Expired Consent Order

WhispererUK

Hello. I'm a newbie here, but would appreciate any advice anyone can give. Thank you!

Under a Consent Order I agreed to pay monthly sums to my ex-wife “until the Respondent shall remarry” and to our child “until he shall attain the age of 18 years or cease full time secondary education if later”.

My ex subsequently remarried, so I stopped paying her. My son reached 18 earlier this year and finished A levels last month. I have therefore stopped paying anything under the Consent Order as, as far as I can see, it has now expired. But I am paying money direct to my son to cover him up until university, and have put forward university funding proposals that would make my son completely financially independent year-round.

My ex, however, has now divorced her new husband and has less money than she had previously. She is therefore now taking me to Court on the basis that she needs a home for our son and that she can't (she says) afford a suitable one without help from me. Her contention is that, even if my son is fully-funded year-round, she should have a regular income from me towards her own home, so that he can stay there if he wants.

Setting aside the morality, or otherwise, of what my ex wants, does she have a case legally? Or will the Court throw it out at an early stage?

RAS

I would have thought she should be chasing the recently departed husband, but of course spousla maintenance is very very rarely paid these days.

Methinks this lady is in for a shock.

Transformer

She sounds out of order and you only need to concentrate on what you want to do for your son, despite what she says.

Court will soon find against her.

ekkygirl

I would think a judge would laugh her out of court. It seem that you are being fair by you son and if your ex wants to provide a home for him to come to then she needs to do what other single people do and rent/buy one herself.
That said, if you are on decernt terms and could afford to buy a house to rent to her, that might work.
I think the fact that she thinks she can take you to court says it all really. If I were her I might have had a conversation with you about whether you were willing to help. I doubt you are legally bound but you never know

Good luck

Marisco

What about her working and supporting herself?? It sounds like the op has been more than fair over the years, and quite frankly I would tell her to sling her hook!!!

Kimitatsu

It wont make it to the steps of the courts! You have divorced and she has remarried, your son is now no longer a dependant child and therefore has to fend for himself.

Has she actually found a solicitor to take this to court for her? I would be amazed if she had!

EclipsedMind

Once the court stamped teh consent order it made it binding and the only way to overturn it (as I understand it) would be is she could alledge she had no understanding of what she signed.

She is unable to make any claim upon you or your assets now and would not have been able to get anything once the consent order was done. Your consent order sounds like mine and is a clean break order with maintenance provision for teh child.

You can confortably laugh it off as it just is not going to get anywhere and I would be surprised if she could find a solicitor to take on teh case.

EM

WhispererUK

Thanks everyone!

Interestingly, it was my ex's solicitor who initially wrote to me asking for my proposals for financing our son's education. I responded to the solicitor with detailed proposals but, since then, the solicitor has ignored me. I even wrote and asked them whether they are still representing my ex - but they've ignored that as well, so I don't know what to think!

The threats re Court etc have come only from my ex.

WhispererUK

All in all, if it does go to Court - I wish it was a jury trial with you guys on the jury!