FRO Disagreement

[badkarma]

Two years ago my ex was court ordered to pay arrears of $12000 at $100/month through FRO, in addition to his regular monthly child support of $600/month. All went well until November and December when he made only partial payments, putting him behind about $400 + 2 arrears payments if $100.
I asked our FRO agent what would be done to obtain the payments and she said "nothing...it will be added to his arrears and he pays $100/month toward that". She even went so far as to say that he could miss six months of payments and it would just be added to his existing arrears and he would still only pay $100/m toward it.
This is wrong - the court order covers only the original $12000 lump, not any future arearrs he might incur. When I disagreed and said I wanted to question the matter with someone above her she shut me down. I don't want to waste anymore time with her - who do I contact at FRO and how? Their website doesn't exactly encourage questions. Thanks in advance!

[rockscan]

They cant force him to pay. They can enforce an order and once he gets into arrears of $2500 and up they will take his license and passport etc. if hes only behind say $500-1000 they dont do anything yet. Yes he has an order to pay back $12000 but its been broken down into a payment plan so its less than that per month. Hes not considered owing FRO $12000 in arrears, hes considered owing you $100 per month. As long as he keeps the amount owing to FRO below $3000, hes not going to be punished.

Yelling at FRO gets you nowhere so dont waste your time or theirs.

If you know where hes working, give that info to FRO and they may be able to garnish his wages.

FRO isnt like a bank where they have to make sure the customer is happy. Speaking to a higher up or manager gets nothing.

[badkarma]

Thanks for the speedy reply...makes sense, unfortunately. He has been very adept at finding all the loopholes through the years. Will be glad when I no longer needvto deal with him or FRO anymore! :-\

[rockscan]

Look at it this way, at least youre getting something. Many recipients with FRO never get anything.

[badkarma]

Very true...

[Beachnana]

In a similar situation. Court order for arrears on section 7 expenses plus an additional amount for costs which was deem an instance of CS so enforceable by FRO. Plus ongoing support payments.

Firstly. There is nothing to be gained by getting mad at the FRO contact. You get more with honey than vinegar. I have made a point of praising the FRO contact and have gotten further than we have ever done.

The arrears are separate from the monthly payments. Roskcan is correct that there is a $3000 threshold for enforcement procedures to kick in. They can start with a Federal garnishment order which means any tax returns will be automatically garnished. Then they would go after licences and passport. FRO have to petition the court so it cost them money which of course they are not too keen to spend.

However if he plays a game and let's the arrears go to just under $300 and t'hen pays some off and if he continues to miss payments and pays in odd payments amounts then you can ask that an order to garnish from his source of employment be started. It takes several months for this to be set up. In our case 6 months because he works for the federal government. But once in place it is virtually impossible to reverse.

They do not like payers to play the system so best to keep monitoring the payments and gently remind the FRO contact that he has indicated to you that he knows he does not have to pay it.