NSW Who Should Pay for Travel Costs?

[Reynastus]

Hi All

I separated from my ex wife approximately 3 years ago. She left overnight and relocated to New Zealand, Auckland, where she now resides with our young son.

We have had a private child support arrangement and over the last year we have finally come to an agreement for contact frequency and duration. We were unable to come to an agreement on who pays however. She has representation and I don't. The part of the parental orders don't mention travel costs at all.

My ex has lodged a formal child support claim and I have looked at lodging a review process regarding the cost of travel but have not had much luck in finding cases that deal with this. The idea being that I pay for all the travel for my son but have it included in the cost of child support. I realise this is not really what child support is used for however had I known this prior to her leaving the country I wouldn't have agreed to her leaving.

The cost of travel per year on top of child support cost will have serious financial impact on me.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Regards

 

[sammy01]

If you are spending more than 15% of your income on travel for the purposes of seeing the kid, then child support should re-evaluate that without the need for court. If you already have court orders pertaining to when you see the child and they don't mention costs then you're screwed. Basically, it will cost way too much to get it to court with not much chance of success.