F.R.O. - any positive feedback?

I forced us into FRO. I am the Payor, and we were not in it for awhile. It started getting increasingly hard to get recipts from her, she said that she did not have a bank account any longer as I used to send CS through the bank so there was a very clear paper trail. I gave her cash (stupidly) twice and did not get a recipt, she did not give me one and I was silly I know. Then I started giving her cheques and she cashed them significantly early. I was told by the bank that a post dated cheque does not have to be cashed on the date that it is posted, and can be cashed anytime at all. So I forced us into FRO. Things went well for a year, except she complained that she no longer for her CS on the 15th, as FRO took 2 days to process. So I got an email every month wondering where it was on the 16th lol, actually I still do and it has been 3 years.
After 1 year of things going well, we are in court and in one of our conference briefs she files a notice of arrears for 3 months when I paid cash to her. I had proof of 1 of the months as backup, and could show that I took out the exact amount of money at an ATM on my way to her place. Since it was a conference it was decided that all arrears will be dealt with at a later time as my ex was obviously confused and her lawyer did not want to deal with my proof. At the next conference she did not bring anything up about arrears and we moved forward on other issues. By the way, her notice of arrears was never signed and not served properly.
FRO is now trying to enforce it and is causing me a giant amount of trouble because of this. Guess you can throw a notice of arrears in with a settlement conference brief, not sign it or anything and not serve it correctly and they will enforce. They refuse to give me a default hearing and are trying to take all my income tax money. They are great.
 
I think a lot depends upon who you have as case worker. My case worker has been very supportive. He always calls me back within a day or two if I leave a message and sometimes even on the same day.

He went on vacation for a couple of weeks and it was a nightmare dealing with the person who took on his cases. She sounded really stressed, was very rude and refused to take any action.

Unfortunately, in my case the payor is in significant arrears and enforcement action has been escalated to suspension of a driving license should he fail to come up with a payment plan within the next 30 days. Hopefully, "he might" consider paying the arrears when faced with the real possibility of having his license suspended.
 
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Just my own little update: thus far (but it's early days) FRO sucks ass. There has been no enforcement action and now the X is not sending CS/SS to me or to them. Right now they are in the "giving him the benefit of the doubt" stage. I have now entered the biggest pinch of all (financially). Hell, I'm even considering OW. I'm disgusted and frustrated :(
 
Hopefully Ontario will improve their system. In Alberta we can go online 24-7 and see all payments made over many years, including interest, costs, etc. Eliminates need to call in and talk to anyone and you get a print out for court or tax filing whenever you need it.
 
Tayken said:
Given two reasonable parents using the FRO shouldn't be a problem.
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NBDad said:
Given two reasonable parents, the FRO shouldn't be necessary at all. They exist solely because not everyone is reasonable and people, more often than not are stupid. (I work in IT, I'm biased...so sue me)
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Given two reasonable parties - Court wouldn't be necessary in the first place. If you're before the court - chances are one or both parties are unreasonable.
 
^ no, not "chances are" - more like GUARANTEED one or both parties is unreasonable and in some cases, just plain nuts!

So wth do do now? Mortgage will be late, and I have NO idea when I will recv any money. Great start to the summer holiday. Please note: ex has the ability to make proper and in full/on time payments. He is doing this on purpose. I know FRO is not going to move any faster on him simply b/c I ask them to. This is f*kt. He has old arrears of over 25k and new arrears piling up (already a few thousand). But let's give him the "benefit of the doubt" (FRO's words).
 
Sorry to hear this Hadenough.

But I am not all that surprised that FRO is giving him the benefit of the doubt and giving you the run around. All I can advise is that you have to keep calling them.

In my case the arrears are related to daycare, speech therapy, hearing aids and ongoing child support.

The last time I spoke to FRO I was informed they were escalating matters to give the payor the option of 1) Come up with a plan to pay off the arrears or 2) face having a driving license suspended.

However, they wanted to speak to him before they sent out the letter with 30 day warning.

They then informed me that they couldn't get hold of him, despite attempting to call him several times at different times during the day and different days. I am assuming he was avoiding the calls. Several messages were left on his answering machine but no response. Finally, when they were able to get hold of him, he informed them he had some paperwork that he would be submitting which would reduce the arrears. I am not sure where this paperwork was 8 months ago when the arrears were first brought to his attention and FRO started enforcement steps. In any case, we have to wait for this paperwork to materialize before FRO can go ahead with further enforcement.

I really empathize with you. It isn't easy having to manage on a tight or no budget. We've been in that position for the past three years and it isn't easy trying to juggle payments every month.
 
I have zero positive feedback on the FRO.

I think that it's stupid to have to go to court to get arrears adjusted. I think that the FRO should automatically table your income based off your income tax every year. Such as how the OCTB works.

I've written a financial statement in Sept. 2011 and volunteer agreement to pay arrears off. I never heard back from them. Everytime I called, I never got the same person either. Which was a pain.

They write me a suspension of my license. Then 5 days later I get a notice that in 14 days they will be garnishing wages at 50%. I didn't have a chance to reply. In 7 days, my wages were garnished by my employer. I'm not opposed to the garnishment, because I want to pay the arrears, however, when I send them material, they don't get back to me.

So I've filed yet another financial statement and volunteer agreement to pay off arrears. Now they are dicking around with me saying it takes 2 weeks to receive mail (even though I put a tracking # on my package) and it says its there. Then I was told after receiving the mail it takes 10 business days to scan into their system where my case worker can see it and review it. This is unacceptable. They take action immediately, but when you submit action to have it decreased, so that you can make at least 10.25 a hour, versus garnishing to where I make 7.50 an hour. They take forever. Where is the justice in these situations?

I told my case worker today, well if you don't hurry up then I won't be able to make my car payment at the end of the month, then I won't have a job, and that means FRO gets no more money from me. So let's do both ourselves a favor and speed the process up.

Immediately said to fax over the information. I said I couldn't because it's 50 pages! Not really, but it's alot. And he said he didn't need everything. I assured him he did, because I don't need them to deny my financial statement at this time. So attached is all the proof of my bills. Plus, I sent the original commissioned paper. If I were to fax, I wouldn't be able to the original. It's frustrating. As you can see. I hate the FRO with a passion.
 
They do take several days to "scan" info in, that's true. But you have a case contact and should always be reaching the SAME person. I speak to one person only. Do you use the automated info-line service? It's 24 hrs a day and regularly updated. You need your PIN # handy. I'd fax over whatever you can. It's the quickest way. They are also overhauling their computer system so I'm *hoping* that means that SOON, info can be accessed/tracked on-line.
 
It takes time because you aren't the only person they're dealing with. Do you actually expect that as soon as you send something they will be processing it?

Funny that you couldn't find the time in SEVEN days to reply when the only paperwork you need to worry about it yours, yet you object to them take 10 - 14 days to get to your paperwork through the hundreds of cases they are dealing with.

They arent' taking action 'immediately', their process is in the works long before you even hear about it. Grow up and take some responsibility for the situation YOU have created. Stop blaming the system for your failings.
 
You've been in arrears since September 2011 but didn't pay - you deserve to have your license taken from you.
 
arabian said:
You've been in arrears since September 2011 but didn't pay - you deserve to have your license taken from you.
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Negative attitude! You don't know why I am in arrears. Automatically assuming what you think I deserve. HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA at you.

I'm in arrears with court costs for court dates I was never "properly" served on and have been fighting the costs since 2011, it's just we haven't been to court due to my ex pushing things back constantly. Not mention that there are support amount issues, in which my ex falsely stated I made a certain amount, which I have never made in my life and child support was never reassessed based on my actual income. Still fighting that. I pay my on-going support payments and other expenses.

Too bad I don't have a Canadian license anyway.
 
I'm pretty grown up, thank blinkandimgone. They did take action immediately. I told my ex I had a job, 2 weeks later I get notices. No big deal. I could careless, but what I do care is about is making it financially difficult and unethical of the system to garnish such wages to lower than minimum wage, especially for something that is still in the works of getting sorted out.

Yalls speculations make me LOL! Typical of most I suppose, you have to explain yourself with an explanation. I get it, legal stuff...
 
Two weeks isn't immediately, it's two weeks. The same two weeks it took for your paperwork to be processed.

As for grown up, you may be a 'big girl', but whining about FRO and in the same thread gloating they can't touch you because you don't have a Canadian licence? Not a fine example of your maturity in dealing with your situation.
 
wah wah wah. You contradict yourself. You state you offered to pay the arrears then you say you've been fighting them since 2011. No credibility. Don't believe anything you say. Loserchick
 
Hahaha! Didn't post to get your lame opinion on my matters.
I posted my FRO experience whether it's a whine or not.

Loser chick, oh you are a mighty intelligent human. Great character on your posts, not to mention what you believe or not are irrelevant to my experience or matter.

It's pretty immediate for being current, as of right now. But that's my opinion and you clearly have yours.

You can tell I am gloating being "untouchable" over the internet. You are smart. You must be an internet guru.
 
I'm no internet guru - Your own posts tell us what we need to know.

Well thank you for telling us about your FRO experience. It is heartening that FRO is doing their job afterall. Happy motoring! LOL LOL
 
I'm in arrears with court costs for court dates I was never "properly" served on and have been fighting the costs since 2011, it's just we haven't been to court due to my ex pushing things back constantly. Not mention that there are support amount issues, in which my ex falsely stated I made a certain amount, which I have never made in my life and child support was never reassessed based on my actual income. Still fighting that. I pay my on-going support payments and other expenses.
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Are you suggesting that you didn't show up at court so they used your ex's numbers for your financial statement/paystub/tax assessment and also that he was awarded costs because you were a no-show?
 
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