Hi all,

question please. Can an alimony agreement that has been in place for over 2 years be reviewed ,ie: being asked to be reviewed by ex-spouse. there are children involved.

thanks

Yes, if there has been a significant change in circumstances, especially affecting the children.

Yes, like Upthehatters said. This is covered in Art. 134 of the Swiss civil code:
Art. 134

II. Change of circumstances
1 At the request of either parent, the child or the guardianship authority, new parental custody arrangements shall be made by the guardianship authority provided this is in the child’s best interests in the light of a substantial change in circumstances.
2 The conditions that must be met before the maintenance contribution or access entitlements may be modified are determined by the provisions governing the legal effects of the parent-child relationship.
3 If the parents are in agreement or if one parent has died, the guardianship authority is responsible for making new parental custody and maintenance arrangements. In all other cases the decision lies with the court having jurisdiction to amend the divorce decree.
4 Where the court is called on to rule on a modification of parental custody or maintenance arrangements for a minor child, it must also make new access arrangements as necessary; in all other cases the guardianship authority is responsible for changing access arrangements.
English is not an official language of the Swiss Confederation. This translation is provided for information purposes only and has no legal force.

thanks.. the matter is naturally in regards to extra money.
Children circumstances have not changed - still attending normal public swiss school, and not ill, thank-god.


any idea or experiences on what it means or what it could be meant by "special circumstances".

thank you again

Perhaps , hopefully not in your case, but by example, a child has been diagnosed with special needs and requires extra financial assistance, or it is deemed that a better specialised school is required etc etc.

Hard to pinpoint, and the judge will rule based on merit, not on greed, so if it goes against you, there are good reasons. Best , if there are good grounds , to man up and fork it out beforehand, and gain due respect rather than fight the Mother who is fighting for the children. Of course, do not be taken for a mug...fight greed.

respect is unfortunately a word that has been lost in my vocabulary when it comes to this situation. Its all a matter of greed . Divorce has been official for over 3 years, and I'm afraid the amicable way will still not suffice, and a couple years down the track it will come back to haunt the house down again.
hope some other friendly forum members can also shed some hints/experiences.

Sounds awful. I can't say anything from personal experience but basically the court will only take into account changes that happened after the agreement and generally were not foreseeable at the time. This is the general position taken by courts on Art. 286:

Art. 286
V. Change of circumstances
1 The court may order that the maintenance contribution be automatically increased or decreased in the event of specified changes in the child’s needs, the parents’ financial resources or the cost of living.
2 If circumstances change considerably, at the request of one parent or the child the court will set a new level of maintenance contribution or revoke it entirely.
3 Should the child have unforeseen, extraordinary needs the court may order the parents to make a special financial contribution.2

thanks Ziger,
as always when it comes to law, it's always wishy washy.. too many words in paragraphs and not hard facts. Yep, I know that every situation is different, but I can't help getting the idea that it was all written by lawyers in the first place..ie: "the poor buggers are going to have to come and see us... chink, chink...shake the money tree " .. I guess my next question is the typical one, good/affordable lawyers around zh ?

Sounds like you need professional advice. Assuming you're receiving the alimony for the care of children you can always demand contributions to cover the costs of unusual circumstances. If you're facing a request to reduce the alimony (actually, Switzerland doesn't generally have 'alimony' only 'child support') then the other person would have so show a significant drop in income (not a rise in their costs).

Hi ipoddle,
thanks for your input.
I'm the one paying the maintenance, and seems that the other party is asking more for the children.
The other party also works (over 50%) and has been receiving the same amount from me for over 4years now.
Furthermore ex is living in a defacto relationship for over 1 year and I haven't deducted (as I legally can per agreement - as I want to keep it nice and friendly) half of the ex-spouse alimony amount.
Any ideas what the amount is for each child under swiss law ( if there is one ).

thank-you

The 'normal' alimony amount is 12-15% of your net income for 1 child, 20% for 2.

The amount agreed upon when the final decision was made at court can be revised if you suddenly earn significantly more or less than when the decision was made. Note that if you suddenly decide to work part-time it's your choice and does not have an effect on the money you agreed to pay.

thanks for that.
so about 20-25% of net income, not gross. Any recommended lawyers around kanton zh ?

No no, it's 20% for 2 kids! And it's net income including the 13th if you have one.

And the alimony is indexed to the raise of cost of life every year (is it the right way of saying that?!)

Sorry can't help you about Zurich, I'm in Vaud

thanks for your answers

You can take a look at this: http://www.lotse.zh.ch/documents/ajb...09_Tabelle.pdf. It lists the average costs for different aspects of childcare for children of different ages and serves as a guideline for determining how much needs to be covered in the alimony agreement. There are of course other factors that come into play. This link above is a bit out-of-date. They give information on how to find the updated version. Or, if you speak German, the Zürich court website offers a program to help figure out what you might have to pay. It is the first link on the right side: http://www.gerichte-zh.ch/themen/ehe...stsetzung.html.