COLLECTION OF ALIMONY

The issue of alimony is almost never purely “technical”, because behind it there is often a family conflict, a change in the child’s lifestyle and an emotionally tense relationship between parents.  

At the same time, the law quite clearly defines that the obligation to support a child does not disappear with divorce, moving, or a new relationship between one of the parents.  

Family law in Ukraine proceeds from a simple idea: at the center is not the conflict of adults, but the interests of the child.  

That is why judicial mechanisms, extrajudicial instruments, and international agreements between states are built in such a way that the child is not left without proper material support.  

Voluntary agreements: when the court is not mandatory  

The least traumatic path for all parties is an agreement.  

An agreement can exist orally, but practice shows that everything that is not legally formalized, sooner or later becomes a source of new claims. Therefore, the best solution is a written or notarized child support agreement.  

In such an agreement, it is possible not only to fix the amount of monthly alimony, but also to prescribe a detailed procedure for their payment, participation in additional costs, and the possibility of revising the terms in case of changes in life circumstances.  

A notarized agreement on the payment of alimony is not a “court decision”, but is the basis for the enforcement of the following:  

• If one of the parents ceases to fulfill their obligations, the other can apply to a notary for the execution of an executive inscription on such an agreement, and this executive inscription has the force of an enforcement document and is submitted to a public or private enforcement officer without the need to go through a separate court process for the recovery of alimony.  

The role of a lawyer and a family mediator is especially noticeable here. A lawyer helps to turn an oral agreement into a legally secure document, explains the consequences of each point, and protects against wording that could be used against the client.  

The mediator works with another dimension: emotions, images, mutual expectations, helping parents move from the position of “winning the dispute” to the position of “agreeing on a decision for the sake of the child”.    

Property in exchange for monthly alimony: when it is real   

Maintaining a son or daughter does not always mean only a monthly alimony payment. The law allows the parties to agree on property forms of security.  

For example, one of the parents may transfer a share in an apartment, residential building or other real estate to the child, and the other, realizing the cost of such security, declares the absence of claims regarding current alimony payments.  

This can also be quite beneficial from the point of view of the child’s long-term interests: he receives a real asset, not just current income.  

At the same time, such a design requires especially careful legal registration. It is necessary to clearly record what exactly is transferred, to what extent, when the ownership right arises, how the parties assess the equivalence of such security with alimony obligations.  

And here again professional support is needed. The lawyer must assess whether the agreement does not create risks for the child in the future and whether the court will be forced to intervene after a certain time if it turns out that the property does not provide even a minimum level of maintenance. 

The formula works only when the contract is drawn up responsibly and with the understanding that the child’s interest is paramount.   

Judicial collection: when it was not possible to agree  

If there is no consent, the law offers a clear judicial mechanism.  

There are two main procedural paths:  

• Applying for a court order 
• filing a lawsuit.  

A court order is a simplified and fast procedure that is suitable when the fact of paternity is not disputed, and there is no dispute over the principle of child support.  

A lawsuit is filed in more difficult situations: 

1. in case of disagreement with the amount of alimony; 
2. the presence of other children; 
3. non-standard income structure; 
4. conflict over evidence.  

The court may determine alimony in a share of all types of income of the payer or in a fixed amount of money. When choosing the method, the court assesses the financial situation of the parties, the real needs of the child, the presence of other dependents of the payer, the state of health, the costs of education, treatment, clubs and everything that really forms the budget for the child’s life.  

Alimony is perceived by many as a punishment, but from a legal point of view, it is a formalized participation of parents in ensuring the normal development of their own child.  

International dimension: when one parent is abroad  

Modern migration in wartime leads to the fact that families often live between different countries: the child lives in one state, one of the parents lives in another, and income is received abroad.  

In such cases, a logical question arises: will the decision of the Ukrainian court on the recovery of alimony be enforced outside Ukraine? Ukraine is a party to a number of international conventions governing the recognition and enforcement of decisions on the recovery of alimony on the territory of other states.  

This means that under a certain procedure, the decision of a Ukrainian court can be recognized and enforced in a country that is also a party to the relevant international treaty.  

For parents, this opens up a real opportunity not just to “get a decision on paper”, but to achieve a real payment of alimony from income received abroad.  

It is at this stage that the role of a lawyer who understands the mechanisms of international legal assistance becomes key:  

• you need to properly prepare a package of documents; 
• to take into account the requirements of foreign legislation; 
• choose the tools for contacting the competent authorities of another state.  

Why is it worth engaging professional support?  

At first glance, alimony cases seem simple: there is a child, there are parents, there is income.  

In practice, this is one of the most delicate areas of family law, where each mistake “at the start” can be resonated with new conflicts, enforcement proceedings, appeals against contracts and decisions for years. 

A family lawyer is not only a person who appears in court instead of a client.  

This is a specialist who:   

1. Builds a general tactic of action, analyzing the situation and clearly determines whether to first follow the path of negotiations and mediation, or immediately prepare for the trial.  
2. It designs a child support model, helps to combine regular cash payments with property decisions, for example, the transfer of a share in real estate or another asset.  
3. Checks the security of agreements: identifies the terms of contracts that seem acceptable today, but may result in financial losses or conflicts in the future.  
4. Provides procedural support: prepares applications, collects evidence, represents the client’s interests in court and controls the stages of execution of the decision.  
5. He understands the international element, so he knows how to use the mechanisms of international recovery of alimony when the payer lives and works outside Ukraine.