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My husband has a Court Order which states that he pays maintenance to ex wife until his children reach 17 or complete full time education including Advanced Education whichever is the later or further order. Daughter left school last November (they live in New Zealand but emigrated after Order was drawn up) then came to live here with us in January until August this year. She could not settle and didn't find a job so she returned to NZ. Maintenance for her stopped last December. Son is due to finish equivalent A Levels next month and we've been informed that both will be going to Uni in March. She's already consulted her UK solicitor who told her that she couldn't resurrect daughters maintenance and we think she was told that it was ambiguous whether my husband has to pay for their son through Uni so she encouraged the children to ask him for money to support them while they study for their degrees. Husband agreed as he didn't want the risk of her threatening to take him to Court, losing and having both Court costs to pay. They agreed an amount which is around a third of what the maintenance for son is at present. This week she has informed him that as son is intending to complete a degree then follow that with a Masters and Doctorate husband is expected to pay until he completes all 3, a total of 6 years. She's trying to convince my husband she's doing him a favour by agreeing to a smaller amount. Apart from the fact that we don't even know if the kids will benefit from it we're worried that at any time in the future she could ask him for extra money for whatever or ask for the monthly amount to be raised and if he doesn't comply she will take him to Court for Enforcement of original Order. We knew that there was a possibility that he would have to pay through first degree but wonder if this also includes Post Graduate degrees too. Does anyone know what the legal position on this is please?
Hi
Assuming that the order is more than a year old, I would be inclined to ask the CSA to take the case immediately which they can do at the moment. Any CSA assessment takes priority over the court order and CSA maintenance stops when his son leaves school (when his ex stops receiving child benefit), so the court order will no longer be valid. After that, anything he pays to his son is on a voluntary basis when he is at university.
Both children now live in New Zealand therefore we assume the CSA won't be interested. Had we known we could have had them take it over before they emigrated we would have done (the Court Order is dated 2004) and we wouldn't be in the position that the ex could threaten us with Court on a regular basis. So really we still need to know when we can stop paying legally. We don't seem to be getting a straight answer anywhere and I'm guessing we are going to have to consult a Solicitor to clarify the position.
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