SM to be reduced by 50%

Hi,

My husband has approached his ex , who has been co-habiting since July 2011 to vary the spousal maintenance.

Absolute & Consent Order agreed in November 2008. CM stopped in June 2011 and just SM on joint lives basis.Sons 19 and 22. Ex received 85% of marital assets plus maintenace.

She admitted in writing that she is co-habiting(shock!),that her partner contrbutes to the household, but that she lost a lot of money when my husbands son finished college and she lost child & family tax credits and child maintenace,etc.., plus the partner pays child maintenance for his daughter.

She has proposed a drop of 50% in the maintenance to be re-visited each year??, linked to RPI (as it currently is) and with provision to re-vert to the original order if her circumstances change (end of reltionship, illness or death of partner.

1.What is the process to make this agreement formal?
2.When could the payments be reduced?
3.Can a longer term be agreed with staged reductions over a period of years to a nominal amount?

My husband is going to proceed carefully and it seems as if she does not want to go to court.

We have a good solicitor, but want to understand the process to vary the payments before we respond or see the solicitor so we are clearer on the options are and keep the costs to the minimum.

I have gleaned form wiki that a new order could be written for the variation. Would this mean we did not have to go through the process of ocmpleting form E, etc..
And would this replace the original order, so that it could not be re-verted to if her circumstances changed as detailed above?

Any help on clarifying this would be greatly appreciated.

If they are doing this by agreement they should have a consent order drafted and implemented in the usual way, what he must not do is reduce payments because his ex says its fine, or she could enforce the existing order and ask for the rest of the money.

So its nice and simple have a consent order written, see what your solicitor wants to do the job, the wiki solicitors charge £139 just so you know.

Hi,

Many thanks for the quick reply.

We will contact the solicitor and take it from there.

I will post the progress for those that might be in a similar position.

Its great to have Wiki to rely on to answer questions.

Great site and great help, comfort and support thorough the difficault and sometimes complicated process of Divorce.

saabgirl if you like you could add a testimonial if you think wiki is helpful?.

Hi Dukey,

I will consider writing a testimonial,if you can tell me how to do it?!!

Thanks.

Erm ah yes well hmm, your asking the least techy guy on planet earth, I think if you click on the balloon that says just say thank you or click community and it''s in announcements, it should be on your home profile page also.

Anyone you actually knows what they are talking about chip in, and I mean really help, go on don''t just read it tell the lady how it''s done

Hi,

Thanks Wikiteam,
I will reserve judgement about how simple it will be once it has all gone through.

My husbands ex has suggested the reduction, so there is agreement, but I am not sure she is very clear about the process.

I think she does not realise that a new order will be needed and that she cannot revert to the old order if her circumstances change for the worse, but will need to re-negotiate an upward variation of the maintenance and that her right to apply for a variation will need to be included in the new order, even if the order is eventually reduced to a nominal amount.

Hopefully this will not change her mind.

Thanks.