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HI i am looking for help me and my ex of 9 years split up around a year ago and she moved away from where we lived with my 3 year old son to be with her family (Around 250 miles away), Now i have moved even further away so travel costs and time with child are being affected what are my legal rights and what is my ex partners legal obligations?
Hi there 🙂
If theres no Contact Order issued by the court then you have no legal rights as far as the location of your ex and child or the problems associated with that. The only legal rights you have are to be kept informed of such things as education and medical treatment/health issues and to be updated about the childs progress.
You are however obliged to support the child financially unless you are unemployed, a full time student or on a low income. If you receive benefits you would be liable for a flat rate payment of £5pw.
I'll add that the parent with care (ie your ex) may not have an legal obligation to any particular contact timetable, there is an expectation by the courts that she will facilitate contact. However, that is most likely to be expected that you do the travelling. It's best if you can come to an agreement on holidays etc as with this distance, it's more sensible to do this if possible, plus some weekend visits. Any cost incurred in maintaining contact (about 15 per week) may be taken into account in the maintenance calculation used by the CSA.
So what would the best thing to do as i feel that she is not willing to meet half way with costs or distance?
As actd says try and reach an agreement with her....work out when you can get there, for instance weekends, and how often, say once a month or whatever you can manage. Think about when you have holidays and try and arrange a block of time for then.
If you pay maintenance through the CSA and your costs are over £15 then you can get the amount you pay reduced. Theres a sticky at the top of the Finance section called "How does the CSA calculate payments". This has useful information about this.
if you write to her and she ignores you then you can try Mediation or even court to get a Contact Order, but as you are so far away you have to be clear what you are asking for before starting down that road.
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