Mediation for child arrangement

[LucyLeah]

I'm going to invite my ex to the mediation. We tried discussions but he is bullying me into agreeing on him staying with me in my property ( i just bought a little house), from mon-sun (3 nights) so he can have a contact with his son. He works most weekends. Son is starting school this year. I want 100% him to have contact with child, alternate weekends , day in a week , i am very open for discussions and happy to accomodate needs etc etc but he is then shouting and discussion ends. My question is: if mediation fails and we will go to the court, who will pay for it? Him or me? My friend said if I take him to court i have to pay? How does it work? Advice pls!

You will have to pay the initial court fee ( a few hundred pounds) if you start the court proceedings.

Youre being too nice.

Tell him what you'll allow and let him take you to court if he's not happy.

Agree with this. He'll have to pay to initiate proceedings if he wants something different. Your boundary here is entirely reasonable and no court in the land is going to force you to allow him to stay in your home for contact .
Propose a reasonable z shared contact schedule if when you'll make your child available to him for contact, but making it clear that he picks up the child and returns him from somewhere. If he disagrees he can take it to court.

I think the court fee is now £255 for the C100 application and that is it.

If you wanted representation at the court then that will be for you to pay your solicitor who will act for you - there is no need to have one though.
If he wants representation then he will have to pay for his own

You can apply to court - or he can.
However, if you apply and get an order you cannot force him to have the child - it places the onus onto the resident parent to make the child available to the non resident parent.