roomate rental income?

[luvmyjob]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

I looked but could not find this question answered in other posts so maybe it's not as common as I thought.

Can income received from roomates to help pay rent be considered in child support calculations? What about an NCP's parents paying the rent?

NCP is trying to lower child support to where he believes I should pay him child support. This man only works part time now, can play golf 3-4 times a month and can even go on ski trips out of state. He has a 20% share of visitation but only uses 11%. I make about $1000.00 more a month then he does but I am remarried to a spouse that has a job....we are not much above the poverty level in taxable income....I am paid a month behind and NCP's attorney is claiming that my paycheck in February shows I make double what I claimed not stating to the court that the "year to date' was for 2 months pay (December pay was received in January, January pay received in February, etc.) No where on his I & E did NCP claim that his parents pay his rent and the roomates send their checks to the parents. NCP and his parents are on the rental agreement. He also states a much lower rent then what is written on the agreement. Can any of that be used as income for child support calculations? As it stands this man is asking the court for me to pay him $50.00 a month and for his travel expenses for visitation (he claims $100.00 a month...costs me about $25.00 in gas a month to travel the same amount of distance for pick up) as well as $5000 in attorney fees to pay for his OSC to modify child support.....is he nuts or am I going to be stuck?

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

I looked but could not find this question answered in other posts so maybe it's not as common as I thought.

Can income received from roomates to help pay rent be considered in child support calculations? What about an NCP's parents paying the rent?

NCP is trying to lower child support to where he believes I should pay him child support. This man only works part time now, can play golf 3-4 times a month and can even go on ski trips out of state. He has a 20% share of visitation but only uses 11%. I make about $1000.00 more a month then he does but I am remarried to a spouse that has a job....we are not much above the poverty level in taxable income....I am paid a month behind and NCP's attorney is claiming that my paycheck in February shows I make double what I claimed not stating to the court that the "year to date' was for 2 months pay (December pay was received in January, January pay received in February, etc.) No where on his I & E did NCP claim that his parents pay his rent and the roomates send their checks to the parents. NCP and his parents are on the rental agreement. He also states a much lower rent then what is written on the agreement. Can any of that be used as income for child support calculations? As it stands this man is asking the court for me to pay him $50.00 a month and for his travel expenses for visitation (he claims $100.00 a month...costs me about $25.00 in gas a month to travel the same amount of distance for pick up) as well as $5000 in attorney fees to pay for his OSC to modify child support.....is he nuts or am I going to be stuck?

I personally think that he is nuts...at least about the legal fees and the travel expenses. You should ask that he be imputed an income commesurate with his ability to earn a wage.

 

[birdbrain53]

Ask the court to impute income to him based on his ability to work 40 hours. And you should run a child support calculator with imputed income, not actual income since he is a part time worker.

Each party should bring copies of their last 3 months of paycheck stubs and tax returns (black out ssn's and other sensitive information like your husband's information). Be sure to ask the judge that the financial information is not placed in the file, but returned to you. Your file is available to the public.

Request a copy of the rental agreement to prove what his rent is and let the court know that he has roommates to help pay the rent.

Ask for each parent to be equally responsible for unreimbursed medical and dental expenses.

Deny his request for attorney's fees. With his part time income within $1000 of your full time work, he most likely will not get attorney fees. Ask that each party pay their own attorney costs.

Right now you are both meeting halfway? If the NCP moved away from you, you can request that he bear the cost of transportation. If not you can request that the status quo (the arrangement you have now) be upheld.

You can download blank pleading paper from the internet (google California pleading paper - the Sacramento County one can be modified) and use that for your response. A good format is to have an introduction (who you are), next section is what you are responding to and respond to every one of the laywer's points (requests), the next section for what *you* are requesting and a conclusion.

Then you need to make three copies. One for the court, one for you and one for his attorney. You will mail the the copy for your ex to his attorney. You will file one with the court. Get the copies stamped by the clerk at the courthouse along with the form for proof of service.

Don't talk to the ex about the court case. He has an attorney to be his mouthpiece. If attorney sends you demands or letters, respond in writing, keep a copy for yourself. Use non-emotional objective sentences.

Hope this helps

 

[nextwife]

Are the travel expenses due to a distant move whereby you created a distance?

If his parents are legally the party co leasing the unit, and the roomate rent is paid to them to offset other costs they cover, it may be hard to argue the money is availailable to the NCP to use.

And yes, he should be imputed a full time income, as should any other voluntarilly underemployed parent.

 

[LdiJ]

Are the travel expenses due to a distant move whereby you created a distance?

If his parents are legally the party co leasing the unit, and the roomate rent is paid to them to offset other costs they cover, it may be hard to argue the money is availailable to the NCP to use.

And yes, he should be imputed a full time income, as should any other voluntarilly underemployed parent.

Since she stated that it costs her 25.00 a month to drive the same distance for pickups, its more than a little unlikely that its long distance.

 

[nextwife]

Since she stated that it costs her 25.00 a month to drive the same distance for pickups, its more than a little unlikely that its long distance.

I have no way to know if she drives a Prius and gets good gas mileage!

 

[LdiJ]

I have no way to know if she drives a Prius and gets good gas mileage!

Even with a Prius, 25.oo isn't gong to handle a month's worth of long distance visitation.

 

[mistoffolees]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

I looked but could not find this question answered in other posts so maybe it's not as common as I thought.

Can income received from roomates to help pay rent be considered in child support calculations? What about an NCP's parents paying the rent?

NCP is trying to lower child support to where he believes I should pay him child support. This man only works part time now, can play golf 3-4 times a month and can even go on ski trips out of state. He has a 20% share of visitation but only uses 11%. I make about $1000.00 more a month then he does but I am remarried to a spouse that has a job....we are not much above the poverty level in taxable income....I am paid a month behind and NCP's attorney is claiming that my paycheck in February shows I make double what I claimed not stating to the court that the "year to date' was for 2 months pay (December pay was received in January, January pay received in February, etc.) No where on his I & E did NCP claim that his parents pay his rent and the roomates send their checks to the parents. NCP and his parents are on the rental agreement. He also states a much lower rent then what is written on the agreement. Can any of that be used as income for child support calculations? As it stands this man is asking the court for me to pay him $50.00 a month and for his travel expenses for visitation (he claims $100.00 a month...costs me about $25.00 in gas a month to travel the same amount of distance for pick up) as well as $5000 in attorney fees to pay for his OSC to modify child support.....is he nuts or am I going to be stuck?

Rent - if they're simply paying a portion of the rent that he has to pay someone else, I would consider it to be reimbursement rather than income. That is, his expenses would be reduced by that amount rather than his income increased by that amount. In most states, his living expenses don't impact CS, so a rent reimbursement would have no impact.

Travel costs. Unfortunately, travel costs are not the entire cost to travel. You have wear and tear on your car, insurance, depreciation, etc. You can, however, ask the court to order him to provide expenses. If the gas cost is $25, the total cost could easily be $50 (my car eats tires like crazy and the tire cost alone would probably add that much). Plus, his car may be less efficient than yours. If you're lucky and have a cooperative judge, you might get an order to reimburse only out of pocket expenses, but the difference between $25 a month and $50 a month is probably not worth fighting over.

Attorney's fees. Could go either way - some judges award attorney's fees and others don't. A lot of them only award fees if one party is largely at fault for the extra expense (filing frivolous claims, dragging the process out, etc). In addition, many judges will look at what's reasonable. $5 K to modify child support is pretty high - especially since it can be handled through the state administratively for nothing in many states.

You also got some good advice from the other posters - on asking him to pay travel costs and so on.

 

[luvmyjob]

Thank you!

The distance is about 70 miles one way. I have small SUV and he has a Honda 2 door civic hatchback. NCP only comes twice a month. I do have a copy of the rental agreement which shows rent to be $1500.00 a month. NCP's I & E states it is only $1000.00. We do currently have a child support order. It was handled through the State's enforcement division and at the main courthouse that handles most cases in my area. The judge already imputed his income. That was not quite 2 years ago. There is a wage garnishment in place now.

There has not been any change in circumstance that I can see with the exception that the court ordered him to place our child is on his medical insurance as it was so much cheaper then what I could do with my employer. (Previous order stated he had to do that but he refused until the court intervened). My current husband is now working but was unemployed when I requested child support so his income is higher. Will that matter and is that a change in circumstance?

The minor child is also going to be 18 in 8 months...this just all seems so silly to me. I now have to respond to "Discovery" paperwork that is asking for ALL my financial stuff over the past 4 years....all bank statements, all credit cards, all cancelled checks...oh my goodness...it just seems like it is not necessary to go back that far...When child support was ordered less then 2 years ago that agency had what they needed to determine child support at that time...why do I now need to go back even farther? I even have to pay the bank for any statement over 18 months and I really don't have any extra funds at the moment. I am just not sure how something like that can be required to go so far back. Our final judgement for custody, etc. was done after the date he is requesting. Is this normal?

 

[mistoffolees]

The distance is about 70 miles one way. I have small SUV and he has a Honda 2 door civic hatchback. NCP only comes twice a month. I do have a copy of the rental agreement which shows rent to be $1500.00 a month. NCP's I & E states it is only $1000.00. We do currently have a child support order. It was handled through the State's enforcement division and at the main courthouse that handles most cases in my area. The judge already imputed his income. That was not quite 2 years ago. There is a wage garnishment in place now.

There has not been any change in circumstance that I can see with the exception that the court ordered him to place our child is on his medical insurance as it was so much cheaper then what I could do with my employer. (Previous order stated he had to do that but he refused until the court intervened). My current husband is now working but was unemployed when I requested child support so his income is higher. Will that matter and is that a change in circumstance?

The minor child is also going to be 18 in 8 months...this just all seems so silly to me. I now have to respond to "Discovery" paperwork that is asking for ALL my financial stuff over the past 4 years....all bank statements, all credit cards, all cancelled checks...oh my goodness...it just seems like it is not necessary to go back that far...When child support was ordered less then 2 years ago that agency had what they needed to determine child support at that time...why do I now need to go back even farther? I even have to pay the bank for any statement over 18 months and I really don't have any extra funds at the moment. I am just not sure how something like that can be required to go so far back. Our final judgement for custody, etc. was done after the date he is requesting. Is this normal?

No, but if you don't object, he can get away with it.

You are free to object to something that is unnecessarily burdensome and/or irrelevant. It may be too late now.

 

[luvmyjob]

not due yet...

The documents are not due yet...I have 2 weeks to get them together for 'inspection". How do I object? Just say that for each request? I don't mind giving the 18 months worth of statements and the actual utility bills for the past 18 months, etc. but anything past that has to be ordered, paid for in some cases, etc. I was just trying to look to see if there are any statutes or anything in California about how far back discovery can go for child support modification but I cannot find anything. All the money this man's parents are paying to this attorney costs more then the 8 months of child support that is left...it seems ludicrous to me!

 

[mistoffolees]

The documents are not due yet...I have 2 weeks to get them together for 'inspection". How do I object? Just say that for each request? I don't mind giving the 18 months worth of statements and the actual utility bills for the past 18 months, etc. but anything past that has to be ordered, paid for in some cases, etc. I was just trying to look to see if there are any statutes or anything in California about how far back discovery can go for child support modification but I cannot find anything. All the money this man's parents are paying to this attorney costs more then the 8 months of child support that is left...it seems ludicrous to me!

Then you write in your response that you are providing 18 months and that more than that is unduly burdensome and will not produce anything significantly different than the information you're providing (if that's true). When you get to court, the judge will either accept that or reject it.

 

[luvmyjob]

Thank you...

I am working on everything now and really appreciate everyones help! I don't really get why this man does what he does...he used to be a really good man. I never would have pictured this...

 

[mistoffolees]

I do have a copy of the rental agreement which shows rent to be $1500.00 a month. NCP's I & E states it is only $1000.00.

BTW, it sounds like he's doing what I suggested (assuming that he's getting $500 a month from his roommates). The rent he receives from them reduces his rent expense rather than becoming income.

 

[luvmyjob]

CSE sent me something....

Ok now I am confused. The State Enforcement Agency enforces the support order (California) but NCP filed and OSC in his local court (where we used to live and divorce proceedings took place) and it is set to be heard on the same day as a medical insurance issue. I just got something from the CSE stating that there have been no changes in circumstance so no increase is granted. Does that mean it won't be heard in the other court case? Do I still have to mmmbe there with all my 'Discovery" documents?