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Hi all,
I was looking for some advice from those that have potentially already been through the following:
I have a court order in place at the moment so that I can see my child on specific days (also covers a few other bits that are not relevant). This is currently 1 day throughout the week and then alternate the Friday/Sat/Sun nights every week. School holidays are also halved where necessary and Christmas is worked out between ourselves.
I would like to now amend my court order to increase my days so that I have my child equally (half of 365 days per year). I was thinking of adding one extra day through the weekday per week - taking my days (including holidays) to easily over half of 365 days which is fine.
Q: Would I have to go back to court to fight this and get my court order amended?
Q: Should I mention my intention to my ex partner before going down the court route?
Q: If I managed to get the change through court or out of court with an agreement from my ex partner, would I still need to pay child maintenance?
Q: If the answer is NO to the above question about paying maintenance, how would I go about letting CMS know about this? I assume that they would require some sort of evidence.
Thanks
You have to apply to vary the order you can do that a year after the initial order was granted .
Child maintainxe they work our on how many nights the kids stay with you so if you have them more nights you pay the mum less pretty much ..
Assuming you pay via cms rather than an anount agreed by yourselves and put into a financial remedy order
Thanks Citydad!
In regards to the CMS part, I have seen posts on the Internet where CMS say that 'Nil' is due when it becomes equal shared care hence the reason for not wanting to go off of what the calculator says.
I would assume that given you both have the equal amount of care for the child, if you can prove that then I don't understand why I would still need to make payments to my ex.
hi wizkid,
whenever i spoke to CMS about number of nights and maintenance, they asked me if have a court order that states how often kids stay with me. once i posted a copy to them, they sorted things out without any hassle. so i would say its better for you to return to court to vary your order. but getting 50/50 is not guaranteed and you would have to accept whatever the judges order, if you and ex can not on agree on 50/50 at court. it could be something you don't like, then you just have to stick with the court order.
Thanks Bill,
I assume when you say that they sorted it out, you mean you no longer had to pay maintenance anymore?
I don't mind returning to court, just wish I had done it the first time round I took her to court so I didn't have to pay again but heyho!
Do you think it is worth reaching out to my ex and running the thought by her to get a feel of how I think she will take it.
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