As a consequence of parental separation, cohabitation is ended and the parents move to different addresses. In this situation, a decision must be made on how the child's living arrangements and the opportunity to maintain a relationship with both parents will be implemented. Possible options include shared residence and living with one parent and visiting the other.
Shared residence
Shared residence means that the child lives half of the time with one parent and half of the time with the other parent. The ratio does not have to be exactly 50%– 50%. A situation where the child lives at least 40% with the other parent is considered shared residence.
As a result of shared custody, both parents incur roughly the same costs for the child. Therefore, child maintenance payments are not applicable if the child lives alternately with both parents.
Shared residence is often a justified solution if parents have lived together with the child and are capable of taking care of the child. However, shared residence is not an option for a very young child. According to established practice, shared residence cannot be confirmed for a child under 3 years of age.
Right to meet
A child's meeting with a parent can be confirmed by the child residing with one parent and meeting the other. In this case, the meeting parent is granted visitation rights. Situations where visitation rights are not granted at all are extremely rare and require substantial grounds. For this reason, the threat often heard during separations – ”I'll take the children and you won't see them” – is usually without a real basis. The extent of visitation rights affects child maintenance. Child maintenance is higher the less time the child spends with the meeting parent.
Contact rights may be agreed upon or confirmed by a court order. In either case, the agreement or order shall specify the contact rights with such precision that there is no ambiguity. This means that, in addition to so-called usual contact times, precise provisions have been made for contact rights during public holidays, Father's Day, Mother's Day, and holidays.
Several factors influence contact rights. If the parent who is exercising contact rights lives far away, frequent meetings can be difficult for the child. For a young child, it is justifiable to arrange frequent and short meetings. The scope of contact rights is also influenced by the so-called. status quo – importance is attached to how much the child is accustomed to meeting the other parent.
Article written by Lawyer Samvel Margarjan. You can always call him free of charge, p. 010 299 5090.
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