How to formalise residency/contact?

[flossyfloo]

Asking for a friend here....

DFriend is married and her DH's young son lives with them. He sees his DM every other weekend and one day in the week on the weekends she doesn't have him. This has also been done as an agreement between both parents, courts have never been involved and there is nothing in writing.

There have been some issues recently which are making my DF and her DH anxious about the fact that nothing is formalised. How do they go about putting the residency and contact arrangements in writing? Does it need to involve a solicitor and lots of money because they can't afford that?

[flossyfloo]

*all not also

[Storm15]

It doesn't have to involve a solicitor - your friend's DH could self-represent. A residency / contact order would involve a court application though. There's a website called The Custody Minefield which has lots of useful information on it. The initial cost for the C100 court application is around £215 I think.

[yellowdaisies]

I'm not sure you can apply to court for residency if you already have it. I think they say you can only apply for something that someone else is opposing.

How about sending emails on whatever pretext to the child's mother that mention the arrangements and - if every challenged - would make it clear what the usual arrangement was? EG - "Just checking I have the dates you have DC right - he's with you.... isn't he next month?" sort of thing

And your DF's DH should of course make sure that the school, GP, etc have his address as his DC's main address.

[Storm15]

There is something called the 'no order principle' whereby the court can refuse to make an order they deem unnecessary. If both parties agree you can still ask the court for a residence order though. It is possible - my DH and his ex got one. Think it's very dependant on whatever magistrates / judge you go before and how they're feeling on a particular day..