Waiving child support in property settlement

[scotchfreeescapegoat]

I am modelling various financial scenarios for dh and I to separate. One of them would be for him to sign over his share of the house in return for me waiving child support.

That would work very well for me as I would very much like to keep the dc in the house. They are 5, 3 & 1 and I would have a hard time finding a mortgage provider that would let me borrow enough on my lone salary to cover his potential 50% of the equity plus the outstanding balance.

Just wondered if anyone else had done this? Was it possible to do? It would only be attractive I think if it offered dh certainty on the cs front.

I doubt a 50/50 split is fair as you'd have three children to consider but if it is and he signs it over can you afford or even get a mortgage to cover the outstanding balance.

I'm also not sure you can waive child support, what happens if you ever need to claim benefits as the system will expect him to contribute.

18+ years without access to child support is a huge undertaking.

The lawyers probably won't let you do this though as by law, you are always entitled to child support so your ex dh would have to rely on you not claiming it and his lawyer will advise him not to rely on that. I wanted to do it too but neither side would accept it. I still don't get the cs though but that's another story.

You can still stay in the house and he can maintain the equity without you having to buy him out?

(I did buy ex dh out)

Thanks for your thoughts. I can afford to get by without the child support so long as I put the mortgage on interest only until my youngest is in school, then my cash flow frees up considerably and I can switch it back to repayment.

I had a sneaking suspicion that child support could not be waived as all the literature describes it as "the child's right to be supported by both parents" which suggests it is not a right I can waive.

Back to the drawing board. Maybe we can hold fire on me buying him out until my youngest is school. I am just afraid that property prices will have continued to skyrocket and I won't be able too get the income multiple needed.

It can be done buy your ex's solicitor will advise against it for the reasons cited above.

The legal reason why child maintenance cannot be forfeited is because the law states that any provision which purports to restrict an application for child maintenance is null and void.

he would be daft to sign any such waiver as its worth as much as used toliet paper as you can got to CSA 1 year after the court order and claim it anyway so in fact you would be in a win win situation

it is more common for you to give up claims on pensions in return for house. Does he have any decent pensions?

thanks for everyone's comments. I have been working on other scenarios and pretty much discounted this one.

Our pensions are pretty much equal i think. We have both worked and contributed over the course of the last 13 years. I was only home with the kids for 3 years and two of those were on maternity leave so i was still receiving pension contributions from my employer.