If your ex is not paying child support, there are steps you can take to collect what is owed to you and your children. Every parent has the duty to provide financial support for their child even if that parent does not see or take care of the child.
Let’s talk about legal options and steps that can be taken to enforce child support obligations. If you want to know more, we welcome you to contact our family lawyer today for advice customized to your particular situation.
Failure to pay does not affect parenting time
At the outset, it is important to emphasize that payment or non-payment of child support does not affect parenting time. So if your ex falls behind on payments, stops paying child support or never paid child support in the first place, you cannot stop them from seeing their children.
While you can not refuse to allow parenting time or contact with your child because of non-payment of maintenance, it is also important to emphasize that the other parent is not permitted to refuse to pay child support or to pay less than ordered because they are choosing not to exercise their parenting time rights.
If you do not have a child support order or agreement in place
The other parent may not be paying child support because you do not yet have a court order or agreement in place. If that is your situation, you should reach out to our family lawyer to discuss your options. One option: you and your ex can exchange the appropriate income information (e.g., income tax returns, pay stubs), use the Child Support Calculator to determine the amount payable and prepare a written child support agreement setting out all of the necessary terms. Another option: start family court proceedings asking a judge to determine parenting time and to make a child support order.
Your family lawyer can help you decide which option is best in your situation. Regardless of the option you choose, it is highly recommended that you act without delay. Back payment referred to as retroactive child support is possible but it is typically time limited. The general rule of thumb is that retroactive child support will extend backwards three years from the date that you requested child support or gave “effective notice” to the other parent that you were requesting child support.
If you have a child support order or agreement in place, and it is not being followed
Failure to pay child support owed under a court order or an agreement is a breach of that order or agreement. Failure to pay child support owing under a court order is also conduct that may result in a citation for contempt of court.
Asking the court to enforce a child support order
BC family court judges take child support obligations very seriously and can intervene when a parent fails to pay in accordance with their child support obligations. If a child support order is being breached, you can go to court to have the order enforced and/or to request that the court use its enforcement tools to address child support arrears, including garnishing wages and forcing the sale of property.
Enrolling with the Family Maintenance Enforcement Program
Court appearances tend to be stressful, time-consuming and expensive. For that reason, many parents choose to enrol with the free program offered by the BC Family Maintenance Agency (BCFMA)previously referred to as the Family Maintenance Enforcement Program. If you have an existing court order dealing with child support, you can enrol with the BCFMA to enforce it. If you have an existing agreement with respect to child support, you will need to file it with the court first; once the agreement has been filed with the BC courts, you can then enrol with the BCFMA to enforce it.
Once you have enrolled, the BCFMA will collect child support amounts owing, including arrears and special or extraordinary expenses from the parent who should be paying support. The BCFMA has a lot of powers to compel child support payments, including garnishing your ex’s wages and income tax refunds, putting a lien on their property, cancelling their BC driver’s licence and in the most serious situations, arranging for them to be put in jail.
What about child support order modifications?
What if the other parent is refusing to pay or is paying less child support because they have lost their job, have had a decrease in their income or some other change in circumstances? A parent does not have the legal right to unilaterally decide to stop paying or to reduce the amount they will pay for child support and the BCFMA does not have the power to change agreements and orders about child support. Any changes to a support order must be done with the consent of both parties or by a Judge in a court room. The Judge has the authority to vary a support order, set aside a child support agreement and reduce or cancel child support arrears.
What if your ex is paying less child support than they should?
What if the other parent is paying less child support than they should based on their income? What if you suspect the other parent is paying less than they should? What if the other parent is refusing to give you their current financial information? By law, a parent must pay child support in accordance with their current guideline income. Federal and provincial laws make continuing disclosure a legal duty after a child support order or agreement is made.
You will need to look at the terms of your existing order or agreement to determine what it says about child support changes and requests for updated income information. A skilled family lawyer can get involved to request information from the other parent if they have refused your request. Your lawyer can also ask the court to order the disclosure of income information if the other parent continues to refuse to disclose their financial information. The court can impute income to the other parent in appropriate cases and can make a retroactive order back to when the paying parent’s income increased.
Guidance and legal advice from an experienced family lawyer
Child support order enforcement can be difficult to navigate especially if the original support order is vague, does not set out a dollar amount for Section 7 expenses or does not specify what constitutes a Section 7 expense. We recommend you get legal advice at the start of your case to ensure that the child support Order you are asking the Judge to make is actually precise enough to be enforceable in the future should your ex stop paying the full amount ordered.
Connect with our experienced family lawyer today for help with enforcing child support or to learn more about child support laws. You can reach Valerie at 604-526-3333 or through her contact form.
Valerie M. Little Law Corporation is a family law firm that is centrally located in New Westminster and serves the surrounding areas of Burnaby, Maple Ridge, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Port Moody, Richmond, Surrey, Cloverdale, Delta, and Langley.