In addition to basic child support as set forth in Ruls 32, my decree states that "Each shall be responsible for one-half of school registration expenses and extra-curricular activities, as well as all medical, dental, prescription drug expenses that insurance does not cover".
I appologize for the length, but I thought you might need all the details:
In six years, getting the basic child support has only been late a couple of times. However, the "addidional" support is another story. At first, I did not really push for it because it was only a little money. I would tell him when the kids went to the doctor or had extra bills and he would sometimes give a little extra money. Then four years ago, our youngest child developed Diabetes. His medical bills not covered by insurance soared. His dad increased his child support check from $718 to $750. He did not say why and I assumed that he had "recalculated" the child support and was just sending more (I assumed this because that is what my current husband does everytime he gets a raise.) I started sending notices about the other expenses, but got no money back. The amounts and number of items were becoming extensive so I started keeping up with them on an Excel spreadsheet. Their dad said it would be fine to just email him the spreadsheet. Still, I did not get any money. In July 2005, I told him that he had to settle this debt. He then said that is what he had been increasing his child support check by $32 a month for. So I went back and applied all of those "$32" payments he had made each month and sent him the results. He then paid about half of the remaining debt, $1500. Occasionally he would take the kids and register them for a ball and I would deduct that amount from the balance. He made no more payments for over a year. I started demanding the money and then he decided that he needed "proof" of each item. OK, my bad. I started getting all of the receipts that I could get my hands on, back to 2003. Then our son needed braces, not covered by insurance, and I asked his dad to be financially responsible for them, which he agreed to. He is paying a monthly $106 bill directly to the orthodontist for 30 months. In the meantime, I now have verified every expense and located a receipt for every item on the spreadsheet and am ready to send it to him.
1) Do I need to send this certified mail, regular mail, or can I just hand it to him?
2) I don't expect him to just cut me a check for $4200.00. What is resonable? Should I offer any repayment plans?
3) Can he argue that his $106 orthodontic payment is sufficient?
4) How long should I give him to respond?
5) Assuming that it is not favorable to me, what should be my next steps?
Taking him back to court is not ideal to me. This is not just my "ex-husband", he is the father of my children. Also, we have had an amicable divorced relationship (I would say an 8 out of 10). I don't want to hurt my children by taking their dad back to court, or cause fighting, but I am tired of him stiffing me and his responsibilities.
What to do?
I would send it (minus the original receipts, you may need those for court. Just send copies) return receipt requested.
What does the court order say? If it says that he has to pay in a certain amount of time once he is made aware of the cost, then that is how long he has to pay it. Personally, I wouldn't offer a repayment plan. It wouldn't have gotten so high if he had been paying when he was supposed to. He chose not to.
As for the $106 for braces, that only counts towards his share of the braces, unless that includes your portion of the costs. If it does, he can argue that your portion should be applied to his arrears.
If he doesn't respond within 30 days, then I would take him to court.
divorceinfo.com
Author
