Stbx and I are struggling with the house payment issue. We make about equal pay (him a little more), I have the kids 80% of the time and he is paying CS reflecting that - but no other kind of support.<P>I am currently living in our home. He doesn't think he should have to pay any towards the house payment since he is not receiving any benefit of living there and has his own rent to pay.<P>I believe we are equally responsible for the debt of the home (joint mortgage) but do recognize that I should pay a little more than half since I am getting a roof over my head as part of the deal. <P>We have agreed to sell the house, but until it is sold, the payments go on. I have been paying them on my own for the last 2 months.<P>We are trying to settle our divorce ourselves to keep costs down but this is our same sticking point we come back to everytime.<P>Any suggestions?<P>------------------<BR>---------<BR>To err is human, to forgive divine.

It depends on how much he is paying you in child support. If you have the kids 80% of the time...an amount in the child support should cover a portion for "housing" for the children. He doesn't get any benefit for living there, but his kids, which are half his responsibility, do!<P>Just my .02<P>Jenn<BR>

Well, you should definitely get credit for the equity that comes from your payments alone when you sell, since he's disclaiming any interest in the house from separation time on.<P>But let's look at it this way:<P>1) He has equity in the home, and his credit is affected by the payment history.<P>2) His children are living there. So is his ex-wife, to whom he has certain duties and responsibilities, despite the fact that he has decided to be with OW (let's call the latter his problem and not yours).<P>3) So we take away from the 50% amount that you should get from him *only* 1/4 the amount it would cost to rent the home (the roof over *his* head). He also pays for 1/2 the housing of the children (regardless of his 20% custody--remember, he caused that little situation), and if that means that he pays extra or gets a credit back, you'll have to work that out.<P>Work the numbers. If he agrees with them, fine; if not, you'll have to decide what to try to do about it. But be sure to get it cleared up in the property settlement, anyway.

If he isn't interested in paying toward the house, there's not a lot you can do about it. Yes, if you stop making the payments his credit would suffer and they'd come after him just as quickly as they would you. But child support and any other court-ordered payments are the only things you can really make him pay - and even then you'd have to take him to court to get it if for some reason he stopped paying it voluntarily. If you can't afford to keep the house even with the CS and selling is what you've chosen to do, then do it as quickly as you can. Just make sure that after the sale the equity division reflects your payments and his lack thereof.