Contact order question

[ilovemilton]

Overnight contact is due to begin next week. It was court ordered that prior to this, I would visit the house to check exh now has beds, toys, clothes etc. It was also ordered that he gets a fire safety certificate.

Exh has now cancelled agreed visit and said he will send photographs instead. Which he is refusing to do.

There is also no sign of the fire safety certificate.

Do I have any grounds for not making the children go to contact, given he has also broken the order?

Already have an ongoing enforcement order so need to tread very carefully. I don't have a solicitor.

[Collaborate]

If the order says that, you'd be justified in delaying the overnight contact until he complies with the order. I'd write to the court though, to go on the court file, to say what you're doing and why.

[Bellemere]

If your order is anything like mine, there is a section at the end that says you must inform the court if the order is not being adhered to. Collaborate is (unsurprisingly) spot on.

Is your ex represented?

[ilovemilton]

Yes he is represented and I have written to her and the children's solicitor to ask when they will be adhering to the order. No response. I never get a response. They tend to walk all over me as I'm not represented.

I'll write to the court. Thanks.

[sleeponeday]

If the children have a court appointed solicitor, is there a Guardian?

[ilovemilton]

Yes they have a guardian. She hasn't seen the children for months and always insists contact goes ahead regardless of all issues that we have encountered so far.

[ilovemilton]

They have actually replied to my emails! Even though it was clear last time we were in court that my visit to his property was to check he had items for the children and it was safe and suitable for them to sleep over, the court order does not specify that it was before contact took place. Therefore, they are saying contact must take place and I can arrange a visit sometime in the future. How doe this even make sense? Why would I want to visit after contact? The point of the visit was because that was the only way we could prove he had beds and toys etc, which he is still refusing to prove. There were no toys etc last time contact took place.

[Collaborate]

It seems obvious to me that was the purpose behind your inspection. Did they take advantage of you when the order was drafted by not drawing this to your attention? I suspect the judge may take a dim view of this.

[ilovemilton]

Each time we are in court, the children's solicitor and exh solicitor draft the order together and then read it to me. Then the judge agrees it. If I raise anything, I get told this is not appropriate as he is the applicant and we are here to progress contact. Any issues will need to be raised as me applying for a variant.

Issues I refer to include teeny safeguarding referrals from various sources.

I fear it's too late in the day to do anything about Mondays contact?

[ilovemilton]

Various not teeny. Bizarre autocorrect.