Posting on behalf of my partner, who isn’t on Mumsnet, hoping someone can help advise on a legal matter about denial of child contact. Not sure whether to post here or legal - so doing both.
The background: My partner has been divorced since March and separated for about 7 years. The divorce was horrible, took nearly 3 years, was high conflict. He had to take his Ex to court for both finances and child arrangements as she wouldn’t progress matters, sensibly discuss or compromise on anything. Mediation was horrendous. She lied and contradicted herself both in court and in the court statements, which was all online due to Covid). At the start of the divorce she assaulted him and the police were involved.
The FMH has now been sold and his Ex has now moved into a new property with their daughter (who has just turned 15). My partner is about to move to a cheaper area about 80 miles away. Because of the split of finances (he got 30%} and loss of work due to Covid he cannot afford to stay living in the same area- it’s just too expensive.
He is moving to somewhere that is familiar for his daughter, where she used to live prior to the divorce and still has close friends she can see at weekends. He involved his daughter in the relocation decision process and she has been saying positive things about his move - she originally suggested it, in fact.
Earlier this summer he repeatedly emailed his Ex asking when their daughter could come to stay with him during the holidays and she ignored him. He chased the email several times. Then, at short notice, his Ex arranged for her to visit relatives overseas during the weeks he’d originally asked to have her. The last week we had booked to go away on a UK holiday with me and my two children. All along his Ex has made it pretty much impossible for our two families to mix, which is why we don’t live together (yet).
A few weeks ago he wrote is Ex an email explaining that he will be moving away soon and the reasons why (not that he should have to justify this, but for clarity really). He has just has received a reply from her saying that basically she doesn’t approve of him moving away and that she will no longer allow their daughter to stay with him every other weekend.
She says it’s too disruptive for their daughter to be away at weekends during her GCSE year. He had planned to collect her on Friday afternoons and bring her back on Sunday early evening (with him doing all the driving or travelling with her by train).
Unfortunately because of her age the child arrangements court hearing resulted in a list of directions only - not a court order. It says in the directions that he should have contact with his daughter every other weekend and during the school holidays. We are not sure if these directions carry any weight at all.
His Ex is basically denying him contact.
What can he do?