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Hi All
My fiance and I have a toddler and he has 2 children with his ex wife. Its not amicable - the 2 year divorce battle was incredibly stressful, expensive & bitter on her part, stopping only the night before final hearing as she refused to mediate or state what she wanted throughout the process. She is no doubt a high conflict individual. We offered what we originally offered at the start of the process which she finally, begrudgingly, accepted. Deep breath...a £2.5m house with no mortgage, spousal of £30k pa (ending Jan 2021), £20k pa child maintenance and we got to pick up all school fees and associated costs on top of the above - around £40k pa. She got that due to the large discretionary bonuses my partner had in the run up to the divorce so we were left with little choice. Low and behold those bonuses dwindled shortly afterwards (bonuses werr for acquisitions my partner managed for his employer) and my partner has now lost his job. He has been approached with an offer on a job paying £200k (50% lower than the income he had at point of divorce) meaning after tax and above deductions disposable income of around £18k pa to pay mortgage, bills and the 3 kids costs. We would like to try to reduce the child maintenance as well have the children 40% of the time but due to his salary still being slightly over the CMS threshold she could apply to family court for a top up which no doubt she will do. Given we are paying school fees, spousal etc does anyone have any experience of a likely outcome? My partner is nervous in case we get stung for more than the £20k we already pay. Any guidance appreciated...
Unfortunately they are the rules. It sounds like your partner is very well off, but fees should reduce if he is having the kids X amount of nights. I doubt there is anything you can do to reduce the payments, as it is based on his earnings.
They will look at that he gets £200,000 a year and after the £40k payments, he still has £160,000 a year left which is more than enough to live on.
With such large sums, it may be worth going back to his original solicitor to get his advice on the likely outcome as school fees (not including any boarding element) are outside the remit of CMS, I believe. I think for the cost of a consultation, you'll have a better idea of whether it's worth fighting it.
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