keeping marital home or rent?

[newmummy27]

Hi
I am considering divorce at the moment, however not sure i cant take on the mortage and have any kind of a decent lifestyle for me or ds. has anyone sold the marital home and privately rented? do you get any help towards the cost? can you give me a rough idea of how much?

What is your financial situation at the mo- do you work etc? what benefit do you receive. how old are children?

Will there be much money from the sale of the house? If it is more than £16,000 then it will only be disregarded when claiming housing benefit (for rent) for between 26-52 weeks while you look for another property to buy. If after that time you still have it then you wont be entitled to housing benefit.

Beforeyou give up your home you need to look at how unstable rental properties can be and if you are on benefits it is often very difficult to find a landlord who would accept you?

Could you take in a lodger?
Or rent your house out and then rent a cheaper place for you so you don't loose the investment?

hi, yes i work PT. there is probably around £50,000 equity perhaps more. child 2.5.i receive tax crdit and council tax reduction, no other benefit.

If you work more than 16 hours per week you wouldnt receive any help with mortgage interest.

Would you be entiled to £25,000 equity?

In which case you wouldnt be entitled to housing benefit until your savings were under £16,000 unless they did a period of disregard.

However this would only be a short term measure and you would be unlkely to be able to afford to invest the money into another property.

How much are the mortgage payments? Can you afford to make them yourself if you took them on.

If you rented out property you would probably still be unable to claim housing benefit as you would have an asset over £16000.

You really need to seek some legal advice

can you change or extend the mortgage? I took on the marital home when I got divorced and changed my mortgage to Cheltenham and Gloucester who (as they are part owned by the government) have to take tax credits, maintenance, child benefit etc etc into account) they are also very flexible. I was able to afford mine cos they extended the term so maybe you can keep your house!

Some tings to think about:

• if you renew with the same mortgage provider once your fixed/tracker or whatever period is up, then you may well just be able to get another mortgage without having to go through all the checks

• do you expect to be earning more in the future? (For example working longer hours when the kids go to school?) If so you could go onto interest-only for the moment, to make the mortgage more affordable, and go back onto repayments when

• if you just need a break while you get yourself sorted I wonder if you could have a mortgage holiday? (You can for maternity for example, I wonder if you could in this situation). Like the last suggestion, not along term fix by any means, but I know for us a mortgage holiday on maternity made a huge difference

If I was you I would try to protect your investment if at all possible