Non-custodial parent & Equity?

Globular
Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:46:00 +0000

Hey, so I’m applying to top schools that meet full need (bowdoin brown etc.)

I live with my disabled single mom on child support and disability from my father, around 14k per year but no actual income. My non-custodial father makes 66k per year and that leaves a 5k EFC. He, however, is remarried. My step-mom has no income, and lives pretty much off what my father makes as well. However, she owns a home. The home is completely in her name, my father has NO claim to that house. She will not let him, for fear of my mom trying to pursue the home if he were to die. I do not know what the equity on her home is, but I know that it is about a 500 thousand dollar home and that they are still paying for it.

My father pays on the mortgage of that house even though he does not own it. Technically that means he rents it from her?Because he is not a home owner. I’m confused as to how top colleges will look at the equity of a non-custodial step-parent.

I’m not in contact with my father and have not seen/talked to him in 6 years, so I have no way of figuring out the equity of that home. I only know from recent court cases between him and my mother that my step mom’s home is not owned jointly with my father but that he pays on it.

It isn’t my father’s asset, it’s his wife’s. Obviously my mom doesn’t own a home, we live in government housing. My father is 60 and close to retirement, I believe.

I’ve read about that different colleges look at equity differently, but that was for custodial parents/ not non-custodial step parents