Child Arrangements question

[beelola]

3 young DC, Child Arrangements order made in late 2019 for day time contact every other Saturday and no overnights. Ex was very abusive in the relationship hence limited contact. Since then the contact has fizzled out with no contact at all for 5 months.

What happens if he turns up out of the blue? Does contact restart or would it need to go back to Court?

As he has breached the order I would let him take the step to court.
Likely he won't. Yanbu to deny access until told otherwise.. It isn't in dc's best interest to allow him to come and go as he see fit.

He's normally happy to go to court over anything so he would definitely return it if I denied him access. And if he returned it for enforcement, couldn't they change the order and him end up with more or unsupervised contact?

5 months without sticking to the time he had secured? Why would he get more time?

Who knows! It seems like a risk to me

There is no way he will get increased contact if he hasn't been taking up the contact already awarded.

Right now the order is still in place. If he wants to recommence contact you must comply with the order. However, if regular contact does not restart you could go back to court and ask for the order to be varied.

OK. Is it likely that a judge would make allowances if the ex said the lack of contact was because of Covid worries? It's hard to balance worrying about the impact of the inconsistent contact against it possibly being varied as a result of enforcement proceedings. It's not happened yet but I like to know where I stand.

Covid rules allowed for dc to travel /stay between 2 houses... A judge would most likely see him for the flakey df he is.

OK. I'm probably worrying over nothing but it's helpful to know what to expect

Maybe? My ex has been able to play the Covid card for a year with great success! I think it’s become obvious that Covid was the symptom of the problem not the cause but the court has allowed for her concerns.

That's interesting to know. May I ask why her concerns are seen as valid when children can move between parents?

Sure!

She is clinically vulnerable like 2.2 million others.

Have you been able to have any contact?

Nope, I am totally reliant on the courts and social services! And therein lies my problem. Some people play by the rules and those that make up their own rules

I would imagine if there is no valid reason, like your ex not being clinically vulnerable I am sure you will be totally fine :) like someone said above it seems highly unlikely a court will increase contact when the set level hasn’t been maintained. That wouldn’t make any sense!

I hope it works out for you

The answer is you would be in breach of the order. This could then lead to enforcement.

However, if he doesn't give appropriate notice and you have plans it wouldn't be unreasonable to not reinstate immediately, but ultimately that would really only be reasonable for a couple of weekends.

The order is valid until the child is 18. Unless there's a significant change and not seeing as such wouldn't be one. As bad as that feels for you.

@MotherExtraordinaire

The answer is you would be in breach of the order. This could then lead to enforcement.

However, if he doesn't give appropriate notice and you have plans it wouldn't be unreasonable to not reinstate immediately, but ultimately that would really only be reasonable for a couple of weekends.

The order is valid until the child is 18. Unless there's a significant change and not seeing as such wouldn't be one. As bad as that feels for you.

This is very helpful thank you. It's definitely a weird thought that it's for another 11 years, but I'm sure we'll end up back in Court before then!