Separation savings etiquette

[Chillitaco]

My husband has moved out to live in his camper van. He's still got clothes etc here in the garage as its still his house.

He's going to be popping back in until the house is sold but cant sell yet as we need building control to sign off works.

I have control of our savings and wondered is it wrong to use some of these to fix some issues in the house without asking him first.

These issues would affect the sale price if not corrected.

He could potentially say no or stop giving me money for the children depending on his mood and then I'd need to dip into the saving anyway as I bring home £1000 a month and my council tax is £300 a month. He takes home twice what I do and is going to be giving me 300pm for them.

If things are amicable-ish, or at least not enemies, then you should get in touch first, because that's the mature thing to do.
If things are already terrible, then they can't get worse.
Another option would be to take any joint savings and then move half into personal accounts that the other cannot access -- but an issue if the money is needed to preserve your main joint asset.

Well if you want things to go south quickly you could do this. But you need to think about what he could do in retaliation. Then how that will sour the relationship going forward and make the divorce process far more difficult and expensive.

Wouldnt it be better to claim benefits on such a low income or get a better paying job.

In the meantime ask his opinion on how you can make best use of the savings to get a better price for the house.

Why do you have control of the savings? Does he have visibility of what is in there and can see money going out?

I would “ask” but in a sort of way like it was happening anyway because of course he’ll agree because of course it’s the reasonable thing to do etc. Treat him like a reasonable person (even if he isn’t one), and you’re being reasonable to tell him what is happening with joint money. So something like “just been thinking about a couple of things that need fixing in the house so they don’t affect the sale. I’ve had a couple of quotes and X needs doing and will cost ~£x, and Z will cost £z. I’ll take the money out of the savings account. Hope that all sounds ok.” And then I’d email him the invoices once done just as an FYI, so there’s no confusion over “why is there less money in this account, what have you done with it??”

I only work part time. I am looking for a full time job but I live in a deprived area (seaside town with very few shops) so there are not many jobs. The majority of jobs that come up are cleaning or delivery drivers which are cash in hand and I also don't have a car as im lucky enough to walk to work.
Benefits won't help as I am above the savings amount.
My husband is aware that the work needs doing as he was always going to sort it but never did and now he's not living here its less of an issue for him.
One of the jobs is to sort more loft insulation out as one of the bedrooms last year was freezing and turns out its not right or enough.

He never cared about any of the incoming or outgoings so I don't think he knows what is in the account. I had a spreadsheet I emailed/shared to him but he never opened it.

He never even looked after his own accounts as he hated doing that kind of admin so gave me he logins originally so I've had to tell him how to login to his accounts and what outgoings he has.

We would struggle to sell the house now in the winter but hopefully will in the summer due to it being a seaside town.

The money is in my account (a savings one with a higher interest rate) and at the time it was opened I didnt know this was going to happen. it couldn't be a joint one so he wouldn't be able to see the money going out without me showing him the statements.