Child Maintenance

Child Maintenance

• If you need to bring an Application for Maintenance for your child or children, complete the form here, and take it to your local Magistrate’s Court.
• When the circumstances of your life change, Child Maintenance should change, complete the form here, and take it to your local Court.
• If there are arrears owing to you, the Magistrate’s Court form attached hereto is applicable.
• The Courts want you to bring to the Court your FICA documents, the child’s birth certificate and proof of your expenses or arrears, so your bank accounts are normally needed.
• While it’s ideal to do your own case without assistance, in some instances you may need help.
• If you have complex financial affairs or you have got to the point where you can no longer manage on your own, we can assist where you can afford it.
• If you need more, we can subpoena those bank accounts and see if he (or she) really cannot afford…usually he can.
• We can attach his pension, attach a bank account balance or a property if the arrears are large enough.
• Sometimes just one consultation is worth it. 
• For more information on the current Randburg Maintenance Court Practice Directive, please read this document. 

Child Maintenance, what to do?

Many years ago I had a client who was in a happy new marriage but her ex-husband paid the absolute bare minimum maintenance and she and her new husband suspected that he really wasn’t carrying a fair share of the children’s expenses. One afternoon she telephoned him to ask if he could perhaps pay her daughter’s swimming fees of R 800. He told her he’d love to help but he was so broke.

A year later when we were in maintenance court and I was cross-examining him, with the bundle of his bank statements in front of me, I asked him to read out to the court what the balance in his bank account had been that day. He nearly choked reading out the answer – “R8500”. I confirmed that this was after all his debit orders were paid and only a week before his next salary payment was due. At that stage I had the joy of asking, so Mr X, isn’t it true that – you’re not broke you’re just cheap !? One of the more satisfying moments we’ve had in maintenance court over the years.

Many people who are carrying the costs of the children with little or no contribution from their ex feel that it’s a waste of time taking them to court as the Ex will simply lie and cover up their income in an attempt to avoid maintenance. It is certainly true that I have seen some men leave their jobs, hand over their businesses to others, put all the assets in their girlfriends name and pull some really stupid moves to avoid maintenance. However, the reality is that it’s not easy to cheat when someone is really pursuing the inquiry. In maintenance court, an applicant is entitled to subpoena any bank for the banking records of a person who owes maintenance. Very frequently the credit card account will show a life very different from the poverty which the ex pleads. I have seen enormous bills for booze and parties, daily spending at a casino which was a big surprise to the ex-wife, visits to “The Grand” and other houses of ill repute. More often, we can show thousands of rands in expenditure going to restaurants and on holiday. One matter in one matter I had a client whose ex spent R8000 a month on life insurance and investment policies, out of a 15,000 salary, but alleged he had no money to contribute to his daughter.

In general, the magistrate hearing a maintenance matter with this kind of evidence will have no hesitation in making a substantial maintenance increase or granting a substantial maintenance claim if it’s a first claim. They are certainly magistrates who don’t really take seriously the large amount of money which it takes to take care of a child, but on the other hand once you have exposed the “lifestyles of the rich and famous” that the ex is living, a better maintenance order usually follows.

Getting a decent child maintenance order can be a marathon rather than a sprint and a great deal of patience is sometimes needed, but for those who do persist, the rewards can be excellent. After all, why should you impoverish yourself and your children and deny them the opportunities that they really are entitled to, just because your ex feels he can get away with R1500 per month.