Extraordinary Expenses

North Carolina Divorce Law Divorce and Separation Answers
1

The court order for our divorce was signed in November of 2009. My ex-wife was granted a Child Support of $2100.00 per month. She was not working at the time; this was based on an imputed amount. Since she was not working at the time, there were no accommodations made for Extraordinary Expenses, i.e., before school care, day care.

She found a job last year, and I voluntarily gave her seventy-percent of early care cost. She now has a new, better paying job and wants me to pay early care. I have refused to, without a court order.

In October of 2010, my wife took a new job, which required her to go away to school, through the week. She hired a Nanny, for $1000.00 per month, to stay with the kids. After this school schedule, for seven months, she is now back home. Also, she has since doubled her pay from the imputed amount.

  1. Can she go to court, to get me to pay for early childcare (Extraordinary Expenses) inside of the three year guidelines?

  2. Can she go to court, to get me to pay her a portion of her incurred Nanny expenses, in arrears? (I’m already paying Child Support, doesn’t seem fair to pay an additional amount, because she took a new job that required her to be away)

  3. If she is able to take me back to court for adding Extraordinary Expenses, can her income increase be factored in, to lower CS?

  4. Lastly, our agreement has the following clause in it, concerning alimony:

[color=#BF0000]The Defendant’s obligation to pay alimony shall be modifiable upon a filing of a motion to modify if the Defendant is involuntarily unemployed or his contract with “Company X” is involuntarily terminated or if he becomes disabled and unable to continue his current level of employment.[/color]

Next month, my contract with “Company X” will be terminated, which will result in a fifty percent reduction in my salary. My ex-wife says alimony cannot be modified even though our agreement states the above. I disagree. Can our alimony be modified, based on above statement in final agreement? Can our CS be modified, base on this large reduction?

2

Child Support should not be modified upon motion until three years have passed since entry of the last order, even if a judge allowed her motion to modify, her new income would be used in the calculation, no arrears will be ordered as the child care costs were never a part of the order.
The alimony can be modified pursuant to the language in the agreement.