Ex stopped paying maintenance - what do I do now?

[Leslaki]

very long story which some of you may know on here. Ex has been a ba**d to put it mildly and all sorts of horrendous things have gone on over the past 2 years - it seems his mission in life (fuelled by the OW/his NW) is to make things as difficult for me as possible. The police have been involved, they reported me to social services saying my dc were at risk (total crap - I was cleared of anything almost instantly). They basically forced me to move home (to Scotland 300+ miles away)as I couldn't take the stress any more and his NW was psychologically and emotionally bullying/abusing my dc. But then took me to court to stop us moving! nightmare. Anyway - to cut a long story short, he has never been reliable, stopped paying me my spousal maintenance (should have been guaranteed by court order till Jul 2011) the week before Xmas (he had stopped paying the mortgage for 6 months without my knowledge in the early days and also took out loans and cc ards in my/joint names without my permission or knowledge. Anyway I ahve sold the FHM - bought him out and no have no job and the dc and I are living with my parents. So, he decided to justnot pay any maintenace at all. Not a penny. I have spoken to hima nd he does not care.
We ahve acourt hearing in Oct as I took him to court for enforcement - he applied to change the order and we now have the hearing for thet. Should I go to it and TRY to get arrears and child maintenance sorted? or should I just go to the CSA and write off the arrears as they ahve told me I will lose them if I go through them. Through the CSA I will lose £200 pm maintenance as XH is now on basic pay and is working cash in hand to ake up the rest just to stop me getting my maintenance. He earns a fortune BTW - when we did our form E he was earning at least £75000 - and that wasdeclared income. Aaaargggghhh!! Sorry for rant! help please!!

I would try to stick with it. The court won't award arrears until they have dealt with the variation application and ensure your ex can pay the arrears. However, unless he has a very reasonable excuse a dim view is taken of unilaterally deciding not to pay maintenance without applying for a variation. With enforcement proceedings the unsuccessful party is invariably ordered to pay costs.

Thanks STIDW - he has a 'reasonable excuse' - ie he is heavily in debt through excessive luxury living and his NW has transferred her credit cards into his name to mkae it look worse. hehas applied for a variation to stop paying the spousal maintenance. If I attend court am I then taking the risk that if they decide he can't afford he arrears I could be ordered to pay all costs? he has written to the court apparently to say he won't be attending. AAARGH!! I jus want the court to finally enforce a court order for maintenance so I know I'll be getting it every month!

It isn't possible to get blood from a stone but if there is evidence he is being unreasonable and evading his obligations court may not vary the order. The court may decide that the NW should contribute more than she does to joint living expenses and has the power to put a charging order on any asset your ex owns. He certainly won't impress the courts by not turning up without permission.

If you haven't already done so it might be an idea to show the documents of the case to a lawyer for a legal opinion as to your chances of success.

Thanks STIDW I've been using a lawyer - spent around £30,000 already so can't afford to go down that route again. he doesn't own anything now - everything in NWs name - all the debt in his name so he can wriggle out of paying. I'm not looking forward to going back to court - the court seems to pat him ont he back for breaking court orders and it seems amazing that he gets away without paying for his kids. Anyway thanks for your help, I'm going expecting the worst so if I do manage to get any maintenance from him that will be a bonus! Expecting the judge to adjourn it again even though I'll have travelled down form Scotland.