Consent order breach??

anna_1977

Hi
My divorce finalised in 2013. The consent order states he pay me £480 per month for our 2 children, it said until they complete university (if they go). He pays the eldest direct as she is 20 & at uni.
My youngest turned 18 3 weeks ago and is in her 2nd year of A levels. He text her last night saying he's no longer going to pay me the £240 for her, he will help her out with fuel and the odd bits and pieces.
He's emailed me this morning the below:

I suggest you talk to your solicitor and get them to explain the order as you clearly do not understand it.

They are both adults now, and I am making direct arrangements with Xxx which I believe will be more beneficial for my daughter as I have no idea what happens to monies paid into your account.

I have already taken legal advise on this matter.

Not sure what he thinks I'm spending the money how, how about providing a house & food, oh and car, insurance etc....

Any ideas on what I should do?

I'm pretty sure he's deliberately done it on Friday evening so I can stew all weekend

FBaby

If your daughter is still at college full-time, then he continues to be liable to pay maintenance to you directly until she finishes up to 20yo.

He might be right about the court order (although it doesn't sound like it), but he is wrong in terms of the csa (or whatever they are called now). Maybe you can show him this:
https://www.gov.uk/when-child-maintenance-payments-stop
Tell him that if he stops paying, you'll go to the csa.

Saying that, the issue is clearly not about paying, but about his belief that you are not spending all the money on your DD, so maybe you could do a budget breakdown showing how much you spend specifically for her benefit, that might help him alleviate his suspicions. Ideally, you would want to avoid going via the csa (which will encourage an amicable arrangement in the first place anyway) especially for the sake of one year.

theoretica

If he would prefer to pay to your younger DD directly then you will need to charge her for keep/car insurance etc. And you and she can work out if this comes to £240 every month and you handle budgetting, or if she needs to save for car insurance etc.

anna_1977

I'm going to call the lawyer who dealt with my divorce & consent order and get their advice. I'm suspecting we will end up in court, as he is still liable to pay for her at least until she leave college next year.
It's a hassle I don't want or need. I just hope it the judge rules in my favour he will have to pay for my solicitor costs

duchy

FBaby wrote: »

Tell him that if he stops paying, you'll go to the csa.

Saying that, the issue is clearly not about paying, but about his belief that you are not spending all the money on your DD, so maybe you could do a budget breakdown showing how much you spend specifically for her benefit, that might help him alleviate his suspicions. Ideally, you would want to avoid going via the csa (which will encourage an amicable arrangement in the first place anyway) especially for the sake of one year.

Quite frankly this is nonsense.
They are divorced and he has made a voluntary legal agreement what and how much and until when he is paying to partially support his daughters.

The OP has no obligation moral or legal to have to appease him just because his mate down the pub is giving him rubbish legal advice. Perhaps you think the OP should also get his permission before she starts a relationship despite been divorced for two years as that impacts their daughters too ?

If he wants the court order varied then he will need to pay and take his request and his reasons for it to the courts.

I'd suggest the OP goes back to her solicitor and takes advice and gets the solicitor to write him a letter pointing out his legal responsibilities and the consequences of not keeping to the legal contract he agreed to.

It isn't just for one year either as if daughter 2 chooses to go to university under CSA rules he only has to pay support for her up to A levels once higher education is entered even if under 20 it doesn't apply so he's trying to weasel out of £240 per month for three years as the court order was for until they finished university .

FBaby

The OP has no obligation moral or legal to have to appease him just because his mate down the pub is giving him rubbish legal advice

Where did I mention anything about obligations? You might take the confronting approach, I happen to believe in try to avoid it for the sake of children if possible.

Clearly OP's ex doesn't have an issue paying the amount, he is just expressing concerns that the money isn't going to his daughter, so proving to him that it is seems an easy way to potentially resolve the issue without the stress of having to back to court.

anna_1977

Thanks duchy. I honestly can't believe it's had legal advise or he refrained from mentioning that she's still in full time education.
The issue for me is that I paid for the consent order so I knew my financial circumstances until DD2 went to uni and that she would hand the extra support that DD1 has had while at uni.

I just hope this doesn't drag on too long....

anna_1977

FBaby wrote: »

Where did I mention anything about obligations? You might take the confronting approach, I happen to believe in try to avoid it for the sake of children if possible.

Clearly OP's ex doesn't have an issue paying the amount, he is just expressing concerns that the money isn't going to his daughter, so proving to him that it is seems an easy way to potentially resolve the issue without the stress of having to back to court.

Thanks FBaby - sadly he does have an issue about paying, he wants to pay her fuel (£30 per mth) and buy her the odd thing - his words. He's trying to get out of paying all together. I emailed and asked him if he's going to pay her the £240 and the reply was very hostile. He's not a nice person, very bitter that in the divorce I bought him out of the house, all agreed by him at the time.
It will end up at court and his emails have expressed that he has no intention of paying whatsoever.
DD2 is very upset as she knows he give DD1 £240 a month at uni - he doesn't realise he's driving a wedge between his daughter and himself.
I'm frustrated I can't talk to my solicitor till Monday

MissMoneypenny

anna_m wrote: »

Hi
My divorce finalised in 2013. The consent order states he pay me £480 per month for our 2 children, it said until they complete university (if they go). He pays the eldest direct as she is 20 & at uni.

Is a consent order the same as a court order?

This is what I know about court orders but it was a few years ago now.

A friend had a court order where the father had to pay his ex wife the money for his daughter. Predictably, he tried to take control back and when his daugher went to uni, he decided to pay his daughter instead of his ex. Then after a while he started paying the daughter less than the court order and paying late, so my friend took legal advice.

She was told that her ex had failed to keep to the court order of paying her x amount each month for their daughter. That it didn't matter that he had given some money to his daughter as that didn't change the court order, which was to pay her each month. To change the court order of who he paid the money to, he needed to go back to court and he hadn't done that.

Faced with all those back payments if my friend took him to court, he started paying his daughter on time and the full amount and without any fuss/moaning, every month after that.



Something else to think about with their payments.
A few years after that when my ex wanted to pay the children direct when they were at uni, the courts advised me not to agree to that and to keep the court order as him paying me that money. The reasons for this was:-

1.My ex had a history of being a bad payer and I had already returned to court to get a registration, and this would have been lost.

2.If I had agreed that he could pay the court order money direct to his children instead of me and he had then started to mess around with their money, then it would be them who had to take their father to court instead of me dealing with the courts for my children. As the chief magistrate said, the children should be concentrating on their studies instead of trying to make their father keep to the court order every month.

MissMoneypenny

duchy wrote: »

It isn't just for one year either as if daughter 2 chooses to go to university under CSA rules he only has to pay support for her up to A levels once higher education is entered even if under 20 it doesn't apply so he's trying to weasel out of £240 per month for three years as the court order was for until they finished university .

And if they decide to do a masters after that without taking a break after their degree, then he has to continue his payments for his daugher/s to the OP.

anna_1977

Thank you, that's very helpful