to move or not to move

wazza

Hi, i am a lone parent with three kids. My wife walked out over a year ago. We havent got divorced yet. I live in nottinghm while my family live in manchester. My house was bought before i met my wife and therefore the mortgage is in my name. We were together for 10 years before the split. At present i am on income support and have the interest paid.

I am tempted to move to manchester. Would prefer to sell my house and buy one in manchester. The question if has my ex-wife rights to the the money raised from the sale of the house? Would it affect my benefits? If i buy a house in manchester would they continue with assistance with the mortgage payment? Other option i have is to rent the house out but will feel it will affect the benefits cos its classed as income?

any advice?

thanks

Savvy_Sue

wazza wrote:

Hi, i am a lone parent with three kids. My wife walked out over a year ago. We havent got divorced yet. I live in nottinghm while my family live in manchester. My house was bought before i met my wife and therefore the mortgage is in my name. We were together for 10 years before the split. At present i am on income support and have the interest paid.

I am tempted to move to manchester. Would prefer to sell my house and buy one in manchester. The question if has my ex-wife rights to the the money raised from the sale of the house? Would it affect my benefits? If i buy a house in manchester would they continue with assistance with the mortgage payment? Other option i have is to rent the house out but will feel it will affect the benefits cos its classed as income?

any advice?

thanks

Wazza, hope you have come back to check this or have an alert set up, because having been off the boards for a while I was trawling back, and I hate to see an unanswered post even though I am pretty sure the answers to all your questions are "It depends!" So your best bet is to get legal advice. You may get some help through CAB or benefits advice lines on the specific question of whether you could move and still get your mortgage interest paid, but my understanding from others is that there is never a clear cut initial answer to this. The best people on these boards can usually do is say whether it looks like a 'reasonable' case or not.

But you really need advice about the separation / divorce issues with your wife as well, and finding a divorce solicitor in a practice which also covers benefit issues might be sensible as well. The divorce solicitor can advise about your ex-wife's rights to any equity in the house - remember that if she was at home looking after the children while you worked this can be seen as a valid financial contribution. And it may also depend what your wife wants / needs / is prepared to fight for. Remember we're not always rational about things: if you've been amicable so far but she realises you're wanting to move the children away, she may become upset.

You could spend time posting all the details here, but I'd suggest you put your energies into getting the legal advice you need!

Best of luck.

wazza

thanks for the advice. nothing in life is ever so easy. will keep you posted

whitty999

Good luck Wazza.