Messy divorce and could be homeless

LegacyUser

I am in a very difficult situation. My parents are currently in the process of divorce, my father lives elsewhere and I live in the family home with my mother. My mother is on state benefits and I am in college. My father has a job but doesn't want to pay for the mortgage and wants to sell the house and use the money to pay off the rest of the mortgage. My mother is not in a position to buy him out but would love to. We are trying to find a way that everybody wins, we get to stay in our home which we have lived in for 17 years and the marriage is dissolved.

I know that local authorities are strapped for cash but is there any scheme under which they would buy the house so we could rent or how do we qualify for the shared ownership scheme. The latter would be perfect but I am not sure my mother would qualify due to the fact that she is still married, she is not allowed on the local authority housing list until she is divorced or so she has been told. Anyone have any ideas on what we could do, it looks like we will be homeless before the year is out and are so sick of this hanging over our heads. My mam is getting on in years and I know that all she wants is some place for us to live so I can go to college and finish my studies without having take time out to work to make money so I can support myself. We are not looking for a free ride, just some help. Thank you. I should also mention that the house is an ex-local authority house.

Daisy M

You need to speak to citizens information or a solicitor. Also pay your local social welfare officer a visit they may be able to let you know what your rights to rent allowance if the house is sold. Best of luck.

Beruthiel

You mother will be entitled to free legal aid. She should get in touch with them asap as they tend to have a waiting list.

Sleepy

My mum had to down-size when my parents divorced as she wouldn't have been able to afford the mortgage & upkeep on her own. It's not the end of the world and you'll get through it.

Unless the house was re-mortgaged recently, there should be significant equity in a house you've been living in for 17 years and your mother would be entitled to her share of that so you're not going to end up homeless.

Unfortunately, when a couple separate it's rarely practical for one party to keep the house they shared as living separately (and paying divorce lawyers) is much more expensive.

LegacyUser

My mother already has a solicitor through legal aid as this has been going on for a while.

There is not that much paid of the mortgage, as I said in my post we it is an ex local authority house and it was only bout around 8 years ago.

username123

I had a notion the family home was protected under Irish Law until the youngest child turned 18 (or 22 if in full time education)? Perhaps Im wrong, or its been changed.

This is not really something that can be solved in personal issues, its going to take a deal hammered out by your parents solicitors to resolve it.

LegacyUser

username123 wrote: »

I had a notion the family home was protected under Irish Law until the youngest child turned 18 (or 22 if in full time education)? Perhaps Im wrong, or its been changed.

This is not really something that can be solved in personal issues, its going to take a deal hammered out by your parents solicitors to resolve it.

I know that, but my mam does want to buy the house so I was looking to see if she would be eligible for the shared ownership scheme or something like it.

username123

guest in need of help wrote: »

I know that, but my mam does want to buy the house so I was looking to see if she would be eligible for the shared ownership scheme or something like it.

Ah I get ya now.

I think youd have to speak to someone in the local authority, and maybe speak to a local politician as well (they can be good at getting you to the right person in the local authority).

The real issue is that the local authority would have to buy the house. Im not sure that would happen. What might happen is that they offer shared ownership in a property they already own - which is not what you guys are looking for.

As someone else has advised, speak to citizens information and social welfare as well. Whatever about your mothers eligibility to being on a housing list right now - could you get onto it? Or would you be eligible for rent allowance yourself? This could provide a buffer until your mothers divorce is final.

Id be a little surprised if you and your mother became homeless though, I cant understand that the solicitors would allow that to happen (with the protected family home status etc...)? Id also be surprised that your father would allow that to happen to you at least - is he not still responsible for child maintenance also seeing as you are still in college?

Milk & Honey

username123 wrote: »

I had a notion the family home was protected under Irish Law until the youngest child turned 18 (or 22 if in full time education)? Perhaps Im wrong, or its been changed.

There is no protection as such. There is a practice in the courts of making an order that the family home is to be sold when the youngest child reaches 18 or 22 if in full time education. The judge has a discretion as to whether or not to make such a ruling. Sometimes the house will be sold straight away. The real problem is that if there is an order to sell the house, there may be relatively little equity to share when it is sold. that will leave the o/p and mother depending on renting privately. The mother will effectively be treated as a single woman by the housing authorities if the o/p is no longer a dependant. More than likely the father will be ordered to continue making repayments until the o/p finishes college. After that there is likely to be a court ordered sale with an apportionment of the equity. The only way of avoiding this would be for the o/p to get a job and pay the repayments as well as an additional re-mortgage to buy out the fathers interest.

The_Conductor

OP- there are a few separate issues here-

1. Your future accommodation arrangements
2. You mother's future accommodation arrangements.

Unfortunately- its not a reasonable expectation that these should be the same- the fact that you've lived in the family home for the past 17 years notwithstanding.

Aside from, and separate to, the advice being given to your mother- you need to get advice yourself, on what your entitlements are (and I don't necessarily mean from your father), and if the worse comes to the worse, what accommodation arrangements could be made for you.

I would advise you organise an informal meeting with the local CWO and bounce these sort questions off him/her and see what they say.

LegacyUser

I have gotten onto a member of our local county council who has been helpful to me in the past to see if he can offer any solution. I will also be paying a visit to my CWO with regards to housing if the worst comes, my mother is not entitled to be put on the local authortiy housing list until the divorce is finalised due to my fathers income. I believe I however would be a different story so I will be getting my name on the list, if I can, so it will be there as a backup and hopefully my mother would be allowed to live with me. The only issue is there are no available council houses in my area, so I would assume that RA would be our only option. I can't wait to see the hoops they are going to make me jump through to get on the council list though, my guess would be that is going to be a lot of fun considering when they come to inspect my current home, they will see a fine 4 bed house with only two people living in it.