Ask Me Help Desk - Child Support and House

Child Support and House

I just got divorced after almost 15 years and have 2 kids. Court assigned a child support but I see that I can only cover the mortgage of our house with that money. I lost my job and got a new one which is about 30% less of my old salary. I can barey cover utilities, gas and food. I did nt ask for alimony because my salary was good enough to manage myself and cover part of the mortgage. Now, it is impossible
Does child support include the payment of the house they live (in this case our house) Or, should court assigned something separately for that?
Can somebody help me? By the way, I live in Florida. I guess laws are different in every state

Please somebody help me...

Do you live in the house with them? Your post wasn't very clear. You are making the payments, but the kids live in the house, that you don't live in? I'm not sure if I got that correct. What does your divorce agreement say about the house, are YOU responsible for the house and they are to stay in the house? Or did you get the house and you just allowed them to stay?

Child support is what it is. You use it for whatever you use it for. No separate support is ordered for housing. Its possible that the Non custodial parent will also be responsible for insurance and part of daycare.

If you feel you are entitled to more support, go to court and request that it be reevaluated.

I apologize if I didn't make myself clear. I live in the house we bought for us when we were married. I stayed in the house with my 2 kids.. he moved out.
He doesn't give me the money directly for child support. What he does is pay the mortgage of the house (the loan is under his name) and that's it! No more money... at the end, I don't get money for my kids.. and my income is much less that what it used to be when I filed the divorce...
My question is, if tts correct that the money goes directly to pay the mortgage and not for the kids.. at the end, I feel he is paying his debt (the loan) and not feeding his kids..

Hope I was clear now..
Thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maruquel

I apologize if I didnt make myself clear. I live in the house we bought for us when we were married. I stayed in the house with my 2 kids.. he moved out.
He doesnt give me the money directly for child support. what he does is pay the mortgage of the house (the loan is under his name) and that's it! no more money... at the end, I dont get money for my kids.. and my income is much less that what it used to be when i filed the divorce...
My question is, if tts correct that the money goes directly to pay the mortgage and not for the kids.. at the end, i feel he is paying his debt (the loan) and not feeding his kids..

Hope i was clear now..
thanks

What your doing here is very unwise. Should he default on the loan you and the children are thrown out of the home. Not a good thing. Another thing is that he should be paying the support directly to you and its up to you how it is spent. If you choose to place it on the mortgauge then that's by choice. A home for the children is a valid thing to spend money on. But you can't do that if your children are going to suffer. Another thing is he will get the tax benefits of the home and as with direct child support there is no tax benefit. Was that part of the calculation for the support order ? Also if his name is on the loan and he pays it off its still his house. Is that really what you wanted ? So in effect he's not paying child support at all!!

So the judge ordered that he pay for the house but he does not live in it... is that right? If so then he is supporting his kids by keeping a roof over their heads. Can you get a loan to buy the house from him? Because that is really the only way that I can see you being able to convince a judge to let you stay in your house and having a support order as well. This is why in all divorced I have seen the one with the loan on the house is the one that keeps the house or the other one buys them out. Do you own the house jointly with him or just him?

I'm sorry but it sounds like your ex really stiffed you for his own ends here. If you bought the house together then you were entitled to half of it when you divorced. Along with half the debt of it, which essentially mean you would have to move out and sell the house, or pay him for his half in order to not have to deal with him.

How does it work now that you are divorced? (I'd like to know that for my own benefit, my ex and I are still on our house together and I have virtually ignored it because he takes care of everything.)

What does the divorce agreement say in writing about the house? I highly suggest that you call a family law lawyer and get some advice in this situation. It sounds like you are going to need to go back to court to get at least the support fort he children modified.

I want to pay child support without going through the courts, how do I go about doing this

Quote:

Originally Posted by alfanso

I want to pay child support without going through the courts, how do I go about doing this

Please don't piggyback your questions on someone else's.

You write a check every week or month to the parent that has the kids. But this is generally a bad idea since you will have to maintain perfect records so it doesn't come back to bite you.

Why do you not want to go through the court?