Separated and moved out of family home. What to do with the bills?

Binmartian

Hi All,

First post here. I have separated from my wife and moved out of the house 10 days ago. I am living in a temporary accommodation and looking for properties to rent.

My question: the energy and broadband at the family home is in my name. I am also on the council tax and mortgage.

I am planning to change council tax once I have a permanent place to live. I am planning to pay my share of the mortgage until divorce finalizes and we take a decision regarding the family home (selling or retaining).

How can I get out of the household bills though? If I contact the suppliers, they will want me to clear the outstanding monies which my wife would certainly not be willing to share. And my financial position is not strong enough currently to absorb the outstanding monies and also pay rent and bills in the new place. 

Kind of stuck between rock and a hard place. Any advise please? 

Many thanks.

RAS

Did you read the meters before you left? 

Can you still access the broadband? Are you in a fixed contract?

Binmartian

RAS said:

Did you read the meters before you left? 

Can you still access the broadband? Are you in a fixed contract?

Hi RAS, I could not read the meters and do not have access to the broadband. 

Am in a 18 month fixed contract with Virgin for broadband.

RAS

OK. Re the meters, there's been a lot of coverage here about reading the meters with the price caps changes this week. Any way you can suggest to the ex that it might be a good idea to do that and inform the supplier?

Talk to your broadband supplier about the possibility of moving the contract to your new address? 

onomatopoeia99

In your situation I would be paying nothing to the mortgage.  Your wife is living there and getting 100% of the benefit of living there, while you have your own accommodation to pay for, so she should be paying the mortgage.

Also, as it's still our home, you can access it whenever you want to read the meters and collect the Virgin Media router you are paying for, unless there is an injunction in place to prevent you.

Spendless

Your wife should contact the council give the date you moved out. She will be asked for your new address as you will be liable to pay CT there. Your wife will then be eligible for 25% discount off the bill as a  single person assuming no other adult liable to pay is  also living in the house.  You will also be eligible for 25% off as a single person in your new place assuming you also are oin your own. 

TBagpuss

It makes sense for you to contact council tax to let them know you have moved out and asked them to take your name off the bill. At this time of year, assuming that you pay your council tax over 10 months not 12, a small refund may be due.

In relation to the electricity / gas, contact them to say that you are moving out and ask for a final bill to come to you / you and your wife jointly. You could suggest to her than any council tax rfund should go to reducing that debt. If she won't agree, then at least you won't be building up any further debt and if you keep a record of the final bill can ask for it to be treated as a joint debt and taken into account in any final financial settlement.

So far as the divorce is concerned, if she is able to do so, it would be reasonable for her to pay this as she is living in the house, however it's not in either of your interests to have it go into arrears. try to agree with her to reduce your contributions - may suggest that these taper down over 2-3 months to allow her time to adjust? 

Virgin -find out from them the cost of terminating the contract early and also whether it can be moved to your current address. If it can't be moved, they may be prepared to end it without surcharges otherwise you may need to wait until you do have your own accommodation and try again.
depending on the cancellation charges it may be worth eding te contract but before you do, check if they could put it into your iwfe's name instead and if they say yes, you can then offer her the option, but make clear you will be terminating the contract if she doesn't want to get it moved into her name.