child support if wealthy ex reduces income possibly to avoid payments

[earlycomputers]

Does anyone know what happens re child support payments if one's ex dp takes a huge drop in salary but he has a high value asset (property)? My ex dp has decided to pay off all his mortgage on a house worth half a million from his savings and from shares from leaving his start-up company and then only having a very small monthly income (about a quarter of what he earned before) - the rationale for this is there won't be any mortgage to pay so he won't need as much money. Or it could be he is doing this to avoid high child support payments. Whilst I approve of paying off mortgages as this does seem sensible, how will this affect CSA payments if most of his capital is tied up in property and is not in the form of a monthly income? He was on his former high income for many years so he would have no problem getting this much in a different job if he were to do this. We have 3 dc's between us with a lot of monthly outgoings (private school fees etc). I wouldn't be able to afford all these fees on my own (I pay half) so the kids would have to leave their schools and we would have to massively downgrade the house I currently live in (already extremely modest). he currently lives in the ex-family home (6 bed detached house) and I moved into a 3 bed flat in a high crime area. Any advice from anyone?

Property doesn't count if it's his residence, it's his income he has to make child support payments from.

You need to be adults and have a conversation re school fees etc but life does usually have to change following a split so you need to have a plan in place if you can't stretch to previous commitments.

Has he actually said he is going to reduce his payments to you? Does he have form for being reluctant to pay? If not then he might just be making a sensible financial decision and continue to pay the same amount to you.

thanks for your replies. Re him paying me the same amount - no he wouldn't be able to do this as all his money would be tied up in the house and his income would only be a very small amount every month. What is generally to stop the absent parent from quitting work and spending all their money on something (car/house/antiques etc) in order to avoid high child support payments? We were not married btw.