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Dealing with daycare invoices. Sorry its long!

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  • Dealing with daycare invoices. Sorry its long!

    Since April of this year child has attended a registered daycare school. Each month the invoice for the fees was scanned and sent to Dad. Initially, he emailed he would not pay his proportionate amount and said that was what child support was for. Eventually, in July Mom contacted her lawyer and he sent a formal request and started the process to go to court and have the daycare fees processed through FRO, as the Child Support was already registered through FRO. He had also ignored all communication from FRO and was in arrears having never paid CS. Lawyer cited the custody agreement that states he will pay proportional to income his share of the section 7 expenses. He eventually agreed, in an email to Mom, to the following process to facilitate payment of invoice as long as The court process was dropped.

    The agreed process:
    Invoice received by mother by 4th of the month, scanned and sent by email to Father who will calculate his 60% ( the agreed portion % based on income) and send payment by interact by 15th of each month. The arrears were to be paid in 3 instalments by post dated cheques.

    Aug, Sept and Oct bills were duly sent but no payment was made. One of the posted dated cheques bounced.

    In November, Mom drafted her own email to Him to remind him that he had not paid the daycare fees and also was 10 months behind in child support and she was submitting the daycare expenses to FRO to action payment proceedings. She contacted FRO and was told that she could submit the arrears for daycare and they would go after him with a licence suspension and garnish wages. He works for the military and they take a very dim view of non paying Dads. FRO actually started the process ( new contact person, and he was really good) his name was sent to the Credit Bureau, so that seem to wake him up.

    Suddenly all was paid! Money sent thro FRO to her and then an interact payment of all the daycare fees arrived. Great ? Well now the problems begin.

    He did not check about exactly how much he owed for CS and in a previous email she had mention it was over $3000 owing so he overpaid to FRO for CS. He did not bother to do the calculation himself. He was furious, blaming her that FRO now had held onto the overpayment to cover the next 2 months. So now he has decided she is too blame and he does not trust her sending the invoices from daycare to him. He has now emailed Mom,and informed her that he wants to receive the past, present and future invoices directly from the daycare provider. Until he has access to the daycare account he will not pay anymore daycare fees. His reason, " you could have tampered with the invoice". He contacted the daycare provider, he has been given all this information previously, and asked to receive past invoices and in future the monthly invoices and he would pay what he decided to pay directly to the daycare provider. They informed him, that as the contract was with Mother not him, they could not do this without her permission and also that this would be a lot of extra work for,the clerk and not something they usually do. They can send him a copy of the tax receipt which will have total amount charged in the year, which he could check against total he had been given by Mom.

    He contacted Mother and informed her of the communication he had with the accountant at the daycare. She declined to give him access to the daycare account, as it contains her private billing information such as visa number. In November The daycare service went paperless and you log in each month and retrieve your latest invoice. Again all your personal information is in this account. So in November the invoice was downloaded and forwarded. The Dad paid it along with the arrears No problem. Now he has suddenly decided he wants more control and wants to get the invoices from source and initially said he also,wanted to pay the daycare directly. He said it was in their agreement and in The Family Law Act that this is how it done. It is not in the agreement and I checked the FLA and could find any reference to this. The agreement states that section 7 expenses shall be paid proportionate to their incomes.

    He then sent a full copy of the custody agreement to the secretary saying he had shared custody and therefore was entitled to get all invoices directly from them, not through Mother as he had been doing so up to now. The agreement actually states that they have Joint Custody and the child resides with the Mother. But not sure what he thought sending this document to the secretary would achieve, only to embarrass himself, as it refers to his problem with alcohol.

    So question?

    How do we handle this?

  • #2
    What is the big deal with daycare invoicing him 60% of monthly bill (or whatever his percentage is)?

    As long as he pays his portion, that's all that should matter.

    VERY easy for daycare to generate 2 invoices instead of one.

    Comment


    • #3
      The daycare provider has said they do not send duplicate invoices out. Too much work for staff. They have a contract with one person or couple and receive one payment. There only suggestion was to have 2 separate contracts and invoice every other week to each parent. But they will not make equalization arrangements so if one week has less days because of statutory holiday, snow days then thats a bonus for the parent paying that week. Mom had thought she could suggest Dad takes over the contract for daycare, signs a contract and is responsible for payments and Mom can send him the 40% upon the receipt of the invoice. But as he has not bothered to pay promptly, in the past, she is concerned that he will forfeit payment and she will loose her space, which he would love. They live 1000 miles apart so he will not be able to help.

      Comment


      • #4
        I would simply have your daughter pass along the information to the father and let him take it up with the daycare to arrange direct payment if he so chooses.

        You have made it very clear in your past posts that the father is:

        1) a drunk
        2) member of armed forces
        3) has another family
        4) is unreliable financially

        Did I miss anything?

        Really, you should step aside and let the parents work this out in my opinion. Encouraging/initiating litigation (as you mentioned you want to start a contempt of court action) is in the best interests of the child how?

        Comment


        • #5
          First, section 7 expenses should be calculated AFTER tax. The mother is no doubt submitting a claim to CRA with her income tax, and depending on the ages of the children, claiming a deduction of up to $7000 per child.

          The proportional split is on the after tax amount. I'll leave that up to you to calculate.

          Second, there is no reason the father cannot pay the daycare directly. He does not have to be invoiced, all he needs to know is who to make the cheque out to, and what the amount is. This can be verified by one letter from the daycare. He should pay about 7 months of the daycare (assuming 12 months in total.)

          If you cannot come to an agreement between you, then get total cost for the next year from the daycare in writing, file a motion for payment of section 7 based on that amount pro-rated monthly. Use that order with the FRO to garnish the daycare costs ongoing, not just the arrears owing.

          I don't see any point in jumping through any other hoops. A party is either co-operative and willing to find a solution, or they are hostile and unwilling. There should not be a fight over this, and if the father is fighting, just get an order and go through the FRO and be done with it.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by arabian View Post
            Really, you should step aside and let the parents work this out in my opinion. Encouraging/initiating litigation (as you mentioned you want to start a contempt of court action) is in the best interests of the child how?
            This would be a simple motion that would be rubber stamped.

            When there is an existing order that is not being adhered to, it is not "encouraging litigation." They would not be going to trial, and don't really even need a lawyer. There is nothing to argue.

            Comment


            • #7
              I agree with you Mess. In one of the previous posts OP indicated she was considering a contempt motion (she must have edited it out). My remarks of not "encouraging litigation" was related to that, and in no way was intended to negate enforcement of an ongoing order.

              Comment


              • #8
                Oh I do let them sort it out. I merely go to the forum for all your candid and to the point advice so she can see all sides of issues and make the best choice of action. I do not interfere in her dealings with ex, just post the questions with her providing the information and she reads the results and makes decision. I am retired so have time to research etc.

                Thanks for all your advice. Its always grounding and often calms down the screaming feelings when faced with unnecessary hassles.

                She is going to contact daycare provider and ask that they send the extra invoice from now on. And ask him to let her know how much he has paid so she can make up the rest. She has already told him that when her tax rebate comes in she will give him 60 % of the amount claimed against daycare. Its just frustrating that he keeps changing the process when he wants.

                But as you say is it worth the hassle. Probably not!

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Beachnana View Post
                  Since April .......

                  So question?

                  How do we handle this?
                  Dad sets up his own account with daycare, pays 100% of fees and submits 40% of invoice to Mom.

                  If Dad doesn't pay, daycare can hound him.

                  (Sorry if this is already mentioned. Limited data on my phone.)

                  Comment

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