My ex is not paying child support — what do I do?
Short answer
In Quebec, where support is administered by the Programme de perception des pensions alimentaires (the support-payment collection program), a parent who does not receive the amounts owed has no steps to take: it is Revenu Québec that exercises the recourses to recover them.
In detail
In Quebec, support set by a judgment is in principle collected and redistributed by Revenu Québec (Quebec's revenue agency), generally through a deduction at source from the paying parent's salary or through a payment order. The amounts are usually paid to the receiving parent twice a month, on the 1st and the 16th.
Where there is a default, Revenu Québec has several collection measures available: garnishment of wages, seizure of a bank account, seizure of a tax refund, registration of a legal hypothec on the debtor's property and, in certain cases, suspension of the driver's licence.
On the paying parent's side, timing matters: if you do not respond to a request for payment within the 10 days following its receipt, certain recourses under the Act to facilitate the payment of support may be exercised. If your financial situation has changed, the appropriate route is to apply to change the support, not to stop paying.
What to document
Your statements from the collection program, the dates and amounts of the payments received or missed, and any correspondence from Revenu Québec. If you are the paying parent and you are in difficulty: the date each notice was received (the 10-day period runs from it) and proof of the change in your situation.
Put your facts in writing, free. Writing your version down early, keeping your documents dated and preparing your questions for a lawyer: the tool is there to document, never to advise.
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Official sources
- Revenu Québec — Support payments
- Revenu Québec — Main measures for recovering debts under the support-payment collection program
- Revenu Québec — Did you fail to pay support within the prescribed time?
Related questions
- Do I have to give my income information to my ex every year?
- Can I ask for child support if the other parent lives abroad?
- What are the grounds for divorce in Quebec?
- Is family mediation mandatory before going to court?
- How many hours of family mediation are free in Quebec?
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What this page is not
This is general legal information about the law of Quebec and Canada, dated and sourced. It is not legal advice, not a strategy, and not a prediction about the outcome of a case. In Quebec, only lawyers and notaries may give legal advice (Act respecting the Barreau du Québec, ss. 128 and 133). Laws and amounts change: the official source always prevails over us.