Can i keep the house

[station4]

Hi My husband has left and i want to stay in our house, can i stay there until our son reaches 18? He is saying he needs to have some equity to buy somewhere to live so he can see our son
I am also not sure if i can meet the mortgage payments on my own also could he say that i don't need a large 3 bedroom house and make me sell it and buy something smaller? therefore getting some of the money.
if i can stay until our son is 18 or 16 ? will i then have to split the equity at that time?

[xhxmxsx]

your best bet is to go to citizens advice

[bednobs]

or a solicitor. The child's father has the obligation to contribute to the support until he is 16 (or 19 in full time education), whereupon your son could make his own money and support himself. I think it wouldn't sound too unreasonable to expect you to downsize if there are only 2 of you living there. it also dosent sound unreasonable for him to have some of the equity now in order to find somewhere to live, but i'm not sure he can force a sale for this. It sounds unreasonable for him to continue paying the mortgage when he's not living there though

[Le Chat]

Yes, you can be made to sell up and downsize I'm afraid. The money side of a divorce is called 'ancilliary relief' and is seperate from the divorce. Equity split is decided upon many factors and no one apart from either the acting solicitor or a court can decide this from the vast amount of info you have to supply about your finances....such things as how much you pay the window cleaner.....everything is taken into account.

[dot.hawkes]

If it is a joint mortgage it is his debt whether he lives there or not. he has to pay to avoid getting a bad credit rating or there will be no new mortgage. make sure he has all the right info for the direct debit if it wasn't already coming out of his salary and also let the mortgage company have his new address, tell them what has happened and nmake sure he doesn't miss any payments or you will be the one ebing pressured by the lender

[Beanmistriss]

It's their debt though isn't it Dot, not just his. Probably in this grand country of ours you would get to stay in it with him paying the bills untill your kids 18 while he lives in some squalid bedsit. Not really fair though really. I agree that he should be able to afford somewhere decent enough for your son to be safe to go and visit him. And what if your son wants to live with his father at some point in the future? If your downsizing means you can both afford somewhere decent that would seem like a fair thing to do. Think about it from his point of view too and you may find the best solution for all, especially your son.