[Solved] Ask your finance questions here

Hi,
My wife has started divorce proceedings and has asked me to move out. The house and mortgage is in joint names and we have two kids.
She has got into a serious amount of personal debt so despite us both working full time all my earnings pay the household bills, she contributes little. I have no spare money and
We have no savings and my family live 70 miles away from my work. I also have fibromyalgia so I just don’t think I could cope with a 140 mile a day commute. I’m stuck in an awful atmosphere and she’s trying to turn to turn the kids against me. She keeps threatening to have me evicted as I’m damaging the kids by being here!! I can’t afford to rent anywhere and I don’t trust her to sell up if i did.
Any advice appreciated.

Hi MJ7
First thing - your wife cannot sell up without your consent if you both own the property.
Starting proceedings will mean your finances will be split- any arrangement will have to make sure your children are housed but what concerns me is your partners debt. Can you tell me a bit more please.

Thanks for your response. She has built up approx £40k of personal credit card debt and her business owes about £10k, she says on family expenses, I say on herself.
She receives a lot of mail - I suspect she has fallen behind with payments.
Because the bulk of her earnings service her debt and her car lease she contributes very little to the household expenses and usually takes money from the joint account that I pay 90% of my earnings into, that the direct debits go out of for the mortgage, council tax etc.
I’m totally stressed out as my job states I cannot come to any arrangement with any creditors without jeopardising my professional qualifications. I can’t afford to rent and pay the bills for the household. Help!

I would contact www.stepchange.org as soon as possible - they are a debt management charity so they may be able to help work out the best plan possible given your circumstances and restrictions.

The silver lining is that her debts appear to be in her name and are not secured on your property; i.e not a second charge loan.
Apologies for the delay in replying - I had a norovirus (kindly given by my children who went back to school last week).
Stepchange is your best bet.
I'm wondering if some form of mediation might be worthwhile. Would you say your wife's debts may have contributed to the breakdown of your relationship? You don't need to go into detail but it sounds like she's got herself into aquite a financial hole.