Enforcing a court order

Hi I am looking for some advice please. I am the Petitioner in my divorce. I divorced my husband for unreasonable behaviour.In April 2013 I got my Decree Nisi and a court order for my husband to pay the full £900 fixed divorce fee. In January 2014 the decree absoulte has been finalised and so is all complete. However, my now ex-husband has still not paid me the £900 that he owes and so ignored the court order from 10 months ago. How can I get this money from him that he owes? Please help.......

I would probably send him a reminder before going back to Court. Mention in it that if he doesn''t pay by ( X date), (give him at least 2 weeks), you will need to go back to court to seek enforcement and a further costs order for the costs of the enforcement claim.

Hopefully this will encourage him to pay if not you are left with little choice but to return to Court.

Hi spud,

May I ask if you have also been through financial remedy and granted a sealed CO dividing all finances? This part is often forgotten but is very important as it ensures no future claims when you might be in a better situation.

To enforce the £900 you could do this yourself through the small claims court, you can also make an on-line claim,

www.gov.uk/make-money-claim-online

This is the most cost effective way to do it, you do not need to use a solicitor.

Best wishes,

NWTT.

Thanks maisymoos,

I have reminded him and he said if the court order is genuine and states he has to pay then he will, but he will be paying at a rate of £50 per month for 18 months. Can he do this?? As I know him very well (we had been together 25 years) I am aware he is being awkward, as he is fully aware of the order and he earns almost £60,000 per year and so it isn''t as if he can''t afford to pay and so needs to pay in small installments. Can he get away with this?

Thanks for that NWTT,

Yes we have a fully sealed Consent Order in place for the financial side of the divorce, and so now the Decree Absolute has been granted and the file now closed with the solicitor i just wondered how i actually get the money he owes for the costs as ordered by the court when the decree Nisi was issued almost a year ago. Also see my post in reply to maisymoos as to his response when I reminded him of the court order.

Cheers.

Hi Spud,

Me and my ex were in court for this very reason last week.When we got our decree Nisi there was also a costs order in my favour. The costs in question were for £642. He ignored this order all through the divorce process so when i sent the consent order to court for sealing i also wrote a letter advising them i still hadnt received my costs.This was in November 2013. As i said earlier we were in court last week. My ex too tried to pay in installments but as he had no proof he couldnt pay he has to pay the amount in full within 14 days.

Good luck

Bulldog

Thanks bulldog for your response. I will bear this information in mind. Can I ask did you have to pay your own costs for taking them to court to enforce the order or do they now have to pay those costs too?

Cheers