If my son is living with his grandparents, can I register with maintenance enforcement to ensure my son's dad pays his court ordered support payments to the grandparents?
If there is an existing Court Order it can be registered.If the Order states the money is payable to the grandparents then MEP will enforce it.If the Order states the money is payable to you and the child is with the grandparents then you would need to seek to vary the Order to make the payments payable to the grandparents because otherwise the father will seek to end the payments by applying to Court.Let me know if you need further clarification.
Thanks, Debra. The order states the money is payable to me, but I've told the father to just pay his parents. I'm concerned that he will become lax and not follow through.If we were to go to court, would I also be subject to support payments, to be made to the grandparents?
Are they your parents?
No, they're his parents. They wouldn't be looking to to get payments from me, but my son's dad said I'd be liable to pay support as well - even though my son has been in my sole care for the past 15 years and his dad has only paid support for the past three. Do I have anything to worry about?
I am a bit worried that you do.The law is that you both have to support your son.So if this went to Court you would both be ordered to pay the grandparents. They could turn down your money but I am worried that he may get to pay somewhat less.So perhaps for now see what happens and only seek to address this if he stops paying.
I suspected as much. He only pays $300 as is and I would've like to have MEP review his income so that his payments to his parents would reflect the table values. But I guess that would have to be done at the same time as getting the order changed.There are no legal ramifications for not changing the order and just deciding to pay the grandparents between us, is there?
That would work for sure. Court is never needed if things can be resolved outside of Court.You can ask for his financial information and ask him to voluntarily pay the right amount.
I've already asked him and he's flat out refused. I've got an older court order that states I can ask for his T4 once a year, but that order was from a time when he didn't have to pay support.The most recent order states he has to pay the $300, but no mention of getting his T4s.Is there anything I can do about this or is it back to the varied order procedure?Thanks, Debra.
You would need to seek to enforce the Order to get him to provide the disclosure.If he is making more money he will have to pay more.You may have to pay too but if he's earning more that may make it work out as the grandparents won't make you pay your share or will return it and he may have to pay more.There is no way to know of course as you don't know what he is making.
Unfortunately, it's more complicated than I thought. But, I think that's all of my questions.Thanks for your time, Debra.Cheers.
Two more questions, if you're still around...If I did get the order changed, would I also be able to file for retroactive back pay as well as go for half of the daycare that I've paid over the years, for which I have receipts?
You could see a retroactive adjustment but in almost all cases the Court will go back 3 years at the most unless there are exceptional circumstances.He would not necessarily pay have the daycare. The way these expenses are considered is that each of you contributes in proportion to your respective incomes.So if you each earned the same it would be a 50/50 sharing but otherwise you have to work out what you each earn in comparison to the other.But in any event your child is 15 and it's not possible to go back so many years.
OK, thank you.
You are very welcome.Take good care.