Difference between revisions of "Enforcing Family Law Agreements"

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An agreement about parental responsibilities can be filed in court under s. 44(3) of the ''Family Law Act'' and be enforced through the act's general and extraordinary enforcement powers.

The court can enforce these agreements using its extraordinary power to jail someone, as well as certain other extraordinary powers intended for problems like these. Under s. 231(4), where a guardian withholds parenting time or contact, the court can require a police officer to take the child to the person entitled to parenting time or contact. Under s. 231(5), where a person with contact refuses to return the child to his or her guardian, the court can require a police officer to take the child to his or her guardian.

The court can enforce these agreements using its extraordinary power to jail someone.

When a payor falls behind in his or her support payments or stops making them altogether, he or she is said to be in ''arrears'' of support. This is a breach of the separation agreement which requires the payor to make his or her support payments. Support is often the easiest part of an agreement to enforce.

Once an agreement is filed in court, under s. 148 for child support and s. 163 for spouses support, the parts of the agreement dealing with spousal or child support can be enforced by the provincial Family Maintenance Enforcement Program. This is a free service for the party entitled to collect support and which can be very effective in forcing a payor to meet his or her obligations and monitor ongoing payments.

See the chapters Child Support > Arrears of Support and Spousal Support > Arrears of Support for more information. Additional contact information for FMEP is provided in the Resources & Links section.

 

Where an agreement provides for the specific division or ownership of assets, action can be taken to enforce the agreement in the Supreme Court for breach of contract. Such an application would typically be for an order that the breaching party surrender the property or be compelled to transfer the title of the asset to the innocent party.

 

An application for an order that the agreement be enforced as a contract is called an application for the "specific performance" of the agreement: the applicant want the breaching party to be forced to live up to the agreement and take the steps he or she is required to take to complete the agreement.

 

Both married and unmarried couples can apply to court to enforce the property provisions of a separation agreement.