URGENT Interim Child Arrangement Order & Child Maintenance

[NameChangerinDespair]

In Chat for traffic, but in Legal, as well.

My ExH retained the Children without my consent after routine contact in March. He has PR. It is now before the Courts. Previously, they were with me after he left and the limited contact he wanted was formalised via Solicitors' letters. The Final Hearing is in August. He has an Interim Order in his favour and my Lawyer advised that Judges tend not to chop and change Residency in such cases so the Children have stability.

He has emailed me asking for Child Maintenance. What is the status of this during an Interim Order.

Surely if he has the children then you will need to pay maintenance ?

Well, I am not sure, which is why I am asking. We didn't agree for him to have them, he just kept them. The Court Orders are Interim.

Just to complicate things, he owes me maintenance according to the most recent schedule and there is a Courts & Tribunals case he has not engaged with, which has been sent back to the Judge ...

Imo of you pay maintenance without an order it is you accepting he is keeping the dc.
If he owes you money and he gets to keep the dc maybe a judge will deduct what he owes you off...
Hopefully your dc will be home soon op...

Thanks for your best wishes, @Windyatthebeach. The arrears would be counted against any payment due, if that was the eventual scenario. I have, however, found very little guidance on the status re: the Interim Order and Maintenance.

Also remember the email came from ex not a judge..
Solicitors will write whatever their client asks of them also.
I would await a hearing.

You don't have to pay maintenance just because he's asked for it. If the CMS are involved he needs to apply to them.

Thanks, both. Ph, yes, not even from his Solicitor, but from him. Have arranged a phone appt with my Solicitor.

To prove my point about solicitors writing whatever you ask - - I once received a letter insisting I removed my newly fitted blinds as exh was no longer able to see into my house now...
He actually paid someone to send it..and a muppet did.

Yes, I had an incredibly pompous legal letter asking me to see sense in letting my gs's violent thug father having unsupervised contact with him, when he knew full well he was in Crown Court for abh, gbh and drink driving. And they even wrote me a reminder.