Family Lawyer Maroochydore

There is no easy answer to this and it depends almost wholly on circumstances such as whether the children are going to stay with you; whether you have the financial ability to rent somewhere else; whether there has been domestic violence in your relationship. Often the Court is left to decide who gets to stay in the house while other matters are sorted, if you can’t work it out yourselves. Theother alternative to this is that sometimes the police will become involved and they will make the decision for you.

The Family Law Act sets out that children have the right to have a meaningful relationship with both of their parents subject to the children being safe from physical or emotional harm. There are other practical considerations that should be taken into account, such as whether you work long hours, or work as a FIFO worker that would make it difficult for you to have the full time care of the children. Working out practical parenting arrangements is the optimum outcome and it certainly beats have a Judge do it for you

On a short term basis, this is likely to be carried on in the same manner as it has been during the relationship. Parents are responsible for maintaining their children and practical considerations (for example, who has always paid, and who has the capacity to pay) need to be considered.

This is the most asked question but impossible to answer without knowing the facts. In short, if one of you wants to keep the house you need to be in a position to re-finance any existing mortgage AND to pay the other party their entitlement.

Child support is a discrete issue and whether you are entitled to it depends on legislative requirements, for example, how often the children are in your care, but also the capacity of the other parent to pay it.

Absolutely not. The majority of separated couples work out their own solution to dividing their assets, and they either do it without court intervention at all, or by preparing and filing in court their consent orders (which is the only way to make a binding agreement).

If your partner has always been the main breadwinner and always financially supported you,
you can make an application to the court for payment to you of spousal maintenance. This can be ordered to be either a lump sum or ongoing periodic payments (or both) but requires a proper investigation of the financial capacity of the other party.

You should immediately speak to a lawyer and organise to file an application for recovery of the children. If you don’t know where the children are, your application can also include an application for disclosure of their address by a government department.

Surprisingly, where the children go to school is often decided by a Judge if you can’t agree yourself. The courts would usually (but not always) order that the children attend school closerto their geographic residence – it’s really a commonsense approach.

The short answer is “yes”. You will need to live in Australia, have your marriage certificate and if it is not written in English, you will need to pay to have it translated before an application can be made.

You will need to agree on a licensed property valuerand obtain a formal written valuation at your shared expense. Whatever the valuer says, you areboth bound by it, unless you can provide actual evidence that the valuation is flawed.

Parties who own companies or businesses have the more complicated process, if they cannot agree on values or on the division of assets, of having to have businesses and business assets valued. This can be an expensive exercise but there is often no option because there is no agreement on values.

If you take your children to another State without consent of the other parent, the court may order you to return with the children. There are many factors that the court takes into account, including domestic violence – but that is not the only consideration. If you want to move interstate and the other party does not agree, you can file an application and the court will decide the issue.