Thank you for your enquiry. There are a number of issues that arise from your email. The first is whether the mother is coping with the children and whether she is providing them with an adequate level of care. If not, then dad needs to consider whether it is in their interests to stay more frequently and whether your housing could be sorted out to accommodate this.

However, if he does not believe that it is in the children's best interests to stay the additional night, then it is extremely unlikely the court would make an order forcing him to do so. The fact that the children sleep on an airbed and the fact that dad cannot commit to the school run is good reason for saying no. The court has to consider the 'Welfare Checklist' when making any orders relating to children. Further details can be found at Children Law.

I would suggest that dad considers what he believes is best for the children; bearing in mind the fact that the mother does not want them at home on Sunday nights and this may affect her level of care. He then needs to clearly tell the mother his reasons. I would suggest that this is not discussed at a contact handover were the children are present and instead they meet in a neutral place to discuss it. He may want to consider mediation to try and resolve these disputes with the mother.

Regards,

Lucy Cohen

Williscroft Solicitors

Thank you for contacting us. I'm not sure what your question is?  Does it cause a problem if she sees the children at school every day?  Contact Orders are often in place to ensure the minimum amount of contact takes place.  Anything over and above is fine providing that the children are not at risk of suffering harm.  Do the children enjoying seeing Mommy at the school gates? Do they enjoy seeing you when they don't expect to? Be led by their wishes and feelings..

Best regards

Harjit Sarang

Best Solicitors LLP

You have a duty to maintain your wife and children.  Please review the amount child maintenance at https://www.gov.uk/child-maintenance.

Once you have established how much this is, you can add it to your ex's other income resources.  At the same time you will try to agree what her earning capacity is.  If she can work without compromising the children, she should do so to try and become self sufficient.  Once you take into consideration her income, benefits and child support you then need to agree what her reasonable needs are.  If she can meet the needs on her income, benefits and child support, she will not require spouse maintenance.  If this is the case, you may want to agree that she receive a nominal maintenance figure of £1 per annum.  The purpose of this clause is to keep her maintenance claim against you 'live' until her remarriage or until the youngest child completes full time education.  She will need to keep the claim live because her income position may change and she may need to increase that £1 upwards in order to make ends meet. 

If you want to sacrifice capital in favour of no spouse maintenance payments, you may be able to do so but make sure you get legal advice to ensure that this is made clear in the court order.

I hope that helps, good luck ;)

Harjit Sarang

Best Solicitors LLP

Unfortunately you are correct that Legal Aid is now only available in limited circumstances. If you have been the victim of domestic abuse from the father then you may be able to apply for legal aid. If so, I would strongly advise you to contact a solicitor for further information about eligibility. If you are not able to get legal aid for advice then you may want to consider mediation. We have more information about mediation on our website:  http://www.williscroft.co.uk/williscroft-mediation-service.

You need to make sure that any arrangements that you make for contact are in the best interests of your child. You will need to consider whether the father has the required parenting skills to care for your baby and if not, how can you give him the opportunity to build those skills without putting your child at risk. You also should consider whether there are any risks to your baby in having contact with their father. It is generally accepted that children have an emotional need to have contact with both parents as long as it is safe. However, it would be extremely unusual for a father to take a baby for long periods, usually short periods of a couple of hours at a time, on a frequent basis, is more appropriate.

Contact can also take various forms, to include:

- Indirect contact by letters, cards and gifts;

-Supervised contact - where there is always someone supervising it

- Supported contact - where a 3rd party is keeping an eye on what is happening   but is supporting the contact rather than supervising it;

- Unsupervised contact.

In your area there will be at least one contact centre and you may wish to contact them for information about how they can help.  There is also lots of useful information on the Resolution website which you may wish to look at.

Good luck!

Lucy Cohen - Partner

Williscroft & Co

Thank you for your question.  However this is a question for an accountant/tax advisor, not a solicitor, as we cannot advise you on this particular point.  I would suggest that you speak to an accountant about this. Please contact info@onlymums.org and they will help you find some advice.

Emma Benyon Taylor

WBW Solicitors

Holidays are often a difficult issue for parents who have separated. The answer to your question will depend on several points which are not mentioned - does the Father have parental responsibility for your grandchild,  does your daughter have a residence order for her daughter and if you live in England and Wales, where the holiday is to take place?

In general parents should try to agree holidays and other matters here both have equal parental responsibility for the children.  This includes agreeing holiday dates and notifying the other if they will be taking the child away, and confirming dates and emergency contact numbers. 

If it is within the jurisdiction of England and Wales, the consent of the other parent is not a legal requirement.  However it is always a good idea to reach an agreement because obviously if Father then wants to take a holiday, he will use your actions as a precedent to not reach an agreement when it is his turn for a holiday.  If the holiday is outside the jurisdiction of England and Wales, then if your daughter has has a residence order, she can remove her child from the jurisdiction for a period of up to 4 weeks a year, again without Father requiring to give legal consent.

If she does not have a residence order, then consent will be required from Father if the holiday is outside the jurisdiction. Irrespective of whether formal consent is required, it is always better to reach an agreement.  It may well be that the holiday you have booked falls within the time that the Father was due to have contact with his daughter.  This may be the source of tension and alternative contact should be offered to him, to make up for any missed time. Ultimately, if court proceedings are taken, the court will usually allow a child to go away on holiday, unless there are good reasons not to allow it. Such as a child being removed from school, or where there is a risk of the parent not returning but they will often expect missed time to be offered.

Mediation might be the next step for your daughter to take, so she and her former partner can discuss the holiday and reach an agreement not only over this holiday, but future holidays. If you live in Scotland, then different laws apply and you must speak to a Scottish solicitor.

Emma Benyon Taylor

WBW Solicitors

The answer to your question depends on whether there is a court order or not? 

If, when you divorced your former wife, you entered into an order by agreement (usually called a consent order) or an order was made by a Judge, that will have determined what should happen to the house.

Usually such an order would say that the person remaining in occupation of the house would need to buy out the other owner's interests and release them from the mortgage on the commencement of cohabitation.  If that person could not afford to buy out the other or release them from the mortgage, then provision is usually made for the property to be sold.  If there is an order, then you must follow what it states.

If there was no order made, and you simply got divorced without sorting out the financial issues between the two of you, then your former wife could make an application to the court asking for the property to be sold and the proceeds divided between the two of you.  It would depend on whether your former wife had remarried to what sort of application she could make to the court.

It would however be best to negotiate a settlement with your former wife before any application is made to the court. I would suggest that you consider mediation as a way to resolve the issues between the two of you which would then hopefully avoid any court application, which could be expensive and lengthy. I would suggest that you go and see either the solicitor who dealt with your divorce or if you did not have one, arrange to see a specialist family solicitor who will be able to answer your question in more detail.

Emma Benyon-Tinker

WBW Solicitors

The answer to your question depends on whether there is a court order or not? 

If, when you divorced your former wife, you entered into an order by agreement (usually called a consent order) or an order was made by a Judge, that will have determined what should happen to the house.

Usually such an order would say that the person remaining in occupation of the house would need to buy out the other owner's interests and release them from the mortgage on the commencement of cohabitation.  If that person could not afford to buy out the other or release them from the mortgage, then provision is usually made for the property to be sold.  If there is an order, then you must follow what it states.

If there was no order made, and you simply got divorced without sorting out the financial issues between the two of you, then your former wife could make an application to the court asking for the property to be sold and the proceeds divided between the two of you.  It would depend on whether your former wife had remarried to what sort of application she could make to the court.

It would however be best to negotiate a settlement with your former wife before any application is made to the court. I would suggest that you consider mediation as a way to resolve the issues between the two of you which would then hopefully avoid any court application, which could be expensive and lengthy. I would suggest that you go and see either the solicitor who dealt with your divorce or if you did not have one, arrange to see a specialist family solicitor who will be able to answer your question in more detail.

Emma Benyon-Tinker

WBW Solicitors

Unfortunately Legal Aid is no longer available for contact cases unless the applicant has some prescribed evidence of domestic abuse or child abuse.

To go to court for contact, an application must be submitted to the court on the form C100. This can be accessed on the Ministry of Justice website. The form needs to be submitted with 3 copies to the court with the court fee of £200. If your income is below a certain level then you can apply for a fee exemption from the court.

Once you have made the application, an appointment will be made for the parents to attend court. At that first appointment the Judge should identify the issues of the case and decide what needs to be investigated and by whom. Cafcass should also be present and should have undertaken checks with Social Care and the Police in advance of the hearing.

You need to bear in mind that a contact case can take many months through the court and it may even take several months before the first appointment. The court will also expect the applicant to have a form completed by a mediator to say that the parties have tried mediation. Without this form then the court may refuse to issue the application.

I hope this helps and good luck!

Lucy Cohen - Partner

Williscroft & Co Solicitors

Thank you for your question.

Your question however relates to Scottish Law, and I am Solicitor who is qualified in England and Wales.  Scotland has a slightly different legal system, and you therefore need to speak to a Scottish Solicitor to seek advice about your query.

Emma Benyon-Tinker

WBW Solicitors