Cohabiting After Divorce Affects Maintenance Payments

A recent case illustrates that cohabiting with someone else after a divorce may affect any maintenance payments received.

In the case, a man who had been ordered to pay his wife £125,000 a year in maintenance succeeded in persuading the Court of Appeal that the payment should be recalculated, after a private detective produced evidence that his ex-wife had set up house with another man and was expecting his child.

The Court of Appeal concluded that the High Court judge, Mr Justice Singer, had erred when reaching his original decision. He had ‘erroneously assessed the evidence and misapplied the authorities’ in reaching his decision, and 'should have attached significant weight to the new relationship and investigated its financial consequences fully'.

The future amount of maintenance payments has now been remitted back to the High Court for reconsideration.

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