Mortgage and maintenance

I had my final hearing in Ancillary Relief on 12 April. Ex lives in marital home, I am renting and living with two children (non dependents).

The Judge ordered that the marital home be sold, with us each to receive 50% of the proceeds. Judge also ordered that ex to pay £900 maintenance backdated to 1 August 2011, payable until the house is sold. Any arrears of this would be deducted from his share of the proceeds.

I have received a letter from the ex this morning stating that he has sought legal advice and is going to start paying the £900 per month to me. However, apparently he has also been advised to stop paying the mortgage and that I now pay it as I now have the greater ability to pay! This was not why that order was made. The £900 per month is supposed to be for me to be able to live some sort of life.

I feel like this is nothing more than blackmail. There is an Order for Possession hanging over the property due to his lack of paying the mortgage for about six months as he spent his money on exotic holidays.

My question is: can he do this???

Sorry, but it''s almost impossible to advise without more information.

1. Is the property in joint names ?
2. Who lives there ? Does he ?

You see, if the property is in joint names, both of you are equally liable to make the payments as far as the lender is concerned and whatever the judge ordered will not alter that.

Without the full facts I can''t advise but it looks to me as though

(a) the payments must be made until sale and
(b) one or other of you , or both, have to continue to pay them
(c) the fact that the payments are to end upon sale suggests to me that it was to be a temporary arrangement to keep the payments going while the property remains unsold
(d) on the face of it if you get half the equity it is not, on the face of it, all that unreasonable that you, as a joint owner, should make half the payments.

Or have I got this wrong ?

LMM

Thanks for your reply. To make things clearer:

The property is in joint names and he lives there, I live in rented accommodation.

There was an Order for Maintenance Pending Suit made for £900 per month made on 25th July 2011, to commence on 1 August 2011 which he never paid. That is why the judge ordered that he should start paying it or it will come out of his share of the house proceeds.

The judge did comment that as the mortgage is in joint names we are ultimately jointly and severally liable for payments, however, as I am paying rent, it is not possible for me to pay the mortgage.

It''s not easy without seeing the actual terms of the order. I want to try and work out what was in the judge''s mind.

If he lives in the FMH, and you don''t, it is certainly arguable that he should pay the whole mortgage as between the two of you.

But wouldn''t it have been just as easy to make an order to the effect that he had to pay the whole mortgage ?

Is it possible to send me a PM with the terms of the order ? I don''t need names or addresses, just the wording.

LMM

Yep. I can do that. I don''t think he''s taken legal advice. I just think he''s been sitting and thinking how he can get out of paying me anything.