altering consent order maint. amount

Hello Wiki,

My divorce went fairy well, compared to some, but, my question is:

We have a court agreed order for contact & child maintenance...it is about 9 months old.
Can we vary it & what is involved please.

I would really like to know what documentation is needed to do this.

Any advice would be great or any experiences of this.

I have tried to obtain info. but, am still not 100% sure, do we have to do a full disclosure again with bank statements etc.

Also, about how much might a variation cost.

Thank you for reading.

Janie

What are you wanting to vary and are you in agreement?

Hello Fiona,

Thank you for your interest.

I am wanting to change my daughters contact times, increase the nights with her dad.

Can we just do this ourselves?

Does this mean we have to also alter the child allowance too?

Janie

When you are in agreement it's possible to ask a solicitor to draw up a deed to document the agreement. It isn't legally binding, but it saves the hassle and expense of a variation. Should there be problems in the future it can be produced as evidence and will be considered by the courts.

Was contact set out in the statement of arrangements or is there a contact order? A statement of arrangements doesn't need varying - it's just a statement of the intended arrangements at the time of divorce so that the judge knows the children have been catered for before granting the divorce.

As far as CM is concerned it isn't usually worth applying for a variation. A year after the order either party can apply to the CSA for assessment and two months later the order will cease to have effect.