there are many of us struggling to get maintenance from a self-employed ex,
myself included. I'm not sure there are many words of wisdom I can give
you, other than you need to go through the CSA and prepare yourself for the
fall out. A good accountant can make much of a company's profit disappear
so if your ex wants it this way, you'll probably never get more than a
minimum payment. However, it is possible to ask for a 'variation'
based on lifestyle - so if he's declaring an income of £8k a year
but has 3 foreign holidays and is driving a new car each year, something
isn't quite right!
The CSA are a less than efficient
organisation and you need to be persistent with them. I first claimed in
April 2009 and they only now seem to have got their act together! I would
advise making a point of regularly phoning them (at least once a fortnight
- my friend did it every day for 3 months before they got fed up of her and
actually got her some maintenance!)
I find the
child support thread on the Money Saving Expert website
very knowledgable (and equally very depressing, whichever side of the fence
you are sitting on) so it's worth having a look there at what might lie
ahead for you.
I would say it's worth trying to keep things as
amicable as you can with the ex, in effect to lull him into a false sense
of security and hope he tells you things that might be useful - name of
company (or new companies if setting up others), website addresses, where
he's going on holiday, name of his new boat, cost of the engagement ring
for the girlfriend, name of girlfriend...!!! Also if you get to the point
of getting Liablity Orders (where I'm at now), knowing details of the bank
accounts he holds, credit cards, car registration etc. comes in useful
('cos at some point they'll be sending in the bailiffs or hijacking
accounts for money!).
You can set up free alerts to new
directorships on
www.snoop4directors.co.uk (or something like that!) and I
would strongly advise that you do this, not only for your ex but for anyone
you think he might trust (family members, new partner) as it's not
inconceivable he'll put all assets into someone elses name. My ex tried
this - I was alerted to it - new company in girlfriend's name only, he
denied to his solicitor knowing anything about it. So, I got a wiki friend
to make an enquiry to his current company and lo and behold, the letter and
information that came back, signed by him, was all in the name of the new
company! They tried it again - I'm sure they thought I must be spending a
fortune having them spied on! The world is not the place it used to be -
it's possible to find out an awful lot for very little these days if you
know how to go about it!
Also worth getting publicity info from
his company sent to somewhere he won't know about once in a while in case
he's changing his tune in some way, charging more, charging less, branching
out into something you know nothing about....simply get an unknown person
(or fictious) person to make an enquiry, you just need an address
information can be sent to that he wouldn't suspect.
Hope that
helps. My ex is devious but didn't count on me! Whilst he is assessed for
maintenance for far less than he should be by the CSA and refuses to pay
it, I know it will all one day catch up with him. In the meantime, I'm
just about managing and we're free of his nonsense. Priceless, as the
adverts say!
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