Mortgage Deviation As An Expense

Leslie Spoltore of our Wilmington office discusses how the court upheld the reduction of a father's support obligation by considering the mortgage expense related to the marital residence. The expense were directly to the needs of the children (i.e. "shelter") and it resulted in cancelling out the father's child support obligation completely.

The mortgage deviation in Pennsylvania is found at Rule 1910.16-6(e) and allows for the party residing in the residence to seek a deviation (either upward or downward depending on who has the support obligation) in the support amount regardless of who is the support paying party. This deviation is available at the discretion of the court and different counties have different ways to deal with it beyond just the math - some counties are less inclined to award