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  • Joint Divorce & Child Support

    Hello,

    My ex and I have filed a joint divorce. We included our separation agreement in our affadavit however, we did not ask any part of the agreement to be made into an order. Everything is sorted out and agreed upon, nothing at all in dispute. Table amount of child support is being paid.

    I was on a website looking for something unrelated and saw this:

    Q & A : I’ve been ordered to pay support. What happens now?

    When an Ontario court orders you to pay support, the court also automatically sends a “support deduction order” to the Family Responsibility Office (FRO). This gives us the authority to ask your employer or income sources to deduct support payments from your wages and forward them to FRO.

    I was wondering...because support wasn't technically ordered - but the court is obviously aware of the children and support from our documents will they forward to FRO or is that for court orders where parties didn't agree?

  • #2
    As soon as a SA is filed with the court, it is considered a court order.... from my understanding.

    This happened in my case - I filed the SA in order to file a Motion to Change. It was automatically sent to FRO and they began enforcing the CS.

    When a temporary order was given by a judge to change the CS, that order was also updated with FRO by the courts.

    Not sure in your case if it being an attachment would count, but if you are looking to change anything in the SA, it will need to be filed.

    Comment


    • #3
      No you will not automatically be registered with FRO. If you read the fro website you will see out of court settlements may be registered, but it is optional. Should you want to go through fro, you can.

      I registered my agreement years ago and looked into this issue at that time.

      Comment


      • #4
        HD is right.....FRO goes on to say this on their site

        If you would prefer to arrange for support payments to take place privately, without FRO’s involvement, you can withdraw your case.
        Source

        HD, how is the weather down in "the Hammer"? I was down there this past weekend

        Comment


        • #5
          Thanks for the replies everyone. So to confirm then there's no reason to be concerned that fro will step in here, it would only be id we registered to have them do so?

          when it says you can withdraw your case...there really isn't a case to withdraw so I'm confused....

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by upinontario View Post
            Thanks for the replies everyone. So to confirm then there's no reason to be concerned that fro will step in here, it would only be id we registered to have them do so?

            when it says you can withdraw your case...there really isn't a case to withdraw so I'm confused....
            Yes and no ... It appears in your situation the FRO would not automatically be involved.

            BUT ... if at any point in time either you or your ex wants to deal with the FRO then either of you can. U don't need the others "consent" (ie. The support payor is 1 day late and recipient wants to be an ass and file with the FRO, they can.

            In order to WITHDRAW once they are involved, you BOTH need to sign off

            Comment


            • #7
              Just be careful, UP. I didn't ask to deal with FRO, neither was I aware that I would be after filing our SA (that was signed out of court 5 years earlier).

              If your SA ever gets filed with the courts in the future (if or when you want to make changes to it), the CS will be registered with FRO by the courts.

              At least, that's what happened to me.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by FWB View Post
                HD, how is the weather down in "the Hammer"? I was down there this past weekend
                The weather is cold and I hate the cold. I was born in the wrong country for my climate taste

                Comment


                • #9
                  My divorce order contained the summary of our separation agreement, including the support clauses, so it was registered with FRO automatically. There was a bit of confusion but when my ex saw that her payments would be delayed coming through FRO, she signed the withdrawal form and I continue to pay her directly.

                  On the other hand, my new partner's divorce order did not contain any supplementary clauses at all (simple divorce) but her separation agreement did. Her agreement was not part of the court's orders so it was not filed with FRO.

                  I believe you fall into the later category.

                  You can, however, later register your domestic agreement with the court house at which point it can be submitted to FRO for enforcement. This can be done at any time, for any reason, by either party, even if the agreement specifically states it should not involve FRO.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    but when my ex saw that her payments would be delayed coming through FRO, she signed the withdrawal form and I continue to pay her directly.
                    And I bet you were shocked at that gesture?

                    I was born in the wrong country for my climate taste
                    If I didn't know you any better, I'll say you were trying to pull the "entitlement card"

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by FightingForFamily View Post
                      My divorce order contained the summary of our separation agreement, including the support clauses, so it was registered with FRO automatically. There was a bit of confusion but when my ex saw that her payments would be delayed coming through FRO, she signed the withdrawal form and I continue to pay her directly.

                      On the other hand, my new partner's divorce order did not contain any supplementary clauses at all (simple divorce) but her separation agreement did. Her agreement was not part of the court's orders so it was not filed with FRO.

                      I believe you fall into the later category.

                      You can, however, later register your domestic agreement with the court house at which point it can be submitted to FRO for enforcement. This can be done at any time, for any reason, by either party, even if the agreement specifically states it should not involve FRO.
                      As I've mentioned in the past, this can be done before it is registered with the courts, if the agreement is clear and unambiguous. My agreement stated clearly we wouldn't go to FRO unless I had been late. Within two weeks of having it signed, my ex filed it with FRO. This was three months before I started filing for divorce. So I found out first hand that it can be done.

                      Comment

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