<p>Let's say my father is my custodial parent.</p>
<p>My mother, the noncustodial, owns a home and rents out part of it to my father.</p>
<p>They were never married.</p>
<p>Does this mean they are never married - living together, or never married - living separately?</p>
<p>
Since they are not married, you only report your custodial parent’s info on the FSFSA.</p>
<p>Who is your custodial parent?</p>
<p>It depends whether your mom rents out the part of the home that you live to your dad or not?</p>
<p>Yes, you lives with your dad and he is your custodial parent.</p>
<p>No, you lives with your mom and she is your custodial parent.</p>
<p>If it is more advantageous to claim one over the other as custodial parent, make your arrangements so that you have lived with that parent more than the other. In some states, it could make a decent difference. Unless one is PELL eligible or unless you are in the position to get a lot of aid from a school that does not consider non custodial financial, iit may not make much difference at all. </p>
<p>My friend makes a very good income and has significant assets. Her oldest is looking at colleges now. The dad makes very little money, lives with his parents and barely gets by and has no significant assets. By making sure the college bound son spends more than half his time with dad, he might be Pell eligible, be able to get some TAP (state money) and any Stafford loans would be Subsidized. Since the student is looking primarily at SUNY schools, they will look at FAFSA only and he might get some aid there too. For most schools that use PROFILE as well, his mother’s financials will come into play and at that income/asset level he won’t get much.</p>
<p>My dad is my custodial parent. But, as some have said, I don’t think it will really matter due to most colleges wanting NCPs as well.</p>
<p>Actually MOST colleges do NOT use the NCP information. MOST colleges use only the FAFSA which lists ONLY the custodial parent info.</p>
<p>Not all colleges using the PROFILE require the NCP information.</p>
<p>This does not mean your aid will be huge as MOST colleges do not meet full need for all accepted students.</p>
<p>I think it would be how the house is set up. Is this a one family house or a two family house? If you are all living together in one house and your dad just pays “rent” I would call that living together. If this is a two family house and Dad is living totally separate - I would say living apart.</p>
<p>Are your parents living in the same household? It sounds like your mom is renting out part of her home to your dad.</p>
<p>If that’s true, then do you really have a custodial parent? What decided who was custodial parent???</p>
<p>If your mom lives elsewhere, then do you ever live with her?</p>
<p>If most of the colleges that YOU’RE applying to require NCPs, then both will get included.</p>