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Hello all
Don't know if this has been covered . It looks like I'm going to have to deal with CSA( or whatever the new department is called) . My ex left with my little girl , leaving the family home to be closer to her family 300 miles away. I have another daughter so couldn't leave with them. I know have a big mortgage to deal with on my own and access to child is on her terms . Will this come of possible CSA charges as well some debts incurred while together?
I'm so sorry to hear of your plight jamiespurling40,
This will be a very difficult time for you, but I'm afraid that financially there is not much good news.
If the mortgage is in both of your names then you are jointly and severally responsible for paying it. That means your ex-wife is also responsible for it as far as the mortgage company is concerned, but that will not help you getting her to contribute. If it does not get paid then the debt collectors will come after you. If there is some equity in the house I suspect your ex-wife will want her slice of that soon enough, so it might be sensible to think about selling it and downsizing to something suitable for you and your other daughter. If your ex-wife stops paying a contribution to the mortgage you could reasonably subtract that from any equity balance if you sell it and downsize.
If you don't have a private arrangement, then as long as your daughter resides with her mother CM is regulated by statute and executed by CMS (I think part of DWP). There is nothing much you can do about this, it is a fixed proportion of your income with no regard to your expenses or your ex-wife's income or circumstances. If she is left and will not be returning then you will probably hear from CMS soon enough, it is a debt collection agency, nothing to do with welfare of compassion, that will try to get money out of you as soon as possible in order to keep the nation's welfare bill down. This will hit you at the worst possible time, when you are trying to service mortgage on too large a house on your own, but CMS will take no notice of that (just remember: it is a debt collection agency).
You will not want to be thinking about this at the moment, but it would be sensible to get your finances in order as best you can. CMS will take about 15% of your income from you (there is a calculator somewhere on this site), the mortgage company will want the payments (but you may be able to negotiate paying interest only for a while) and you still have to look after your other daughter. It sounds like you want to keep in contact with the daughter your ex-wife took with her, so you may well end up with more expenses there as well. All of this is daunting, so the sooner you can start organising things the better it will be in the long term. None of this seems fair, but it is what it is.
Good fortune jamiespurling40,
O
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