Separating - child maintenence

[TheSunnySide]

Hi. DH left me and DC in May. He has continued to pay me an amount towards bills and mortgage which adds up to about the same amount he would be expected to pay in child maintenance. He refers to this as him paying bills and mortgage and seems to think that when I earn more or claim benefits he can reduce this amount.

I am not expecting to get any kind of spousal support so would it be more
Reasonable for both of us to call it 'child maintenance' and also to have this legally documented somehow?

I suspect he thinks if he is Paying half the mortgage he might have some financial Claim to the property (which is in my name only but obviously we are married) in the future. He has his own property nearby which he rents out.

Child maintenance is a fixed percentage of his income. You'd get it if you earned £109 or £100 million. The only way that it would go down is if he had another child, made redundant or moved in with someone who had another child.

I would start calling the money child maintenance. If he is sending it by direct debit then he might want to use that label so he has a paper trail to prove that he's paid a fair agreed amount.

The property is more complicated and you need legal advice but both properties may be part of the assets to be split if they were purchased during the marriage.

Both properties were bought prior to the marriage.

And are of a similar price.