We have been awarded a maintenance order from the court, how long should I give the NRP to pay?

[LadyMaryQuiteContrary]

I'm not expecting him to as he's ignored me for over a year so I'll have to go back to court to get it enforced (it's a REMO as he's not in the UK). I want to give him a reasonable amount of time though. They haven't sent the papers to me yet but I'm wondering what the standard timeframe is, please.

Thank you

The order should state when the payments should start and when in the month they should be paid. if he doesn't make the first payment then let the court know and they should send it on to the official solicitor's office who deals with REMO payments.

Thank you. I should have asked but I was so relieved I didn't think. I haven't received the paperwork yet but they have backdated it (bet he was happy! ).

Thank you for all of your help with this, I'm really grateful.

If there aren't any start dates etc on the order then I would suggest that a calendar month is a reasonable amount of time to wait to see if he pays.

Thank you, that sounds like a plan. I'll wait and see. His solicitor asked me to send him my bank details so she's under the impression that he's going to pay, the award was just under double their offer though so I'm not so sure.

It took 4 months from my order being signed until I started receiving payments which included arrears backdated to the date stated in my affidavit. Payments are taken from his salary through an income witholding writ and he will have been livid that his employer knew he was a 'deadbeat dad'.

Payments were sent directly to me until last month when the Texas Child Support Unit decided to send them to the Official Solicitor and they've vanished into a black hole.

Thank you, that must have been stressful waiting . I emailed with my account details and asked him to confirm receipt, that was Wednesday and I'm still waiting. He had paid on time (bar a few occasions) until last year so I'm hoping I don't need to go back to court to get it enforced.

Hi LadyMaryQuiteContrary,

As others have said there should have been a date set as to payments. If not it's quite reasonable to presume that it should be about from the date of the order.

If you haven't had an instructing solicitor to turn to then you can do it yourself by contacting the REMO Unit
[email protected]
Telephone: 0845 345 5303
You can also approach your local magistrates' court (or county court where the order was made) if they have an existing court order for maintenance. Tip though: DO check and chase to ensure that the court does forward all correspondence to the reciprocal country.

Thank you. His solicitor was in the hearing (I couldn't afford one) so she would have told him what he needs to do. I'll give the court a call if I've not heard from him by the end of next week. I was hoping it would all be sorted before September as there's school uniform to pay for etc

Sorry to hear that. If you were unrepresented the other side's solicitors are under a duty to assist you (assist though- not advise you legally) under the Solicitors Regulation Authority Code of Conduct 2011. However, this can all be filed under "Shoulda. Woulda. Coulda"

The fact is you are where you are now. I would suggest giving the courts a call on Monday. They are traditionally very slow and even more so lately so it won't do you any harm to get ahead of the game, especially if your ex is refusing to respond to you.

Happy to help.

Hmm. I didn't know that. I think I did OK, shame he didn't respond to me earlier though as his maintenance contributions have now doubled! I'll give them a call.

If I had assisted you in court I possibly would have advised you very differently.

Please do keep us posted LadyMaryQuiteContrary.

It will help ds, that's all that I cared about.

Thank you

I wasn't represented and have found the staff at the County Court to be more than helpful. My ex made a couple of voluntary payments in the period between my REMO application being approved and passed to America but they advised me to carry on with the enforcement process. I'm so glad I did because the consent order states that he pays until the youngest finishes her degree and Texas have confirmed they will carry on collecting payments.

I have an order that he must pay X amount (not on paper, I'm waiting for this) and the court official said they would send info on how to enforce this as it's a different procedure. His solicitor said he'd pay without it needing to be enforced but, from what you're saying Notsoskinny, I could do with enforcing it regardless. My guess is that he could stop paying at any time (she said he wouldn't but I emailed her on Wednesday with my account details and she hasn't got back to me either and she wasn't on anyone's side but the NRP during all of the hearing; she told the court I should cut back on certain expenses rather then saying I was so broke because he wasn't paying maintenance). He stopped paying because he was verbally abusive towards ds when he saw him last (he see's him for about an hour every 18 months) and ds was too afraid to see him on the next visit. Ds is very capable of making his own choices, I backed him up. Ds is a teenager.

Please have the order enforced. If, as his solicitor says, he will pay then it won't make any difference but it means you won't be beholden to his mood swings like I was.

Mine is for a set amount but he paid another 50% so he could brag (he told me this) to friends that he only had to pay x but was giving me y (which was still considerably less than the 20% he should have been paying). He cut payments to the amount in the order when I bought a house with now DH and stopped paying when he found out I'd remarried. At that time he had hardly any contact with DD but would phone DS weekly when he had a free morning from 6th form. He cut all contact with both of them and his elderly parents in the period between the order being enforced and payments taken from his salary.

I don't think DD will ever speak to him again but DS misses him and still has him on facebook even though he never 'talks' to him when he's online.

Your children are better off without because he sounds like an arse! Ds's father is on FB but makes very little effort.

I'm going to enforce it, that'll be nice for him.

He's still not replying to my emails or calls and his solicitor isn't helping!! How am I supposed to try and sort this out? ARGH!!! I'll call the court later and ask for them to send the enforcement papers.

Was your consent order made in the magistrates or county court? Mine was county so more information needed (for US anyway) but if it had been made in the magistrates the enforcement process would have been much simpler and free.

I drafted my own affidavit but to make sure it was correct I booked an hour with my divorce solicitor who went over it but made hardly any changes. She told me to get a court certified copy of the consent order (available at the magistrates' public counter) while her secretary typed the affidavit. I went back to the magistrates to swear it, found a photocopying place and made a couple of copies before going back to the magistrates to hand it in and pay my £40 fee. My solicitor could've done all that for me but she'd have charged. As it was I met her at 11 am, had lunch with an old colleague and was on my way home before 3 pm.

The staff on the public counter were fantastic and gave me a phone number so I could check the progress on a weekly basis. The application should've gone before the judge 2 wks later but he didn't sit that day and because of Christmas I had a 4 wk wait until he agreed it could be sent to REMO and issued the all important certificate of arrears.

The magistrates. It seemed like a bit of a farce to be honest. Some woman kept staring through the window of the door at various points throughout the hearing and she came in to sit down when the magistrates where deliberating (they were not in the room). She seemed to know the solicitor and they sat and chatted. The solicitor told the magistrates that I spend too much money and that I should reduce what I spend I've no idea if it's supposed to be like this.

The legal advisor said he would send out the ruling with details on how I should enforce it (the solicitor protested). I'll call them as I need this ASAP by the sounds of it, Notsoskinny. I'm assuming I have to apply for something else which drags him into court where he is? I was hoping it would be sorted by now.

Don't worry, I didn't have to attend court and only found out my application had been approved when I phoned for my weekly update.

The order was then passed to the state where he lives and their equivalent of the CSA collect the payments. In the initial paperwork he was given 90 days to apply for a review of the order. Any review had to be undertaken by the court in the state, or in our case country, where the order was made and he would have to attend in person.

BTW his solicitor sounds like a witch, what you do or don't spend your money on is of no concern to her or the court - he's got a legal and moral duty to support his son and teenagers don't come cheap these days!

She was crap to be honest. There were 'expenses' on his form that he was claiming for which she should have picked up on as he wasn't paying them and they also didn't match his bank statements (lucky for ds!! ). I don't think the court listened to her and the whole thing just made them look stupid. I've been in touch with the court. I should get the court documents and the enforcement forms by the end of the week.

Congratulations. It must be a huge relief that it's all sorted.

'His solicitor sounds like a witch'

What a really helpful comment to post in legal matters. This is not a csa case so what the OP already has coming in and going out is actually one of the legal criteria the court have to look at. I suspect she was simply doing her job.