

If she does go through the CSA and your partner does not pay what he is instructed then then CSA can take enforcement action which will involve them taking the funds direct from his wages using a Deduction of Earnings Order.