An Order by the Court, or a final agreement between the parties, which relates to the financial arrangements between a divorcing couple, is considered to be final. However there are some situations in which the arrangements can be varied.
You cannot vary any of the terms that relate to any capital sums that had to be paid, but you can try to vary the order or terms that relate to ongoing maintenance payments that are that being paid by one party to the other.
The main reasons for the varying of maintenance payments are either that the payer is no longer able to afford to pay the original level of maintenance or that the recipient of the maintenance is no longer able to afford to live off the level of maintenance he or she is receiving.
The court would always hope that discussion between the parties will result in new figures being agreed. If you cannot come to a new agreement then an application to vary the maintenance payments can be made to the Courts.
This application and the procedure are identical to the initial application that was made to resolve your finances but this time you will only be considering the single issue of the maintenance payments. As ever, the costs of the application to court can be high - often out of proportion to the sums that are being argued over.
It is possible when trying to vary a maintenance agreement that the maintenance can be converted into a one-off lump sum in order to finally end any financial reliance of one party on the other.
It is possible to vary other financial arrangements but only in the most extreme cases, usually either because there has been a mistake which fundamentally affects the Order or there has been what is called "material non-disclosure” by one party which if it had been disclosed would have made a fundamental difference to the Order that has been made.
Children
It is also possible to change children arrangements that have previously been agreed or embodied into a court order. Arrangements for children are often considered to be quite fluid as a child's needs, interests and wishes change as they get older. If variations in the children arrangements cannot be agreed between you then the Court would hope that you would next try and agree matters with the use of mediation. If mediation does not work, the Court can intervene and make Orders that will have to be obeyed. In order to see the criteria that the Court will apply please see our section on Divorce and Children.
Sometimes the children arrangements may have to be changed more fundamentally, for example if one party re-locates for work reasons, either within the UK or overseas. In these situations the other party may want to apply for an order to stop the move.
If you or your former partner are considering trying to change existing financial or children arrangements, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will advise you on what can and cannot be achieved - we will not charge you for speaking to you.
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