Does a step-father (common-law) have to pay any support after separation?

[mactavish]

My dear friend has been with her partner for 10 years, they met through me and when they first got together I was worried it would end badly as he has a history of being the non-committal type and she was quite vulnerable after a messy divorce from her ex-husband. Well 10 years later, here we are.
She has 2 daughters, now in their teens. 5 years ago she actually sold their house and moved into rented accommodation with him out of her desperation wanting to move the relationship on a little as he wouldn't move into her house left to her by her ex-husband. Since then property prices have escalated, she can no longer afford to buy again on her own, but he now refuses to buy a place with her (told her before he would) and gives every indication he wants out of the relationship.
She earns very little as a teaching assistant (around £12k per year) but gets maintenance from her ex-husband.
He has fairly wealthy parents, no children of his own, and earns £70k per year as a pilot, buys sports cars for his own entertainment.
For the past 5 years they have lived together he has contributed half towards rent and expenses even though he earns so much more than her, meaning the money she got from the sale of her property has gradually depleted.
Her love for him and continued waiting for him along with his stringing her along and irresponsibility towards her and the girls has financially ruined her - at least that's how I see it.
My question is, seeing as they have lived together as common-law partners for 5 years (and been together for 10) does my friend have any legal right to claim a large one-off payment or continued support from him towards either her children or herself or both?
She really needs a stable roof over her and her children's heads more than anything, and some means to pay the mortgage.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Kittens - I am not the OP - my circumstances are a bit different, my ExH was husband two and the father of my three children. Having basically blown her Uni fund he doesn't feel he ought to help his step daughter through university and of course nobody is going to make him, well I am by giving her all the equity out of the house but that's all I can do to make a mends.

Who blew the Uni fund, your ex (who is not your child's father) or your daughter?

Her ex and her used the stepdaughter's savings on school fees and holidays so all siblings under 18 were being treated the same??

Depends how tbat transpired...if the maintenance £ went into the family pot/joint account and DD was provided for clothes, studies, food etc then that is bog standard. If the maintenance was above and beyond csa rate/basic needs on the proviso it was ment to be put aside for uni, then subsidising half siblings was wrong. But £ should have been put by ex in a bank/trust if he was not going to help fund uni once maintenance officially stopped. If a uni fund account was raided that is just wrong.

excuse typos

i think its wrong if the oldest childs maintenance was used to send the other children to private school (am i reading this right?) instead of for the oldests uni fund

It wasn't specifically allocated as a Uni fund but let's face it I assumed that in putting the money in the family pot and all the children being treated equally during the marriage that that would continue so once DD1 became 18 and bio dad no longer supported her then ex husband and would continue to treat all children the same and DD1 that he'd raised from 9 months wouldn't be cut dead and told you're not mine I have no obligation to you, no accounting for marrying a dick though is there.
Lesson learnt the hard way.

Ex husband and I that should read.
Put it this way I could turn round and say now to his three children dad doesn't pay half of raising you so DD1 gets £500 a month spent on her and you get what I've got, but of course I wouldn't dream of doing that and ex husband knows it.

How does DD1's father feel about his maintenance payments being used as the family holiday fund?

To be honest he's never laid eyes on the kid, his choice so he's not really in any position to comment even if I wiped my arse with it.

nice one newbrummie - i think you just have to look at the money given by exh1 as money for living not for saving

Well yes, it just stings a bit you know

But he didn't really give you enough to save much for uni,

I thinking cutting all financial support to your own child once they turn 18 is pretty low anyway, any decent parent would continue to support her through uni if they could afford to do so.

'I thinking cutting all financial support to your own child once they turn 18 is pretty low anyway, any decent parent would continue to support her through uni if they could afford to do so.'

Is it not true that a biological parent is beholden to as the student loans and grants use the parents' income as a basis on what he/she qualifies for?

At any rate, the OP's friend was only living with this guy, they were not married, for 5 years, there is no obligation on his part to give her any money.

It's always foolish to subjugate your children's financial well-being for a relationship.

Hope she is able to find something to rent in her own right or her children move in with her ex.

Luckily I think she will go to Uni in Scotland which lessens the blow abit but would have been nice for her to have the bloody choice

Frankly, it's your fault she doesn't have the choice.

Why didn't she keep her property and let it out? That was her worst decision. Anyway it's done now.

I am not sure how it differs if you are not married. I fyou are married then a step child can become a child of the family Someone I know had paid for both step chidlren go to Millfield boarding school £60k a year and so on the divorce he had to continue to pay as they were children of the family. Applies to women too of course -some of us earn a huge lot more than our men these days.