Q. My husband and I have worked hard during our marriage and invested our savings in two-and three-family homes.  We have been fortunate enough to rent the units out in levels so the properties pay for themselves.

My husband just got a job on the West Coast and left us. Now I am raising our six children alone while trying to work to support us all. I want to move my parents into our first-floor unit so they can help with the kids. He wants them to pay market rent. I think they should live there rent-free in exchange for all the childcare they are providing. Can I move them in over his objection rent-free?

Also, we own eight properties including the house we live in.  We always planned to give a house to each child when they finish college as a graduation gift so they would have a place to live and a stream of income to get started in life. He now wants to divide the properties with each of us keeping four. I don’t agree. Will a judge make him stick with our plan?

A. First, understand you do not have to support your children on your own. Your husband will be obligated to pay child support and possibly alimony depending on his income. If he asks for a reduction in his child support on account of the travel expenses he will incur to see your children, remind the judge he choose to leave the family behind and take a job on the other side of the country.

Move your parents in rent free anyway. If he brings the issue to court, argue is only entitled to half of the market rent – the other half is yours. Figure out how much it would cost you to hire a nanny to assist in your home with six children while you work. Depending on your children’s schedules and ages, a driver may also be needed to get them places so factor that in.  I suspect the cost for the help hired will be at least as much as the rent for the unit your parents will occupy.

Finally, the judge cannot require you to divide your marital estate between you, your husband and your children – that is just not what the law provides for. The division will be between you and your husband at which point you will each have the right to decide what to do with the properties you each retain.

Email questions to whickey@brickjones.com