Imagine going through a divorce but agreeing to keep the house for the sake of your children. If you moved out and your ex-wife moved her boyfriend in, would you be willing to pay him to do repairs around the house you co-own with your ex, or would you think he should do repairs for free since he lives there?

The man in this story is facing this exact situation, and he doesn’t want to pay his ex’s boyfriend a dime.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITAH for refusing to pay my ex-wife’s live-in boyfriend for labor hours for smaller repairs in the house?

We’re nearly four-years separated/divorced at this point. I have hard-fought 50/50 custody with our two children.

Her boyfriend moved in with her last year. He’s fine, and the kids like him OK, so we’re cool, generally speaking.

Worth noting: he’s a skilled laborer with a currently-expired license to operate as a professional contractor in our state (he says he used to run a contractor business before changing to a different unrelated field).

Here are more details about the situation with the house.

The legal agreement between me and the ex-wife is that I will help with any major maintenance or repairs totaling over $500 on the house until we sell it. This is an extension of the legal arrangement we made where I agreed to co-own the house with her until our youngest child graduates high school (several years away).

This was to help the kids not lose their childhood home since their mom would need to start working from scratch (I won’t go into our complicated past with her refusing to finish college or go back to work for many years despite my wishes, and how she’s used that to weaponize her relatively lower wages against me with support payments and yadda yadda).

The crux of my problem is: she’s trying to charge me for the labor her boyfriend has been providing during the time he has been living with her.

He doesn’t think he should have to pay the boyfriend’s labor fee.

I cannot overstate here: these are all things that HE USES on a DAILY BASIS because, you know, HE LIVES THERE.

The parts all totaled well under $500, which obviously means I’m not legally responsible to help.

However she’s trying to charge “us” for his hours of labor as well so it pushes the total over $500 and forces me to pay.

I don’t think I need to point out how crap this looks to me, because she obviously doesn’t have to pay her boyfriend for his labor.

They’re still trying to insist “I” need to pay him for this, and he’s even informed me that he knows his legal right to put a lien on the house if he’s not paid for his work (he claims to have a paralegal in the family).

He’s pretty bitter at his ex about this situation.

AITAH for thinking I shouldn’t be paying for anything my ex-wife isn’t paying for?

She’s made it clear from the beginning of the divorce that she’s bitter and wants me to suffer post-marriage; she’s tried to take the children from me twice (getting slapped on the wrist in court both times by the judge), and she’s tried to get every possible penny from me she can in support payments and whatnot.

You could make the argument that I “should” be more willing to help considering I make more income than both of them combined.

But I argue that the tens of thousands of dollars of legal debt she’s forced on me for her (failed) attempts at taking the children away has not only forced me into living paycheck-to-paycheck despite being a senior-level working professional, she’s also burned all goodwill I could possibly have toward her, never mind my having to “start over” post-separation since I left most of our possessions, including the house, WITH HER.

He does not understand his ex’s thinking.

And again, I want this to be perfectly clear: I HAVE 50/50 CUSTODY OF THE KIDS (and I fought my butt off to get it, and am literally paying a hefty financial price for it).

Shouldn’t she be trying NOT to screw over the father of her children?????

PLEASE tell me if I’m wrong and why. Make it make sense…

I don’t think he’s wrong. They’re just trying to get more money out of him.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Here’s a good suggestion.

Another person shares how they would respond.

They’re just trying to manipulate him.

Another person suggests a threat.

They have a lot of nerve!

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.