Is paying mortgage a substitute for Child Support?

My stbx left the FMH about two years ago, we have three children and I am now out of work. Since then, instead of paying child maintenance he has been paying the mortgage (approx £1k)...I agreed to this and have gone along with it. My question is, could I apply to the CSA for maintenance and (approx £900) ask/expect/should stbx to pay half the mortgage as well?

You dont ask pooter you dont know...and you certainly dont get.

hello Pooter
I had to take my stbx to court for money, he is quite a high earner, we did an income and expenditure form which turned out that he had to pay mort in full and maitainance, this will chhange when Absolute goes thru, but so far I have managed to keep these payments for a year. He was also ordered to pay my costs.
Do you have a solicitor? and have you done financial disclosure?
xx

Am in the same situation, x paying mortgage and not child maintenance. My solicitor told my that he had to pay Child Maintenance as well. He has not paid for the kids for nearly 3 years now, am still trying to divorce him, he is the one holding everything up.

my sol advised that he had to pay half the mort and 15% of his net pay for CM. She pushed for 50% of builings, contents,emergency insurance. and a % of essential bills. oh! and I worked out how much I spend on the house each year ie: boiler maitenance, tree surgeon (we have a really tall hedge) man to mow the lawn (don't ask!) and presented it in court.
The judge advised that I hadn't taken the mickey and granted it. SHIMPLES!
Don't I make it sound easy??? well it really wasn't and lovely wiki encouraged me to take it to court.
you gotta weigh it all up, they also look at him and his out goings, so you gotta weigh up the whole great big picture.
xx

He could stop paying the mortgage however the mortgage company will chase both you and him if the mortgage goes into arrears. There is an argument that says the one staying in the FMH should pay the full mortgage in lieu of rent for the half of the property owned by the one who has left.
In any circumstances he should be paying child maintenance, if the child maintenance alone won't cover mortgage payments you will need to apply for spousal maintenance. It would appear you would be better off sticking to your agreement accepting the mortgage payments ( £1k/mth) instead of applying to the CSA for Child maintenance (£900/mth).

My situation is slightly different in that me and the children moved out into rented house. My rent is £750 a month that ive paid somehow on my own while the mortgage on FMH is only £200 a month. Should he be paying some of my rent? He has barely paid us anything in the 9 months since we left, certain;y not a regular amount. Have just filed the Petition, if I go for maintenance pending will they order him to help us more.