Can I stop paying my ex maintenance?

"I have been paying my former wife maintenance every month since our divorce. My circumstances have changed and I believe the payments are no longer fair. Can I simply stop?"

The short answer

Not on your own say-so. If your maintenance is set out in a court order, that order binds you until it ends on its own terms or the court changes it. Stopping without permission does not end your obligation. It simply creates a debt, and that debt can be enforced against you. The proper course is to ask the court to vary or end the order, and to do so promptly.

Why stopping is the wrong move

A maintenance order is an order of the court. It is not a private arrangement you may abandon when it no longer suits you. Every missed payment becomes arrears. Your former spouse can apply to enforce those arrears, and the court has real teeth. It may make an attachment of earnings order so that payments come straight from your salary. It may impose a charging order over your home. In serious cases of wilful refusal, it may go further still.

There is a second, quieter cost. A judge later deciding whether to reduce your payments will look at how you behaved. A payer who stopped unilaterally arrives at court on the back foot. A payer who kept paying and applied properly arrives with credibility intact. In this area of law, that matters a great deal.

When maintenance ends by itself

In some circumstances spousal maintenance ends without any further application. Under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, an order for ongoing payments ends automatically if the person receiving it remarries or enters a civil partnership. It also ends on the death of either party.

You should also read your order carefully. Many orders are made for a fixed term, ending on a stated date or event. Where the court has directed that the term cannot be extended, your obligation stops on that date and your former spouse cannot ask for more. Where there is no such direction, they may apply to extend the term, but only before it expires.

Asking the court to change the order

If none of those events has occurred, your remedy is an application to vary or discharge the order under section 31 of the 1973 Act. The court will consider all the circumstances, including any change since the order was made. It may reduce the payments, end them, or set a date by which they will stop. It may also order a single lump sum to buy out the ongoing liability altogether, giving both of you a clean break. The changes that most often justify an application are a genuine fall in your income, redundancy or retirement, or a real improvement in your former spouse's finances. Cohabitation is a frequent concern. If your former spouse lives with a new partner, maintenance does not stop automatically, because cohabitation is not remarriage. It is, however, a highly relevant factor, and the court may well reduce or end payments where the new household has changed their needs. If you have already fallen behind, tell your solicitor at once. The court has power to write off arrears in suitable cases, and arrears more than twelve months old cannot be enforced without the court's permission. Those rules can help, but they are no substitute for acting early.

What if there is no court order?

If you pay under an informal agreement, the position is different but not simple. Your former spouse may still apply to the court for a maintenance order if no final financial order has been made between you. Stopping payments without warning may prompt exactly that application. A written agreement, ideally made into a consent order, gives both of you certainty.

Child maintenance is a separate matter altogether. It is usually governed by the Child Maintenance Service rather than the court. It cannot be stopped because spousal maintenance ends or because you disagree with how it is spent. If your income has changed, the proper step is to ask the Service to recalculate.

Our advice

Keep paying, take advice, and apply. That course protects your position and gives you the best prospect of a fair reduction or an end to payments. Every case turns on its own facts, so speak to one of our family solicitors before you change anything.

This article is general information about the law of England and Wales and is not legal advice. You should take advice on your own circumstances before acting.

For specialist advice contact Hunter Lawyers at info@hunterlawyers.co.uk