MAINTENANCE  LAW

APPOINT TOP CHILD MAINTENANCE ATTORNEYS WHEN CLAIMING CHILD MAINTENANCE 

When dealing with claim for child maintenance you must feel comfortable with the attorney you decide on. When appointing us we guarantee to handle your maintenance claim with professionalism and experience.

​WHAT IS CHILD MAINTENANCE?

Child maintenance or child support is a compulsory payment made by a parent for the financial benefit of a minor child/children following the end of a marriage or other relationship. All parents, whether married or not, living together, separated, or divorced and parents of adopted children, are required to support the financial needs of their children. The child maintenance system ensures that the parent who does not have primary care of the minor child honours their duty to to maintain their child. Maintenance includes the reasonable provision towards the minor child for clothing, housing, dental and medical care, and education. Both parents have a duty to maintain the child according to their respective means and the circumstances and needs of the minor child. If the child’s parents are unable to contribute to maintenance towards the minor child, the biological grandparents may need to pay maintenance

​WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A PARTY FAILS TO PAY CHILD MAINTENANCE?

Your first step would to be schedule an appointment with Tim van Rooyen and Associates. We will analyse your maintenance case, we shall either apply for a new maintenance case to obtain an order from the court to maintenance or to apply for the enforcement of an original order.
 
If a party fails to pay maintenance, it is in the court’s power to order a deduction from a parent’s salary or their savings/investment account for the outstanding maintenance money. This is done by way of an emolument attachment order. 

An order of maintenance made by the court is binding and that means that the child maintenance payment may not be withheld. The fact that a party is in another relationship, moves away or remarries does not suspend an obligation to contribute to maintenance.

What to do if cannot afford to pay maintenance 

Maintenance may need to be adjusted regularly, depending on the changing needs of the child or the financial position of the parents. You can increase the maintenance order or you can decrease the order if you are unable to afford the maintenance that has been ordered by the Court.

​You will need to proof your case to the Court should you wish to do either of the above options. If you want to increase the maintenance you will need to show the court why you require such increase and if you want to decrease the maintenance you will need to proof to the court why you cannot afford the maintenance any longer. The court can set aside an existing maintenance order, make a new maintenance order, decrease a current order; increase a current order or amend a current order.

New orders, enforcement, decreases and increases

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