What recourse to separation agreement do we have?

(deleted for safety, sorry)

Husband agreed to pay this, however due to violence of eldest child, he had to change custody so that mother takes full custody. In addition, the ex-wife is putting into the calculations with the county what she calls the extraordinary expense of having to make a 20 mile round trip to drop off the younger children at their schools since they are registered in our district.

The ex-husband cannot afford to pay the extra in child support, but it is unsafe to bring the violent child back in the home. As is the ex-husband’s rent 1/2 of what mortgage payment is for wife’s home, he hasn’t been paying his student loans. There is good reason to believe that the ex-wife is living either rent free, or heavily subsidized at her home, which is owned by her parents. The wife has also gone out and sought cell-phones, health insurance for the adult child (over 19), and contributes financially to the college support of the adult child, which the ex-husband cannot afford to do.

Although we don’t want to do anything detrimental to the kids, he really cannot afford to pay anything more despite him making more than she does. Is there any recourse for him, if not to lower child support, to get alimony lowered? Or is he stuck between allowing his abuser back in the house or defaulting on his separation agreement contract?

Your husband only needs to pay the current amount of child support, unless and until his ex files a proper motion with the court to modify support.

If and when she does, she will have to disclose all sources of income (including a housing allowance) that she receives at present time.

She’s not filing a motion with the court yet, but has contacted county child support enforcement. We’ve not been given notice yet from them, but she has told us the amount and has stated that they chose to include the mileage for her dropping off the kids every other week in front of our house to get the bus or at their schools as an extraordinary expense.

As she doesn’t consider the rent being paid by her parents as income, she hasn’t disclosed it. She’s only told enforcement about her part-time work. Since she’s not disclosing the pre-paid/discounted rent, is there any way to point this out to enforcement or do we have to file some kind of discovery motion?

LIterally, the ex-husband has been deferring his student loans for 2 years now, just to cover child support plus alimony. Now that child support is going to increase by about 33%, He’s looking at being in the hole $600/mth. What would have to be proven to make a case for “inability to perform”?

(Thx for any help.)

You need to file discovery.

Thanks once again with the help, Erin.

You are very welcome. I wish you the best!