Hi All,
Things have broken down with my STBX wife. The long tale for how we got here is for another day but she left with the kids in early December. She now lives 2 hours away and is claiming all of the benefits she is entitled to - no problem there - she is fine financially and is even able to put money aside every month.
I am living in the marital home which is on the market to be sold. We do have some decent equity in it which I have offered to split 70/30 in her favour because she has the children. Selling the house is proving to be a slow process though.
I have been making agreed maintenance payments to her based on the following calculation. Full maintenance as per CM calculator less 50% of our shared debt repayments from when we were together. I also deduct some of the mortgage payments, I was generous/foolish and suggested that we share the capital part of the payments 50/50 and I'll pay 100% of the interest. This has left me with very little income but just about enough to live on. I was hoping this would be short term but the housing market disagrees.
We fell out because she wanted me to have the kids over half-term and I'm not able to. I have been having them every other weekend until now but she wants to increase that.
Because of this she has now contacted CMS so she can claim the full amount. To be clear, I have no problem with paying the full amount. The problem is that she has stated that she will no longer contribute towards our debts - some of them are in my name but they were taken out in the last few years while we were together (married and cohabiting). She was well aware of the debts and did a fine job spending most of it herself from our joint account. I understand that CMS don't give a hoot about joint-liabilities and will just take the full amount plus a bit more.
This will leave me £200+ per month in the red before I even feed myself. I have told her that if/when I default on the debts her credit rating will be hit as well as mine and the bank foreclosing on the mortgage is a disaster for everyone concerned. However, she is [censored] bent on this course of action - I guess to teach me a lesson or something.
Do I have any recourse here or am I doomed to become bankrupt? I can't afford a lawyer and will not get legal aid so I feel like I'm pretty well stuffed!
I would check with CMS, I'm not sure how they deal with it, but CSA would take joint debt (not credit card) into account if they were incurred during the marriage, so you need to see if this has been carried over to CMS.
You could also approach your mortgage provider, and explain the situation to them, and ask that you are converted to interest only repayments until the house is sold - that way you aren't paying as much for the mortgage each month as you are now.
Dear All
I am in a similar position. Just received a letter from CMS first application. I am paying the car PCP and a loan and the credit cards . I understand they will take the loan and the PCP into account ? But I am wary of myself paying for PCP when they are at another address ?
Hello Aqua,
I do not have experience of all issues you mention, but do some. I had a loan in my name for a car my ex was driving. She refused to cover it, I looked into all options incl defaulting on the loan, but all that would do was wreck my credit rating which I would need for my future life. CMS recognise the loan, but they only take the annual cost of the loan off the assessed gross income and therefore it reduces a small amount. The loan was £150 per month and it reduced my CM by around £25 per month.
I think others will confirm that debts in your name are a problem, as they fall on you and if no one wants to be reasonable to help you mitigate them, we either have to swallow or default.
Hopefully others have a more positive knowledge 🙂
Thanks for the feedback everyone.
It seems to be a fairly clear legal norm that marital debts are just the other side of the coin to marital assets.
https://smab.co.uk/divorce-and-debt-who-takes-responsibility/
As soon as the house is sold then this can all be put to bed but I simply can't afford to live while paying for everything in the interim.
I've worked it out and she would still have over £100 a month plus all of her benefits after making her share of the payments but she says she won't do it.
I'll speak to the CMS about it tomorrow - I didn't think there was any hope of them taking any of it into account but it sounds like it might be worth the conversation after all.
might also be worth contact www.stepchange.org - the are a debt management charity, and the earlier you contact them, the less debt you will get into. Costs nothing to try.