Eviction involving children

Thank you all for your comments/advice.
Unfortunately his ex is being evicted for rent arrears and she has ignored every other letter sent to her - hence why (I presume) she is being evicted with 28 days notice.
She has been advised to go to the local CAB - which she should be doing today. But the unfortunate matter is, she just does not want the kids and I think she has left it too late to do anythiing about saving their home.

It is very rare for a woman to give up residency of her children. It is easy to read alot into this situation and become judgemental and I'll try to avoid that.

You do not have responsiblity for your partner's children, he does.

He needs to make sure thay are housed. Either with him or with his ex-wife. Which would you and he rather have? If you and he don't want the children around then I would suggest he give her more financial support.

I was thinking that maybe he could pay their rent as part of his maintenance? But I think she has left it too late to make any kind of offer. Hopefully the CAB can sort her out.
It would be totally impractical for me to look after the children, I start work at 06:00am (leaving the house at 05:10), and do not return until 18:30 at the earliest - it would not be fair on them at all.
I really want to support my partner, but I really don't know what I can do

I don't know why she's being evicted
If she is being evicted for rent arrears,maybe your partner could see if he could clear these debts to keep a roof over his kids head.

Yes, this is what we are currently trying to do, although it is proving a little difficult because she has ignored her debt for so long.
We are trying to persuade the council that we will pay her rent from now on, but they still need her to sort out a repayment plan for her arrears - without that, the eviction still goes ahead!

Hi Kimwa,

This is a difficult one isn't it. Unless your partners ex pays off a significant lump sum payment off the arrears then as you say, the eviction will go ahead. How has ex ran up these rent arrears? Does she receive housing benefit. 9 times out of ten rent arrears are accrued due to the failure of the tenant to put in their housing benefit claim at the correct time. Problem is, whatever the reason, if ex is ignoring letters and advice now it's likely that she will continue to do so. Be careful in agreeing to pay ex's rent - for evermore??

Children are priority in all this. My concern is that ex doesn't realise implications of her actions. Does she really want her children to live with you and your ex. Perhaps she is depressed and can't see any other way of getting out of the situation. I know it is not your responsibility to take on ex's worries but the fact that you have both agreed to help ex to pay off debts makes me think that you are nice decent people.

Does your partner's ex have any close friends who could support her through this? Having the threat of losing her home hanging over her must be devastating. The CAB can offer advice to ex but it doesn't have the power to halt eviction. If you can, please advise your partner to contact the Housing Manager at the Council on his ex's behalf. Are Social Services involved? Are they able to offer ex some support?

I do hope this situation can be sorted out before it's too late.


Subra

There are a number of leaflets that you can pick up from your local Housing and Council Tax Benefit Office that can explain certain things about rent arrears.

It must have been very severe if she has fallen into enough arrears to face eviction.

Several questions?

Does she work?

If not, then depending on how much maintenance your partner was paying his ex-wife, she may have been eligable for full Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit, Income Support, Child Tax Credit, Child Benefit etc.

As she was living in council property I would not imagine the rent to be extortionate (council rent is usually less than the open market).

Your partner should be questioning why his ex-wife has got into financial difficulties. Did she take any debt on at seperation? Has she acquired further debt (other than rent arrears) since the seperation? What is her reasoning as to why she has not been able to maintain a financial status quo?

Has she been depressed and therefore not had the ability to handle her affairs adequately? Has she brought things that she simply couldn't afford and taken out credit knowing that she was unable to maintain the repayments?

His ex-wife could have requested that any Housing Benefit be paid straight to the council housing rent department, this may still be an option if your partner could pay off the arrears, although I would imagine she (or maybe he on behalf of his children) would have to lodge an appeal against the eviction as a matter of urgency in the next couple of days.

If she is eligable for housing benefit then they could also pay this direct to a private landlord in the circumstances, although this is not the norm.

Now, if she is working and was paying rent to the council herself and has just let things get out of hand financially she less of a chance I would guess as there is no gaurantee of the rent being paid each month.

I am not for one moment judging your partner's ex-wife, but feel that your ex could be throwing good money after bad depending on the circumstances of the eviction.

Is the money he has been paying in maintainance in line with the CSA + maybe an amount of spousal maintenance? What was the original financial settlement?

More importantly he needs to be asking the question about what his ex-wife wants or needs in regards to the children's residency, in the short and long term.

Hope some of this has helped.

xx Sarah xx

One comment just to Subra, surely if you start a relationship with a person that is also a parent with financial and emotional commitment you take on the responsibility (or maybe the want and need) to support him as far as his parenting responsibilities go. They are part of him, not an add-on.