maintenance from abroad

jansus

hello wonder if anyone can help i have a seven year old son, his father and i had an eighteen month relationship when i discovered i was pregnant his father promptly left me, he knows he exists as whilst i was pregnant he phoned me a few times and he has a few photos of him as a baby, this is where it gets tricky his father is french and after he was born he moved back to France i was told i wouldn't be able to claim any maintenance from him and indeed have never received a penny towards his upkeep but i recently heard about a remo list i don't know much about it really, is it for British fathers abroad or any nationality thank you in advance to anyone that can help,

Zara33

http://www.csa.gov.uk/en/case/remo.asp

How to apply

A UK resident who wishes to apply to obtain maintenance from a person overseas should approach

• their local magistrates' court (or county court where the order was made) if they have an existing court order for maintenance; or
• their local magistrates' court if there is no existing order

They may apply for their order to be enforced in the country where the payer resides. Procedures also exist to enable an applicant to ask the foreign authorities to create an order for maintenance on their behalf. There is no need for the applicant to engage a solicitor. Court staff will help the applicant and will forward the application to the relevant authority. The authority will check that the application is in order and send it to the foreign authority or court for registration and enforcement against the person living there.

jansus

thanks for your reply zara33 i will look into it, i wonder if other women on here have managed to get maintenance this way, all a bit scary

Zara33

jansus wrote: »

thanks for your reply zara33 i will look into it, i wonder if other women on here have managed to get maintenance this way, all a bit scary

IIRC Playinghardball is going through Remo atm, and I am pretty sure someone else is also just for the life of me I can't remember who.
Good Luck!

PlayingHardball

Hello Jansus,
Yes, I am going through REMO (Germany in my case). The success is all quite uncertain and I've yet to have anyone from this forum say that they've had a successful REMO. (although this forum is about the child support agency and its system for the most part) The London REMO office have told me that they do have successes, but it can take "some time". I think as your child is so young, you would be very wise to at least attempt to have the father pay his share of support. I strongly urge you to apply for REMO for that reason, just understand and be warned it may take some time to enforce maintenance. I can't tell you how long though.

It seems that chasing child support is no simple route, and that deadbeat fathers (or mothers) can get away with it for as long as they can evade the system.

Good luck, sorry I don't have better news, but I would say that you've gone 7 years without, give it a go, it may take you a year, maybe two, but in the end you will get there, i believe.

jansus

thanks so much for your reply having read the link above i am still unsure weather i can pursue this because he is french living in France as opposed to British living in France, i have read and reread it but i do get a bit lost with the wording, i now realise that it is no easy route but i am prepared to give it a go however long it takes, good luck to you with your case sounds like it's been a hard slog

LizzieS_2

You mentioned that you were told you could not claim maintenance from him. If told by the csa, yes it was correct from their perspective. Did the father refuse to come to a private arrangement?

France is slightly different to many other countries as far as child support is concerned - they look at the fathers ability to pay after paying all his own bills (in theory that could mean he could over indulge in expensive accomodation to avoid paying?).

jansus

i asked his father weather he would pay maintenance, he said no, when i had my son i was working full time and started work at 5.30am i had no choice but to give up my job due to childcare no childminder wants to start work at 5.00 in the morning i briefly went on income support until i got a job with more reasonable hours, the social gave me an interview and wanted to know about maintenance when i explained the situation they said that the csa had no jurisdiction in France but may have in the future. this is why i am wondering if i can pursue it because he is french of course this was seven years ago so i am hoping that things have improved

LizzieS_2

Well done for finding a more suitable job :beer: Goes to show single parents will sacrifice higher earnings for their children.

You will be fine on the REMO route - I just posted the negative side as the worst case scenario - didn't want you thinking you will be guaranteed an easy route for support from an a$$hole of a father.

eira

I've gone through REMO-it is do-able but you'll be on your own with it.Solicitors will claim it's difficult , the buffoon I had as a barrister claimed it couldn't be done-but he did say that about other things that were a simple form filling job


This is what I've found
a) although the clerks at the courts 'don't give legal advice' they are a lot more helpful than solcitors as they know exactly what forms to fill in. The REMO section are very helpful too but keep a tight eye on case nos etc

b)Beware the exchange rate rate trap-you can end up with less sterling.Bank charges can cut into the money too-look for a way ofd opening an account to pay the money into and an ATM card to withdraw money according to exchange rate variables (HSBC are good bank in this respect)

c) Check the maintenance procedure/enforcement in the absentee parent's country

d) But

---

there is still the issue of getting the payments. My ex is in the Us which is supposed to have heavy Deadbeat Parent laws.
They blacklist credit/take away your tax refunds/trace you via your Social Security number/take away your passport and driving licence. He's avoided it all. Because he can't be traced (allegedly) the US courts have cancelled the debt !!!!!! And the way he's done it is really simple and easy to do-and that in a country with seemingly tight rules. He's now got round US immigration/the IRS and the US family court system-and he's not even an American ! I think Al Capone should have consulted him and he might have avoided Alcatraz--

jansus

thanks eira when you say you had a barrister did it cost you money to pursue your childs father, i'm hoping not or else i can't go ahead