Hi all,
I was looking for some advice from those that have potentially already been through the following:
I have a court order in place at the moment so that I can see my child on specific days (also covers a few other bits that are not relevant). This is currently 1 day throughout the week and then alternate the Friday/Sat/Sun nights every week. School holidays are also halved where necessary and Christmas is worked out between ourselves.
I would like to now amend my court order to increase my days so that I have my child equally (half of 365 days per year). I was thinking of adding one extra day through the weekday per week - taking my days (including holidays) to easily over half of 365 days which is fine.
Q: Would I have to go back to court to fight this and get my court order amended?
Q: Should I mention my intention to my ex partner before going down the court route?
Q: If I managed to get the change through court or out of court with an agreement from my ex partner, would I still need to pay child maintenance?
Q: If the answer is NO to the above question about paying maintenance, how would I go about letting CMS know about this? I assume that they would require some sort of evidence.
Thanks
You have to apply to vary the order you can do that a year after the initial order was granted .
Child maintainxe they work our on how many nights the kids stay with you so if you have them more nights you pay the mum less pretty much ..
Assuming you pay via cms rather than an anount agreed by yourselves and put into a financial remedy order
Thanks Citydad!
In regards to the CMS part, I have seen posts on the Internet where CMS say that 'Nil' is due when it becomes equal shared care hence the reason for not wanting to go off of what the calculator says.
I would assume that given you both have the equal amount of care for the child, if you can prove that then I don't understand why I would still need to make payments to my ex.
hi wizkid,
whenever i spoke to CMS about number of nights and maintenance, they asked me if have a court order that states how often kids stay with me. once i posted a copy to them, they sorted things out without any hassle. so i would say its better for you to return to court to vary your order. but getting 50/50 is not guaranteed and you would have to accept whatever the judges order, if you and ex can not on agree on 50/50 at court. it could be something you don't like, then you just have to stick with the court order.
Thanks Bill,
I assume when you say that they sorted it out, you mean you no longer had to pay maintenance anymore?
I don't mind returning to court, just wish I had done it the first time round I took her to court so I didn't have to pay again but heyho!
Do you think it is worth reaching out to my ex and running the thought by her to get a feel of how I think she will take it.
Thanks Bill,
I assume when you say that they sorted it out, you mean you no longer had to pay maintenance anymore?
I don't mind returning to court, just wish I had done it the first time round I took her to court so I didn't have to pay again but heyho!
Do you think it is worth reaching out to my ex and running the thought by her to get a feel of how I think she will take it.
no. i never had 50/50. CMS just reduced my payments a bit after reading how many nights the kids stay with me. yes you could try reason with your ex and try come to your own agreement without going to court. courts would like you to attempt making agreements before it ends up in court.
Gotcha!
I think in my case, even with a formal agreement between myself and ex, CMS would still stand by the court order over anything I would think so maybe if I got her to agree to it and told her I would have to take it back to court, that might work.
Thank you.
Hi all,
I was looking for some advice from those that have potentially already been through the following:
I have a court order in place at the moment so that I can see my child on specific days (also covers a few other bits that are not relevant). This is currently 1 day throughout the week and then alternate the Friday/Sat/Sun nights every week. School holidays are also halved where necessary and Christmas is worked out between ourselves.
I would like to now amend my court order to increase my days so that I have my child equally (half of 365 days per year). I was thinking of adding one extra day through the weekday per week - taking my days (including holidays) to easily over half of 365 days which is fine.
Q: Would I have to go back to court to fight this and get my court order amended?
Q: Should I mention my intention to my ex partner before going down the court route?
Q: If I managed to get the change through court or out of court with an agreement from my ex partner, would I still need to pay child maintenance?
Q: If the answer is NO to the above question about paying maintenance, how would I go about letting CMS know about this? I assume that they would require some sort of evidence.
Thanks
Answers to your Qs
1) Yes you would have to go back to court if you cannot agree.
2) Yes she might agree and you need to attempt mediation prior to going to court in any case
3) You may need to pay child maintenance even with 50:50 shared care. If your ex is receiving child benefit and refuses to agree with an assessment of equal day to day care the CMS may side with her and you will need to take them to tribunal, even if you provide them with a court order. This is because equal day to day care may differ from equal overnight care.
4) Regardless of the answer above, if you get a 50:50 shared care order you will want to submit the order to the CMS along with a statement that you now have equal day to day care of your child, that there is now no resident parent and that you believe zero maintenance is payable. The CMS will evaluate your submission and notify you of their decision in writing.
Thanks for providing your input Spikey.
Looks like a long road ahead again if I go back down this rabbit hole.
My ex is in receipt of some benefits but also works too. I earn too much to get any type of benefit so I wouldn't be able to get them. I have no doubt if CMS asked her to take part in any type of assessment she would refuse (especially if she knew that there is a potential to lose the money she gets from me).
Quick Update: I put forward my recommendation to my ex - this was to increase my days to equal care (in fact I would have my child more) however she has said that she wants to keep it the same.
This is frustrating because she doesn't even really look after my child, she is always letting my child sleep out or someone is always looking after my child because my ex is out.
I've already been down the custody battle the first time I went to court and because there was no significant harm to my child they recommended that my ex still keeps the main care which was fine but I'm not having her dictate when I can have my child and how much.
With that being said, it looks like I'm going to have to start the court process AGAIN!
In my experience and many others on here I think, the RP has no desire to offer equal shared care where no maintenance is due - why would they? (unless the were very decent and thinking of the child).
So I expect she see's your request as being one where you do not want to pay CM and she gets nothing. So I think not a surprise she rejected.....
Exactly right! Thanks