In short
Unpaid maintenance is the collection of the ruling that is in force. The side that finds the amount low opens an action for an increase. The types are in the types of maintenance. A change of amount is in the writing an action for an increase of maintenance. In enforcement on a judgment, the classic objection of enforcement without a judgment is not waited for.
The first practical order
- Place the maintenance judgment that has become final and the breakdown of the account side by side.
- Do not assume "there was an attachment" before a file of enforcement on a judgment is opened.
- The side that finds the amount low chooses an increase. The side that cannot collect chooses the door of enforcement.
What is the first step when maintenance is not paid?
If maintenance was not paid on its due date, first check the court decision, the day of payment and the bank movements. Then the starting of an enforcement for the amount that was not paid may be assessed. The maintenance debtor saying "I will not pay this month" does not stop the obligation. If the debtor thinks the economic conditions have changed, they should ask the family court for a reduction or a lifting. They cannot cut the payment by their own decision.
Making a written and calm reminder of payment in the first days may help separate simple problems such as a wrong account number or a bank delay. If there is violence, a threat or an intense conflict, making direct contact is not obligatory. Waiting for months for an oral promise may make the account of the accumulated amount, and some periods of application, harder.
This content is for general information. A definite result of collection cannot be said before the type of the maintenance, the nature of the decision, the history of payment and the parties' conditions are examined.
Which maintenance decision was not paid should be determined
"Maintenance" is not a single type of claim. Interim maintenance, to protect the livelihood of the spouse or of the child during the divorce action; poverty maintenance for the former spouse after the divorce, if the conditions exist; and participation maintenance for the child, may come onto the agenda. The start date, the creditor, and the conditions of ending or of change of each differ. The basic separations are explained in the guide the types of maintenance.
Before the enforcement, the operative part of the decision should be read carefully:
- In whose favour the maintenance was given
- The monthly amount and the start date of payment
- The expression about the day or the period of payment
- Whether there is a yearly rate of increase, or a method
- Whether the interim decision changed with a later ruling
- Payments made earlier, and set-offs
For example, interim maintenance given during the action may turn into a different amount in the final ruling. Asking for two amounts together for the same period creates a risk of a duplicate collection. If a separate amount was determined for each of the children, the child's coming of age, or another change, should be examined separately as well.
How is the record of payment and the account of the debt prepared?
The most practical document of a maintenance file is a payment schedule prepared month by month. It starts from the date of the first due date in the decision. For each month, the amount that should be paid, the amount that was actually paid, the date of payment and an explanation are written. If there is a ruling of a yearly increase, it is applied on the correct date and with the correct measure. Transfers without an explanation should not be disregarded either. Whether they are maintenance or another debt should be looked into.
Documents that support the schedule may be these:
- A copy of the court decision, or of the interim decision on maintenance
- The reasoned decision and, if there is one, the information of becoming final
- Bank account statements of the relevant period
- If there is a payment by hand, a signed receipt or a written acceptance
- Messages between the parties about the payment
- The account breakdown of an enforcement file opened earlier
- The data of the relevant period of the official indicator used in the ruling of increase
When the calculation is made, a gift taken for the child, a direct payment to the school transport, or a market purchase should not be written by themselves in the place of the monthly maintenance. For a set-off, the content of the decision and the parties' open agreement are examined. In the reverse direction, disregarding a maintenance payment that was really made and claiming it again also gives rise to a dispute of an unlawful collection.
How is an enforcement started for a maintenance claim?
In the collection of maintenance that rests on a court decision, the path of enforcement on a judgment comes onto the agenda. On the application of maintenance decisions, the subject of becoming final and of enforceability should be taken up carefully according to the type of the decision. A general result of the form "the divorce decision has not become final, no maintenance can be asked for" may not be correct. The copy of the decision that will be presented to the enforcement, and the start date of the ruling, are checked.
The general order of the steps is this:
- The decision and the period of the debt are determined. It is established which type of maintenance was not paid in which months.
- The payments are set off. Bank records and payments by hand that were accepted are entered in the account month by month.
- The competent enforcement office is assessed. The place of the enforcement is chosen according to the connections of the party and of the place.
- The request for enforcement is prepared. The basis decision, the principal claim, interest in accordance with the procedure if there is any, and the information of the period are shown.
- The service of the enforcement order is followed. The debtor's current address and the steps of service are followed.
- If there is no payment, steps of collection are asked for. Lawful paths of attachment about a salary, a bank account or suitable assets may be assessed.
- The continuing months are followed. It is secured that the new due dates and the accumulated debt are separated correctly in the account of the file.
The technical form of the enforcement is closely tied to the maintenance ruling being written openly. If the date of payment is uncertain in the decision or in the protocol, a dispute of the account may arise. For the general logic of the paths of enforcement and the debtor's options of application, the content an objection to enforcement may also be useful. It should not be forgotten that the arrangement of objection of maintenance enforcement on a judgment differs from enforcement without a judgment.
Options of attachment and of collection
If the debtor does not pay, a salary, a bank account, a vehicle, an immovable, or suitable rights and claims with third persons, may be looked into in the enforcement file. Not every item of assets is subject to the same rule. There is income and property that cannot be attached by statute. The protective aim of a maintenance claim carries a special importance in some steps of collection.
In an attachment of salary, it should be followed whether the writing sent to the employer arrived, to which file the deduction was transferred, and whether there was a change of work. The debtor not having a registered salary does not end the enforcement. It may affect the actual possibility of collection. If it is thought that they hid their assets, official searches of records and the lawful tools of enforcement should be used, instead of making an accusation by assumption.
It cannot be accepted that every amount that comes to a bank account can be attached in the same way. Claims such as social assistance, some compensations, or money that belongs to a third person, may require a separate examination. The measure of the application of the attachment, and the objections, are assessed inside the own procedure of enforcement law.
A complaint of not complying with the maintenance decision
The maintenance ruling not being performed may, when the conditions have arisen, bring onto the agenda the path of a complaint in the enforcement criminal court. The aim of this path is not only to calculate the money claim. A sanction about the contrariness to the court decision is assessed. The complaint does not start by itself, and it is subject to a period. For this reason the calculation of the period should be made in the particular file, without waiting for the months of non-payment to accumulate.
For the complaint, these points are examined in general:
- There being a maintenance ruling that is valid and applicable
- The due date of the instalment that should be paid having come
- The position of the enforcement step and of the service in accordance with the procedure
- The debtor's defence of payment or of set-off
- The complaint being made within the statutory period
- The earlier steps about the same period of the debt
A decision of coercive imprisonment being given does not remove the maintenance debt. The file of collection and the process of the sanction have separate results. The payment being made, or the debt being in dispute, may affect the assessment of the complaint. Instead of using the threat of a criminal sanction like a tool of personal pressure, the application should be conducted inside the official process.
The debtor saying "I cannot pay" or "I am paying too much"
A loss of work, illness, new obligations of care, or a serious decrease in income, may cause the amount of maintenance to be assessed again. These changes do not leave the existing decision without effect by themselves. The debtor may open an action for a reduction or a lifting in the family court. The creditor may also ask for an increase if the need and the economic conditions have changed. An action for an increase of maintenance takes up this second possibility in detail.
An action for a reduction having been opened does not stop the maintenance that is in force by itself either. Until the court gives a new decision or an interim measure, a payment in accordance with the existing ruling is expected. The debtor really living a difficulty of payment, and avoiding the obligation by hiding their income, are not the same. Data such as social-security, tax, vehicle, land-register and bank records may be searched for by the lawful procedure.
It should not be forgotten that the creditor cannot load onto the debtor, without a limit, all expenses outside the maintenance either. The amount determined in the decision, the sharing of extra expense in the protocol if there is one, and rulings given later, are taken as the basis.
The child's interest and a problem of contact in child maintenance
Participation maintenance is a contribution to the child's expenses of nutrition, housing, education, health and development. A problem of contact with the other parent being lived is not a ground for cutting the payment of maintenance. In a similar way, the maintenance not being paid does not give a right to stop one-sidedly the decision of personal contact. Maintenance, and contact with the child, are two separate legal headings that protect the child's interest and that are subject to different procedures.
The parties' approach of "if you do not pay the money you cannot see the child", or "if you do not show the child I will not give the money", turns the child into a tool of the dispute. Unpaid maintenance should be taken up through enforcement. A decision of personal contact that is not applied should be taken up through the official mechanism peculiar to the delivery of the child and to personal contact.
If the child's expenses have increased in a marked way, a higher amount cannot be written only into the enforcement file. If the ruling of increase in the decision is insufficient, a suitable claim needs to be put forward in the family court.
Preparation of the enforcement in Ankara and in Çankaya
A person in Ankara who wants to enforce a maintenance claim should determine the competent enforcement office by preparing the court decision and the payment table by month. Living in Çankaya, or the decision having come out of a family court in Ankara, does not make a single enforcement directorate obligatory in every case. The debtor's residence and the rules of competence in the law of enforcement are examined together.
The current division of work of the enforcement directorates, the physical address and the method of the electronic step should be checked from the official channel on the date of the application. A file number, a bank account or a unit name in old internet information should not be used. Local density of work may affect the speed of the steps. It does not change the content of the maintenance decision or the obligation of payment.
For the relation of maintenance, divorce and the rights concerning children in a wider frame, the practice area of family law may be examined.
A last assessment
When maintenance is not paid, the safest path is to compare the text of the decision and the records of payment month by month, and to pass to the official process of collection over the correct amount. Oral promises, payments by hand without an explanation, and bargains that tie the maintenance to the subject of contact with the child, may enlarge the dispute. The enforcement, the options of attachment, and the complaint of not complying with the maintenance ruling if the conditions exist, should be assessed separately from each other.
The start date, the ruling of increase and the history of payment of every decision differ. This text does not stand in for a legal opinion. An account of the file that will be made over the documents may reduce the risk of a duplicate or of an incomplete enforcement.
Where the file of collection is read from
The judgment, the breakdown of payment and the separation of the type are placed side by side. An amount of maintenance is not written into this text. The office being in Çankaya does not choose the competent enforcement office. An action for an increase is not put in the place of the collection. The basis is read together with the ruling in the file, Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law No. 2004.
Conclusion
Collection runs with the judgment and with a breakdown month by month. An oral promise does not close the file. An increase is a separate action. Coercive imprisonment does not arise automatically on every delay. Enforcement on a judgment and an objection without a judgment are not mixed. The frame is on the page enforcement and bankruptcy.