The financial aftermath of divorce can last for years. It can take people quite some time to rebuild their home equity or retirement savings after splitting their property with their spouses.
In cases where one spouse has been focusing on their family instead of their career, they may lack the recent job experience and training necessary to earn competitive wages. It could be quite some time before a previously dependent spouse becomes financially independent again.
Courts can order alimony or spousal maintenance as a way of making the financial outcome of divorce more reasonable and fair. Typically, maintenance orders persist for a specific amount of time. However, the party paying can sometimes go back to court to ask to terminate their payments early or reduce their obligations. Does a new romantic relationship have any bearing on maintenance orders?
New relationships can affect financial circumstances
As people move on with their lives after divorce, they may start developing new relationships. Eventually, they may fall in love again. For someone paying maintenance, remarrying might mean that they have another dependent to support.
Despite that new obligation, the family courts generally do not absolve individuals ordered to pay maintenance of their obligations because they have remarried. They typically still have to fulfill their obligations to their former spouse until the end of the maintenance order.
The situation is different in cases where the recipient spouse starts a new relationship. They may start receiving financial support from their new partner. In scenarios where the spouse receiving maintenance payments remarries, the paying spouse can usually go back to court and ask to end the support order, as there is now someone else to help support the dependent spouse.
In fact, marriage isn’t strictly necessary for a spousal maintenance order modification. The courts may also agree to modify a spousal maintenance order in scenarios where the recipient spouse has begun cohabitating and sharing their living expenses with a new romantic partner. The paying spouse needs clear documentation supporting their claims in such cases.
Significant changes in financial circumstances may warrant a review of an existing spousal maintenance order. People who understand the rules that govern spousal maintenance obligations may better recognize when modifications are possible. Adjustments of maintenance are typically not automatic, so spouses often need accurate legal information to recognize when adjustments are possible.
