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I am hoping someone can help me as I am totally stuck and feeling very beaten up.
We sold the house with no equity and I put £50,000 in to get the mortgage up to the sale price and paid her moving costs and split the remining capital I had 50/50 (£10k each). I have the kids every other wekend for two nights and 4 weeks of holiday out of each year as well as two nights of each half term.
I got divorced about 6 months ago. My ex wife and I agreed private child maintence payments based on csa calculator to be reveiwed annually on P60 each year.
I agreed an extra £1100 a month as spousal maintenance which I have been paying as well as the £1500 CM each month.
My wife has announced she is getting married in Feb and has asked to renegiotiate the extra payment and is calling it extra child support.
She is maintianing that the £1500 does not cover acomodation and that I should carry on paying more money to support the kids. She choses to work 2 days a week although she has the ability to work full time.
Can somebody help me - I know I don't have to pay spousal maintenece after she gets married, what can she do can she take me to court for more money above csa level and would she get it.
I am feeling that the only way to make life easier is to pay up but want to get on with my life, buy somewhere large enough to have the kids every other weekend and I don't have unlimited funds for this.
Woud really appreciate some help ifa anybody has any suggestions.
Hi DepressedDad,
Welcome to the Dadtalk forum - sorry your having such a tough time at the moment. I will pass your details on to our legal experts at the Childrens Legal Centre - It may take a few days for them to respond so hang in there.
In the meantime you may find this article on the Dadtalk site of some help. Child Maintenance Options .
I'm sure some of the other Dadtalkers may be able to give some good advice as well.
Gooner
Hi
As far as I am aware, everything that has gone before with regards to the sale of the house etc doesn't count for much, so I wouldn't dwell on that too much.
Since you agreed maintenance payments, I assume that you have a consent order. I'm on very shaky knowledge on this, so hopefully the Children's Legal Centre will correct or confirm as appropriate. I think that you have good grounds to go back to court and ask them to reassess the maintenance payments you make to your ex - the fact that she is working and can support herself to some extent means that you shouldn't be paying her a significant amount of maintenance. If she can work full time without the children being adversely affected, then the courts (I believe) expect her to do just that.
However (and don't take this the wrong way) you obviously are pulling in a substantial income to be able to afford the sort of payments you are making, so I would suggest that you consult/engage a solicitor who can advise you in detail with regards to maintance payments - in your case, I think the cost of the solicitor will be a good investment.
As far as your payments for child support are concerned, I can see no reason why the CSA should not handle your case in another 6 months, so I'd give them a ring to see what their position is on this. Take legal advise also, as I think there was a posting saying that, potentially, you can end up being liable for both CSA maintenance and the payments as set down by the court order. The CSA calculation is based on income, not on what your ex thinks she should get, or her expenses (unless there are extenuating circumstances, such as extra care for disabled children etc), so her claim that it doesn't cover her expenses isn't relevant.
Dear DepressedDad
We unfortunately only advise on issues of child law and therefore cannot provide advice on spousal maintenance. For further advice on this issue we would recommend that you speak to a solicitor or alternatively visit your local Citizen’s Advice Bureau ( www.citizensadvice.org.uk ).
A child maintenance order by consent can only be made if both parties are in agreement. Therefore you are only bound to pay the amount specified in the order (in accordance with the CSA calculator in this case). Any amount above that specified in the order would have to be agreed between the parties. The court would only agree to vary the existing order if there had been a significant change in circumstances, for example, if one party had been made redundant. The court is unlikely to lower the amount of child maintenance as it is currently in line with the amount prescribed by the Child Support Agency.
As the consent order in your case operates in line with the Child Support Agency calculator this is likely to be deemed sufficient by the court to provide for your children. As we can only provide general advice in this area we would suggest that you consult a solicitor for further advice.
If you wish to contact us for further advice then please call the Child Law Advice Line on 08088 020 008.
Kind regards
Children’s Legal Centre
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