REMO when the RP is the one moving abroad

MataNui

I doubt a 'recent' letter from the CSA would be enough. As far as i am aware these letters dont disclose the full details of the other persons financial situation anyway. Then there is the question about how recent it will be by the time you actually get a Spanish court to make the order.

Your first struggle will be to get the order. You will need to find a Spanish solicitor who knows about this sort of thing (not likely to be easy), then apply for a maintenance order to the Spanish courts for someone who they have no legal jurisdiction over. They will want full details of his financial situation and probably access arrangements. You will have none of the first and you have engineered a situation to make access impossible. Nothing happens quickly in family cases anyway, nothing at all happens quickly in Spain. You will have no help from any UK agency. So just getting to the point they issue an order is not going to be easy or quick.

Then it gets sent to REMO. REMO is a request, not a requirement. there are no guarantees that it will be enforced and your ex can challenge the enforcement here meaning it will just get sent back to the Spanish.Given the facts that there is no access, the order is likely based on a rather fictional view of his finances and that given the generosity of the Spanish system it will be more than he would be legally obliged to pay here its likely it will not get enforced.

Wasabi74

You're 100% right, it's bound to be a complete nightmare and likely to take months and months but I have to at least try....

NYM

Isn't consideration given to the cost of maintaining contact if travel is involved?

MataNui

"Isn't consideration given to the cost of maintaining contact if travel is involved? "

A court normally would. But thats what makes this one so interesting. The OP will be going to a Spanish court. The NRP wont be represented (he probably wont even know its happening). She will tell them a likely made up figure for his income and omit any information regarding outgoings of any sort including the cost of him having access. They will make a typically generous (to the OP) maintenance order (or they may not), then any order (if there is one) will go to REMO.

If (and thats a big if) the UK courts ever get round to bothering to enforce it (as they dont have to) he will challenge it in the UK based on some pretty solid legal and moral arguments. In this case its going to be the OP who wont be there and wont know about it. The NRP will show proof of income, costs of access and the CMS calculation. He will argue that he isnt Spanish and inst subject to Spanish law and that the order is for multiples of what UK law says he is liable for.

REMO is a administrative framework, not an international law. The UK court will (should) take a balanced view and on balance would likely not enforce an order in a case like this (not as though they actually have the enforcement options the CSA for example would have anyway).

Either way its going to cost the OP to get the order in the first place and since i doubt she is familiar with the Spanish legal system will probably be needing the help of a Spanish solicitor for that so bumping up her costs.

Wasabi74

MataNui wrote: »

"Isn't consideration given to the cost of maintaining contact if travel is involved? "

.

The judge has dictated that I am liable for the majority of the travel costs related to him visiting the children. So the child maintenance amounts should not be affected by him having to travel to see the children, should he wishes to do so.