Housing situation and other issues

North Carolina Divorce Law Divorce and Separation Answers
1

I have been separated for 6mos., we have 4 children. When he and I split we had a verbal agreement for him to pay 1000 a month for child support and 500 a month to buy me out of our small business. He refused to sign a separation agreement and I did not have the money to go through a lawyer. As the months have gone bye he has paid less and less, this month he has paid nothing. He has run the business into the ground, he now says it is worth nothing and has taken a job part time for 10 an hour. He has told me he shouldn’t have to pay anything for the kids, I left and I have to deal with it. I have now started the child support process through social services but his income has gone from 6000 a month to about 1500 because “I only have myself I need to support, why should I work more”, so I assume I will get an insignificant amount through SS. Hindsight being 20/20 there are a lot of decisions I could have made differently to make my situation better but now don’t know what to do. My questions are:

  1. I will be evicted soon w/ 4 children unless he comes up with some money to help. I don’t expect it. I am seeing someone now that I have known for years, the kids love him and things are great. He has offered to let us move in with him because of this situation. Because we are still married, can my ex come back at me for moving in with another man?

  2. Are there any resources to help me with other financial situations. I can’t afford a lawyer. He ran the business into the ground specifically to not have to pay me. He has one contract remaining which is worth about $2500 a month gross, but claims he breaks even with it or even loses money. Before we split he started a new company without me knowing and got this contract under it. I am starting my own company in the same field (commercial cleaning) but he has burned too many bridges, and bad mouthed me to much, for me to pick up the contracts he has thrown away. I have a million financial questions about the business but those can wait for another post, my main concern is do I have any recourse with no money to hire a lawyer, and is this 2nd business with the one contract still half mine under marital assets.

Thank you for your time and any responses

2

I would immediately suggest you file for post-separation support, alimony, child custody and child support. It sounds like your ex is initially suppressing his income in bad faith, therefore the court can impute income to him at the higher ($6000) rate that he should be earning but for his bad faith effort to avoid support. Yes, the business which he has started sounds like it’s marital since it was started before the separation. Living with the new boyfriend could negatively impact your claim for alimony. Your ex could try to use evidence of this now post-separation relationship to bolster any other evidence he may have that your relationship was going on while still married. If he can convince a judge that you committed adultery, he will not have to pay you any alimony. Even if the relationship is entirely post-separation, you are still legally married, and it is better for you to not live with this person until you have worked out these support issues and/or are divorced. It could hurt you potentially in custody too, especially if your ex is able to use something against the new boyfriend to show that this new household is not in the best interests of the children.

You do not need to have an attorney to file the above actions, though it would certainly help, even if all you could afford is an initial consultation to create a plan of action in your case. You might also benefit from the Rosen Online service. We have a library of forms which you can use. Rosen Divorce Online is a service that provides you with unlimited access to an attorney along with all of the forms you’ll need to get your problem solved. There is a fee for the program, but you’ll get the specific answers you need to move forward and get your legal issues resolved.

I wish we could devote more resources to this forum to answer specific questions such as yours, however, that’s not something we’re able to do in every instance. The Online service is exactly what you need and it’s offered at a reasonable cost. I hope you’ll take a look at it and see if it might be useful to you.

Information about Online service is available at Do It Yourself North Carolina Divorce.

Good luck.