How can a spousal maintenance order be changed?
A court can vary a spousal maintenance order in further proceedings between the parties about spousal maintenance (section 83 FLA). When does a spousal maintenance order end? Section 82 of the Family Law Act provides that a spousal maintenance order ends: • when the payee dies; • if the payee remarries (unless the court orders that payments should continue because of special circumstances); and • when the payer dies (unless the court made an order for lifetime maintenance before 1983). How can I recognise a spousal maintenance order? A spousal maintenance order typically has a clause similar to: ‘The husband is to pay the wife maintenance for herself in the sum of $75 per week’. De Facto Maintenance The Family Law Amendment (De Facto Financial Matters and Other Measures) Act 2008 amended section 18 to include the liability of a party to a de facto relationship to pay periodic maintenance to the other party of the de facto relationship as a registrable maintenance liability. This took e
