You could not need to pay youngster help in case your ex lives with another person, Utah court docket guidelines

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — If your ex moves in with someone else, you may no longer have to pay child support, the Utah Court of Appeals has ruled. When making a decision…

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — If your ex moves in with someone else, you may no longer have to pay child support, the Utah Court of Appeals has ruled.

In a decision over the weekend, the state appeals court upheld a lower court’s decision to cut a woman’s $7,000 a month in child support payments after finding she had started living with a new boyfriend.

The case began in 2008 when a couple divorced. In 2012, a man suspected his ex-wife was living with someone else, so he hired private investigators to follow her. When he got the evidence he needed, he went to a judge in Ogden to stop her alimony payments, according to the KSTU.

The ex-wife appealed, challenging the judge’s definition of “living together.” In his ruling released Saturday, Judge Ryan Harris wrote that there are three factors that contribute to coexistence:

“Although the uniqueness of each and every conjugal relationship precludes the development of a fixed and rapid set of elements that constitute cohabitation, our Supreme Court has identified three general ‘marks’ of the type of relationship that constitute cohabitation: ‘a shared residence, a intimate relationship and a shared household with shared expenses and shared decisions,'” he wrote.

In this case, according to the Court of Appeal, all the circumstances met the definition of “cohabitation”. (The court also dismissed personal property disputes related to the divorce.)

The case strengthens the arguments about alimony awarded in a divorce and when payments might stop. Earlier this year, the Utah state legislature passed legislation that allows people to petition courts to change child support if your ex starts living with someone else.

Alimony, which is defined as a court-ordered provision for a separated spouse, is not child support, which is typically paid by a divorced noncustodial parent pursuant to a court-ordered child support order.