Mortgage Payments Acting as Child Support
It was recently ruled in the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta case GCG v GLG, 2021 ABQB 36, that full mortgage payments made by a parent for a matrimonial home in which the ex-partner was living in and 50% responsible for, saw the payor of those mortgage payments receiving credit towards child support owed.
In GCG v GLG both parties were joint owners of the matrimonial home, and upon separation were both responsible for paying half the mortgage obligations. However, while the mother remained in the matrimonial home, throughout the year of 2017 and a large portion of 2018, the father paid the full mortgage amounts including the mother’s half share which totalled $25,610.51. It was argued by the mother that these payments were separate and removed from the topic of child support that was owed to her.
However, the Justice in this case did not agree with this position and ruled that such payments, even if viewed as an indirect payment towards child support, can still be given credit. The 50% portion of the mortgage that the father was paying, was in fact the financial responsibility of the mother, and therefore these payments made by the father represented a benefit to her.
The Justice explains that:
[61] The mother argued that child support is one thing and mortgage payments another i.e. effectively that such payments cannot, or should not, be treated as clearing child-support obligations.
[62] The mother is off-target here: in principle, nothing bars the payment of support obligations in indirect fashion: see, for example, A.D. c. A.D., 2018 NBCA 83 (N.B. C.A.) at paras 49-55; Senchuk v. Senchuk, 2016 SKCA 167 (Sask. C.A.) at paras 16-20 and LL v. DB, 2018 ABQB 886 (Alta. Q.B.) at paras 31-33 and 55-63.
The cases cited above by the Justice represent similar rulings made in other provinces being New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and an earlier case from Alberta in 2018. Collectively, these cases represent decisions where it was ruled that financial contributions made in a variety of forms, including mortgage payments, were to the benefit of the other parents in those cases. Therefore, those financial contributions were ruled as being credits to any child support that was owing.
In summary, mortgage payments made by a parent with a child support obligation, where some portions of those mortgage payments were the responsibility of the other parent, will result in credit being placed towards child support owed.