Can My Wife Change My Access Arrangements?

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Can My Wife Change My Access Arrangements?
Mr HM asks

I have been separated since January, and was paying maintenance over and above the CMS calculation through their website. As I work away during the week I was initially allowed access every weekend. In May, my wife requested that she should be allowed access for 'Quality Time' every 3rd weekend, to which I agreed.

Since then, I have had to take a lower paid job, but I am still away during the week and I have now started to pay maintenance at the CMS rate. She now wants to reduce my access to ensure that I will have the children less than 104 nights per year.

Is she allowed to do this or am I better off going to court to gain access, bearing in mind that I cannot have custody of them during the week?

From the sound of things, you and your wife arranged access between yourselves, and you have voluntarily given more than the CMS recommended amount of Maintenance For Your Child (for one child it’s set at 17% of net income) for as long as possible, and even now you adhere to the CMS guidelines.

If your ex is threatening to reduce or stop contact with your child, you may want to use our free Access Denied Action Plan.

Since the access arrangement is apparently between yourselves, then the negotiations are whatever you work out between the two of you, really. What you might well want to do, and should do, is talk to a family-law mediation service or a solicitor about your position. If you and your ex can’t reach an agreement about access, you might want to have mediators or solicitors to help arrange an agreement between the two of you.

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Hopefully that will work, because you should see going to court as a proposal of last resort. It’s costly and time-consuming, and will do little to help relations between you and your ex, which on the surface would seem to have been quite good to this point.

You don’t mention how old your children are, but if you have to go to a court for a Contact Order and access set, their wishes will be taken into account, if they’re old enough to express them – the whole aim of the court is to set what’s best for the children. However, they will take prior access times into account, and the fact that you work away during the week should not matter in the least, since it hasn’t in the past.

You’re not disputing where they should reside, or even that your kids spend one weekend in three with their mother; you simply want to spend as much of your free time as possible with your children.

A court hearing on access will mean that there is a report from the Children and Family Court Advisory. A support service officer will interview you, along with your ex and others, in order to determine that you can meets the needs of the kids when they’re with you and whether they will be safe with you, even though you have almost certainly proved that to be the case in the past. It’s just procedure.

The ideal solution, though, is if you and your ex can resolve this amicably between the two of you.

Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.

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C laurie 07/09/2022 at 2:19 am
I take my hat off to the fathers who go to court to see there children and who want to be involved in there childs life ,(i wish I was like that but in reality im just not made that way )and now I realise who I am and have stopped( beating myself up )over my choice to walk away and have zero contact .because( I will be the first to tell anyone I'm just not father material) ,and the child is better off with the mother .(I live and will always live the Bachelor lifestyle) and im not sorry for it its my life .her mother should have realised the men I was before( trapping me )with her pregnancy)I was only 22 a child .I secretly wanted to kill myself (I didn't want kids or marriage I felt like rabbit in a trap )and wasting my youth stuck with a fat ugly old women when I new I could do much better .
C laurie 07/09/2022 at 1:26 am
@loulou ,(I just can't imagine life with 5 children )wow that's alot you would have to struggle to feed cloth them send them to school. Let alone live in the same house with 5 children and your misso .yeah that be to much for me( I would most likely do a runner gods truth )but lucky for me I dont have any children I (apparently) fathered a child but that was (18 years ago) and I have never been involved with the girl on any level not (emotionally or financially) like I class myself as a guy who never had a children .(And I would like to keep it that way) .(my biggest fear is having sum random women in the future calming I'm her father and wants a relationship with me ) that would be terrible. I might sound like a prick but just think from my side I have zero emotional connection to this young women and things like this makes me very uncomfortable I dont want to deal with that kind off thing .I just hope mother told her im no good or even better that I'm dead .so I don't ever have to deal with a situation like that .
Loulou 06/09/2022 at 11:29 pm
Good evening,
My ex partner left the family home end of January this year.. we have a 3 year old boy and 21 month old girl together we have tried mediation to sort out contact arrangements order but he didnt wish to continue, we then had a court hearing for c100 child arrangements order which he didnt attend ..so i now have a court order which states the chilldren live with me and are to spend day time twice a week with dad .. he now is taking me to court for overnight access which i feel the children wont cope with at this moment in time as they are very young and never stayed away from me or there own home.
There is also 3 older children who live with dad now and im also concerned there is not enough room for 5 children to share 2 bedrooms. The children are all girls age 8 10 and 13. Its alot of change for my little ones and think it will cause more disruption and they wont deal well with being in a house overnight with 3 older children and sharing a room. they have separate rooms at moment and use to just the 3 of us. The find it overwhelming when they have been to dads as there alot more people around and are hard to settle when they come home. i want to wait til they are a little older to stay overnight. My court order was only issued a month ago . How will caffcass see this and do you think i can stop overnight until there is sufficient space and they can deal with being away from me as the whole sistuation has made them very clingy to me.
Robbo 23/07/2021 at 4:49 pm
My wife and I split 8 months ago and she dictates when I can see them, I've just asked if I can take them for a couple of nights and she said no, making some reason that the kids won't settle.is she allowed to do that?
Ank72 14/06/2021 at 6:10 pm
Stu - yeah I’m afraid the court won’t look at contact order unless you have tried mediation first even if you go and she refuses to agree it has to happen for court to look at contact order - but £500 seems expensive so look around mine was £250 10 years ago but can’t imagine it’s gone up that much but maybe it has... then when mediation doesn’t work (it won’t because the women that do this to us are trying to hurt us and control us so they won’t agree) then you do contact order application- make sure you start logging things - thats how I won in court I logged all the times I had contact before she took it away and all the times I had tried to negotiate with her ... I made sure all my messages were business like no emotion and she would reply being unreasonable and I printed them off and the court saw it ... cafcass were good too they interview you before the court date and all the court and cafcass care about is the children and what’s best for them as long as they are safe with you then the court will be on your side .. don’t let her trigger you into reacting negative as she will use this against you just be very calm in texts and make her look unreasonable... you got this !
Worried mom 17/07/2020 at 12:21 pm
My ex hardly sees our 4 month old And broke all promises to pay maintenance. Because of concerns with coronavirus I'm asking him and his family to see her at my house. But theyve only been once. He's taken the baby out in busy public places while I've been keeping isolated and refused to tell me where he's taking her and who they are with which concerns me because I need to know where she is in case of emergency. Also I want him to ensure she is changed in private not in public but he refuses to agree. Our family was affected by abuse from a close family member many years ago so this is something I feel strongly about. Is it legal if I insist she is changed in private and that I know where and who she's with? He's threatening taking me to court. He doesnt take the lockdown rules seriously which out us both at risk. Need advice please.
worried Dad11 04/02/2020 at 5:42 pm
Hi,

I separated from my Wife in February 2017 when our son was only 10 months old. Since April 2017 we agreed in mediation to have shared custody and I have looked after our son for half the time single handily whilst having a full time job. Since the beginning of January 2020 our once amicable relationship has broken down to the point it become untenable and now without any notice has reduced my visitations with my son to one night a week without a court agreeing to it.

Can my Ex Wife dramatically change our sons routine which has been in place for over two years without the courts approval? I was supposed to get my son tonight and she has not dropped him off and will not answer my phone calls so I can try and reason with her. I'm absolutely devastated and do not wish to battle it out in court for two reasons. 1) Going through an unnecessary potentially lengthy court battle would have detrimental impact on our son as it is a stressful situation for all involved and 2) Paying unnecessary legal costs which can be expensive when the monies could be better spent on our son and each other.

What is the first step I should take?
Fed up dad 27/01/2020 at 11:51 pm
Looking for advice. I currently have my children 3 nights every week Friday/ Saturday alternating. Sunday and Monday night every week pick up from school Fridays Saturday pick up 3pm Sunday pick up 4pm go home to mum 6pm on a Tuesday. My question is, my ex is complaining that I don’t have them through the day at the weekends. I work every single weekend Saturday and Sunday I work in catering, and have worked these shift patterns for the last five or so years. She is threatening legal action on this. Can she force me to stop working at the weekends? I don’t do it through choice it is just the nature of the business I work in. There is no way I can pick up shifts through the week there just isn’t the hours available for that to happen. If I drop days at the weekend the impact financially in my self would be dire. I wouldn’t be able to afford to pay my rent bills etc or the maintenance I pay thst is over and above CMS guidelines based on my current income. Can she legally force me into that position? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
DAD58 18/10/2018 at 8:51 am
DYSLEXIC USER

Hello,

I have been divorced for my ex wife for over ten years now and my daughter is now 15 years old, whom live with my ex wife and I have noticve in past few months that my ex wife has made contact arrangements more difficult by doing things like changing previously agreed dates like for things like hoildays. that daughter does not want go on or times and places for collection of my daughter at which is not all possible for us to do at the short notice. I try to accomate my Ex-wife as much possible with dates and times were I can, but feel like it getting more difficult and I am considering weather to speak family lawer about my concerns that my ex wife is not upholding her end of our argreement made in 2008 in family court..Any advise please thank you
SeparatedDads Editor 10/08/2018 at 12:13 pm
Can you prove your son has lived with you? Are you the parent who is in receipt of child benefit? If you can and you are, then you will be eligible to apply for residency of your son and you would stand a good chance.
worried dad 08/08/2018 at 8:59 pm
My Ex-Partner left my Son & I to move in with another guy. My ex still sees my son as I pay her to look after him between the hours of school and when I get back (about 2 hours a day). I am wanting to put him in some after school clubs as this is what he wants to do but she is saying that I still need to pay her as she cant afford to live without it.

My concern is I can see her going for custody of our son, purely for the money. How would a judge see it if my son has lived with me for the past 7 months and I have allowed full access to the mum whenever she wants but she now insists he lives with her and her new fella. Even a 50/50 living arrangement split would be detrimental to his progress as she would rather put an ipad in front of him than read to him or help with his homework (something we do every night but she never did in the 5 years we were together.

Any guidance would be greatly appriciated
NJ 13/06/2018 at 1:11 pm
My ex-wife regularly uses the children as weapons and withholds access or puts obstacles in the way to make access difficult. She states she wants me to see the children but then makes it as hard as possible to arrange. My new wife and I moved out of the local town where the children live with my ex, to a cheaper area over 20 miles away (a 40 minute car journey at best, frequently significantly longer with traffic), so that we could afford to buy a house with enough room for my 3 children to stay (I gave my ex everything in the divorce settlement and had no equity from the previous house). The children are meant to visit every other weekend from Saturday morning to Sunday night. My ex then started saying we could not pick the children up until lunchtime on a Saturday because my son was playing football on Saturday morning. Then around a year ago, after becoming annoyed about something, my ex-wife announced that there was no point in the 2 girls staying the night any longer because she had arranged for them to do gymnastics every Sunday morning (this is either from 10.00 to 12.00 or sometimes even 2pm). On investigation I found out that there were at least 2 week night options when they could have attended gymnastics. The venue is less than 5 minutes from my ex's house.

I previously had to seek legal advice and participate in mediation when my ex stopped me and my wife from seeing the children, but I incurred huge debt from this which I am still paying because my ex is a lawyer and did everything she could to ramp up my legal fees as high as possible. I cannot really afford to go down that route again and she wasn't truthful during the mediation anyway.

If this were to go to court, would it be considered reasonable for my ex to arrange weekend activities for the children in her local area, not mine (without any consultation) and insist that I take them to those activities if I want access? The main problem is that these activities do not involve all the children and so the practicalities are not straightforward. Firstly I don't always have access to the car for the full weekend because my wife works long hours and is often away from home for work (and her company car is our family car). In addition, unless I expect the child/ren not involved in the activity to wait around for the whole time that the other children are participating, it means a minimum 1.5 hour round trip to come home again and then another 1.5 round trip to pick up. Because my ex has arranged activities on both the Saturday and the Sunday, if my wife is away and I cannot leave the remaining child/ren at the house, it means the children spending 5-6 hours in the car during every 2 day visit that I have them!

After we returned from a recent holiday, my ex began causing problems again and has now stated that because the children only stay with us for 20 hours in total each visit (bearing in mind this is because of the activities she has arranged and so I put my foot down
water101 20/12/2017 at 3:17 pm
My ex has decided to not want our youngest son (17) to live with her anymore due to constant arguments between them. She has full custody and I pay the usual CSA amount each month and he stays every other weekend with me. She has told him that he can live with me as long as we all agree to personal arrangements. I am happy for him to come and live with his stepmum and myself but I am worried that she will expect to receive full csa payments from myself until he is 20 as she was given custody after the divorce. Where do i stand legally and how would i be able to prove residency?
rummy 06/10/2017 at 12:48 pm
Hi

My ex has been removing my access week on week at short notice.
She has requested a letter/email of my proposal for shared access.
I have replied several times but the format of my proposal is 'unacceptable';
not the times just the layout.
Is there a standard template for such arrangements? I cant find one.
ps I am well aware she is just being difficult, but need to clear this hurdle.
Stu 26/06/2017 at 11:43 am
My access has been removed by my ex-wife regarding her own frustrations egged on by her stupid boyfriend and I have no court order against me, nothing… I have had my children every weekend since October 15, 2 nights 1 weekend and 1 night the next. I hate the fact that you have to go through a whole legal process, at cost, to access your kids again (im on the birth certificate and have an excellent relationship with them). She has demanded mediation, which is fab because people will see her and her boyfriend for who they really are! But its going to cost around £500-£600 and there is no guarantee it will work. If I apply for a contact order at £215, I have to have been to mediation? And all of that still offers no guarantee. Can anyone advise me on what to do or your general experiences?
Needhelpdad 19/05/2017 at 8:54 am
Me may wife ( soon to be ex) spit 2 years ago and I been have the kids more than 50% of the time but now she want me to have them only 6 nights over two weeks and I want 7 nights over 14 night (50%) like it's been from Jan before that I was having them 5 and 6 nights a week. I just don't know what to do and wear I stand
SeparatedDads Editor 16/02/2017 at 12:17 pm
We agree when you say that trying to work amicably with your ex is much easier all round and beneficial to the kids, than fighting each other. The court always expects couples to have attempted mediation in order to resolve any issues prior to taking the matter to court. However, we do not agree that all mean are deadbeats, the majority are good fathers that want more than anything to take an active and responsible part in their children's lives.
Nick 15/02/2017 at 7:30 pm
I think parents need to try and work together and get over there issues. At the end of the day I know fathers are important in child's life however at the end of the day the mothers raising their children majority of the time and this needs to be expected! Meditation would be good as opposed to courts! Solicitors only want your monies whilst who suffers the child. A lot of parent need to try and work together and come to arrangements. People shouldn't have kids unless they are willing to stick together as a family but I think people think having kids will make relationships better it doesn't work! Always make sure ur partner is someone you would marry! Sorry but I'm for the women men walk away to easily they are deadbeats
jas 08/02/2017 at 8:49 pm
i have my 2 girls every wednesday and every other weekend in court it is down as 50/50.
my works changed so now can have the girls every wednesday & thursday but when i ask my ex for thursdays she said no ,take me to court .can anyone help me
jimmymack 09/01/2017 at 10:40 pm
My son has a non contact order on his ex wife's partner not to be in the presence of my grandchildren, either at her home or elsewhere.. I've just found out that she is Facetiming her partner in front of my GKids,. Is that allowed. Strictly speaking he is not at the house but elsewhere, although not present. Bit of a grey area to me.
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