providing roof over his head??

my partner has been given 'advice' by a work friend who was divorced about 25 yrs ago, things have changed i know...my partner is quite innocent and tends to believe the best of what people say.

we pay csa for his son, the son and ex live in the marital home, she is meant to be paying the £199 interest only payment but is refusing to in the belief she will get housed for cheaper by the council, now whilst we know we cant sell the house over the sons head etc, what my partner has been told by his well meaning work friend is that if she has to pay for private accomodation for instance costing £500-600 a mth that he will have to pay this to provide a roof over the sons head....

the ex works and gets tax credits and with csa gets about £1600 a mth

is csa all he is liable to pay?
if he took over paying the mortgage and got a csa reduction do they reduce it pound for pound or a percentage, they wont say.

many thanks

There is no automatic obligation to provide / pay for a roof over his son's head.

Are they married? If so, the court has to come up with a settlement which is fair to both, but housing the children is normally the single most importnat factor. This doesn't mean he is epected to pay the full amount, just that if (for instance) the only way to acheive this was for her to stay in the house, and for it to be sold and the proceeds split only once son leaves school, then son's need for a home takes precedence over your partners wish to have his share of the money soooner.

He is liable to pay CSA and his ex might potentially have a claim for spousal maintenace, but the figure would be based on his ability to pay and his finacial needs as well as on hers.

If they are not married then although there are court applicaions which can be made, his liability would normally be limited to paying the CSA maintenace.

It may be in his best interests to ask her to agree to the house being sold to avoid arrears building up. If she won't, he may need to consider applying for an order for sale.

RE:CSA my understsnding is tat there is notrmally only a deduction if the paying parent hs no interest in the proeprty - otherwise, paying the mortgage benefits him as well as the child.

hello , i work for the csa and the previous answer is incorrect.
as long as there is no divorce agreement regarding his liablility to pay housing costs then the only thing he would have to pay is child support. the agency no longer considers his ability to pay , that died out years ago under old rules . a new claim to the agency would be under new rules and the caclulation is simply a percentage of his net income.if he did pay towards housing costs of his own volition then he could claim for a variation on his maintenance which could reduce his amount payable but it is not pound for pound. we can now however apply the variation even if he has an interest in the property, this has been a recent change.