Father denied any and all info. on kid's education @ college

[Stepmom2-:)]

What can he do? He currently has a child (18) who is in college. They have been estranged for 2 years now due to an upset that took place and the child refused and wouldn't take responsibility so decided to write him and me off (with the backing of her mother, off course). Eventually this has filtered to the other child who is 16.

My husband paid into his child's RESP's so that she could have the luxury of going to college and not having to worry about the costs. The mother took us to court to have his name removed from these RESPs and for her to control and manage them. Since then, we have not received one piece of information pertaining to her enrollment, her grades, anything. His daughter did send a nasty letter saying that he has no rights to her education as she is now "technically" an "adult".

My question(s):
1. Can this be allowed? Does an 18 year old hold all the cards and dictate what info. is released to the father, even though he paid into these RESP's since she was born?
2. How do we go about getting this information? do we have to go back to court??
3. How can we find out if she has enrolled for another year as child support is based on whether she is in school full-time or working after graduation from highschool.
4. Can she claim a car on these RESP's?? The ex received money from the educational funds and we found out monies paid for a car. Can they also take money for gas/parking? Even clothes at the beginning of the school year was taken from the educational account?

What to do????
Stepmom2

[HammerDad]

Simple solution is to reply that he won't pay any amounts until he is provided with copies of invoices from the college.

Then he agrees to pay his proportional share based off of his and his ex's income on 2/3rds the costs of education. This is only AFTER any and all resources existing to the child are used. Meaning, any bursaries or scholars ships etc get taken off the top, then the amount is split.

As for what the RESP is used for, unfortunately I don't think he has any say in it. I would let it go, as it is only going to bite the kid in the butt in the long run when she runs out of money for school and finds out that she isn't entitled to as much support as she thought.

[NBDad]

Well if he's paying child support, then he certainly has a right to be provide proof of enrollment in a full time program.

The RESP he's kinda SOL with respect to it. Though the proportional cost of the education should include the TOTAL amount available in it. Shouldn't be too difficult to determine what was available in it. You know at a minimum what it contained when he allowed his name to be removed.

If she blows that money, too bad, it's still considered part of the contribution before the proportional split occurs. (Basically total cost - available resources (ie. RESP) = total...divide by 3....1/3 is the child's portion, 2/3 split proportional to income between the parents.

What the funds were spent on should not have any effect on the split he's responsible for. Request via R3 letter that the ex provide proof of enrollment full time post secondary by X date. If she refuses, then you file motion with the courts to have her compelled to supply them OR to terminate child support based on the child no longer being enrolled full time.

In regards to his share of post secondary, PAY NOTHING without receipts/proof of enrollment.