Ex avoiding maintenance but living the high life
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Happymeme
Posts: 1 Newbie
Not only is ex husband not paying maintenance as he should and taking the CMS to a tribunal.He is saying he can't afford it as he then won't be able to afford his rent or car. 3 weeks ago he has had to move from his current rented house at 750 a month amd has now rented a 5 bed house for 1600 a month. The icing on the cake 3 days ago is that he has told the CMS he is no longer working as of 2 weeks ago! I am sure he is otherwise there is no way he can afford the life he is currently living! Any advise on where I go from here? He has been doing everything under the sun since February to avoid paying and still owes 2770! The children are going without. I work part time and am now 2k in debt. He is a severe narcissist so there is no reasoning with him. At the tribunal my mum is going on.my behalf. Will I be able to give her all the information I have such as his new rental payments and his 3 lavish holidays, new ipad, new car etc? Any advise would be appreciated.
How long have you been waiting for CMS to collect maintenance payments from NRP 9 votes
Less than 3 months
33%
3 votes
6 - 12 months
22%
2 votes
Over a year
22%
2 votes
More than 2 years
11%
1 vote
They failed. I never received a penny
11%
1 vote
0
Comments
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The tribunal wont care particularly about what you say about his car or his rent or his holidays (and even less so coming from your mother). It will likely just come across as sour grapes and is none of your or her business anyway.
BUT
Saying that. Its only because you have no evidence of how he is doing those things. Has he had a big redundancy payout? Does he have a new and wealthy girlfriend? Perhaps he is self employed (His own limited company)? Clearly it sounds a bit dodgy but there are plenty of ways he could legally be paying you a little but also living a good life.
You need to do a bit more digging i think. CMS will have access to his tax records and thats what they will base any payments on. What you are talking about is a variation. You want them to make a judgment based on his standard of living and not his income. Thats not easy. CSA used to love those in the early days. Then they got into a load of crap over them so they became much harder to get.0 -
You need to apply for a variation of earnings with the CMS. This costs about £800 which you have to pay in advance.Overactively underachieving for almost half a century0
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NotSuchASmugMarriedNow wrote: »You need to apply for a variation of earnings with the CMS. This costs about £800 which you have to pay in advance.
A variation application through CMS doesn't cost anything, bar postage for returning the form and any evidence you have. That said, the old CSA ground of "lifestyle inconsistent" doesn't exist under CMS.
That leaves the unearned income variation - dividends, profit from rental, interest on savings, etc, and the diversion of income variation - self-employed/director of own company with ability to control how much to pay themselves, evidence provided clearly demonstrates sufficient available profit to pay themselves more but this income is diverted. This could be to another person, a pension or organisation. (This is a simplified definition - clearly not every payment to another person, pension or organisation would be diversion).
Diversion of income is notoriously difficult to prove/demonstrate. You may find it helpful to look at some previous Upper Tribunal decisions to see what they look at. They are available on both the Bailii and Osscsc websites.I often use a tablet to post, so sometimes my posts will have random letters inserted, or entirely the wrong word if autocorrect is trying to wind me up. Hopefully you'll still know what I mean.0 -
HoneyNutLoop wrote: »A variation application through CMS doesn't cost anything, bar postage for returning the form and any evidence you have. That said, the old CSA ground of "lifestyle inconsistent" doesn't exist under CMS.
That leaves the unearned income variation - dividends, profit from rental, interest on savings, etc, and the diversion of income variation - self-employed/director of own company with ability to control how much to pay themselves, evidence provided clearly demonstrates sufficient available profit to pay themselves more but this income is diverted. This could be to another person, a pension or organisation. (This is a simplified definition - clearly not every payment to another person, pension or organisation would be diversion).
Diversion of income is notoriously difficult to prove/demonstrate. You may find it helpful to look at some previous Upper Tribunal decisions to see what they look at. They are available on both the Bailii and Osscsc websites.
The OP will have to do some chasing, but there are lots of things that can make it look as if the ex is diverting or earning more or should be contributing more.
I'm glad my liability is over, certainly didn't curtail my lifestyle, just better with money than the pwc, so I can see where the evil eyes may come from.
Good luck OP , but no garuantee of success.0
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