Maintenance

[Tarzofpan]

My sons dad has always hated the fact he's had to pay maintenance and because of that has fought for joint custody as he thought it would mean he wouldn't need to pay it. The arrangements were done by the courts and because he has him overnight the maintenance was reduced. Our son has recently started attending school, I am a little unsure of whether all the school costs fall onto me or whether he is supposed to contribute because of him.having him part of the week and the maintenance being reduced.
Does anybody have any idea on this?

Morally he should contribute, legally he only has to pay maintenance. It doesn’t sound like he will want to do what’s morally right. You can ask but have no legal come back if he says no.

Thankyou.
When I was getting the full maintenance when he wasn't having him overnight I can understand me being fully responsible for it but since having him more and payments being reduced I'd of thought he would of had to pay a percentage of it at least. He was there when I was ordering it so could see the cost creeping up and didn't once mention contributing at all.

You don't have to supply him with pe kit or uniform etc so he would have to supply his own on those days. If he is as vindictive as he sounds he might be the type to 'steal' your stuff. Return your child in too small stuff and keep the good stuff so you are the one buying everything. Keep your eye out for this. Some people have had to go to court over this very issue to put rules in place about returning everything.

Is he the type who will refuse to pay for e.g. trips or lunch money? You may end up in the position of having to pay or dc going without. Re lunch, you could do packed lunch and then ex will have to either pay himself for hot lunch or supply packed lunch. Hopefully he won't be this bad but just to give you a heads up of situations I have seen before and how extreme it can get.

He should in theory pay for any costs on ‘his time’, so should send pack lunch on his days, have a uniform for the days he has him and pay for any wrap around they need but in practice many NRP do and it’s only the child that suffers so the RP gives in and provides.