Advice needed re ex going bankrupt

[galaxy]

My dh and his ex w divorced 12 years ago. She left and he has custody of my dss now 17. She was required to pay maintenance through a court order and 9 years ago we agreed to reduce substantially to enable to move out of her mothers and buy a house with the man she had an affair with. This needed a revised court order and we agreed as she said she would increase once her finances settled.4 years ago we asked her to help with extra tuition fees and she refused. She and DSs fell out and didn't speak for about 3 years although started texting each other again in April. She has remarried and has 2 kids that she's privately educating and they holiday in Disney World every Christmas. She started to pay maintenance late in August and this month didn't pay at all.i

When dh contacted her, she advised she was bankrupt and wasn't paying. We got solicitor's letter today saying she had gone for voluntary bankruptcy. She states that her financial situation has changed and dss should pay towards household bills from his Sunday job wagesrt time wages!

She is still employed by her husband's company and has her Xmas holiday to Disney booked and kids still at private school.

She has to pay until Dss leaves education and he finishes college in June .2012 so she had less than 2 years to show some support.

I understand that being bankrupt does not negate her court order to pay her maintenance. How can we fight this without incurring costs?

Can you ask the CSA to open a child support case with her as the non resident parent?

Go back to the Court and ask the court to enforce the Order. She may be telling lies about being bankrupt.

You can go to the courts and ask them to enforce the debt. You can recover your costs from her. However, the CSA is not an option for you. They are not able to interfere when the court order for maintenance was made before April 2003.

Make sure DH lodges a claim with trustee for the overdue maintenance

Thanks for all your comments. It's genuine Lucinda as we have a copy of the bankruptcy order from her solicitor.

Aside from the financial worries, my poor dss is in pieces as it's another kick in the teeth for him; knowing that his mother is happy to hurt him whilst her other 2 kids are being so well looked after. He asked her if she cared for him at all and she started to blame him for the fact that they fell out...bitch.

I'm going to try and get a half hour free session with a solicitor. My gut reaction is simply to reply to her solicitor's letter to say we don't agree to waiving and take it from there.

My Dh text her last night to say she is in breach and she has to pay and she simply said "there is no money" to which he reminded her of the impending Xmas holiday.

Apparently her car has been repossesed as part of this. It's a scam we're sure of it. her dh is selfemployed and they live in a £500k house. Presume they put all bills in her name and are now just trying to find a way out of paying their debts but they'll have messed up any chance of getting future credit so somewhat drastic.

The sad thing is, she may well have done it just to get at DH; she tried to stoppaying on dss's 16th birthday until we wrote back to her solicitor to point out that it was until dss left tertiary education.

See a solicitor and ask if you can go back to Court and ask the Court what they can do to enforce payment.

I wonder if the Court has any power to ask her to lodge her passport with the Court.

bankruptcy.org.uk/4168/common-bankruptcy-questions-answers/can-child-maintenance-be-included-in-bankruptcy/ I found this for you.

says it here aswell. Is the maintenance a private arrangement or CAS/Court agreement??

Thanks for those links. We found out that maintenance can't be included in bankruptcy and she is still liable and told her but her response is that she had no money so It's tough.

I am going to try and speak to a solicitor tomorrow. I am really worried as our financial situation is already on risky ground due and this is likely to tip.is over the edge. We heard a rumour today that she is pregnant again so makes it even more unlikely we'll see any money as she'll soon give up work.

She sounds horrible Poor lad.

You can still enforce a maintenance order even after the payer has been declared bankrupt. The trustee in bankruptcy should take it into account when deciding how much of her income they can take for the creditors. I suggest you apply for an attachment of earnings order, but you'd have to check with a bankruptcy specialist that you can do this. I see no reason why not. Seeing as the debt isn't provable in the bankruptcy you must still be able to enforce it.

That's what dh said we should do but I spoke to a legal advice line who said the trustees wont take it into account as its classed as a non provable debt. She's also likely to quit her job working for her husband so that she has no income. I'm not even sure how we contact the trustees. I can't get any solicitors to do half hour free consultation like they used to either.

I have replied to her solicitor to the effect that we do not agree to waiving the court order and that we will seek to enforce if payment wasn't made by today. Have hda zero response and no payment.

dss is getting more angry and upset by the day and I have no idea how we're going to afford Christmas. I am so depressed by the whole thing!