My ex pays me a laughable amount of child support (for the state of California) which is my fault to agreeing to it to get things rolling on the divorce... ANYWAY, he says that when he has the kids that month he either is not required to pay the support or if the days he has them does not total a month the support will be retro-ed. He asso has been post dating half of the child support until the 15th. Is this legal.

My ex pays me a laughable amount of child support (for the state of California) which is my fault to agreeing to it to get things rolling on the divorce...ANYWAY, he says that when he has the kids that month he either is not required to pay the support or if the days he has them does not total a month the support will be retro-ed. He asso has been post dating half of the child support until the 15th. Is this legal.


It's going to come down to what the Support/Custody Order says, how these questions are addressed.

Is he required to pay monthly?

I've seen orders written with the parents paying support during a month long visit; I've seen Order written for no support during that time frame.

Take him back to Court and get these things clarified - sounds like it can only get worse.

He can not decide that he does not owe days/weeks/months that he has the kids.
The Judge would have ALREADY taken that into consideration! (You do have a child support court order and not a verbal agreement?)
Take him to child support court and get your child support orders reinforced.
Technically I would say that he it is not the legal way to pay his support if he is suppose to pay at the beginning of the month, but as long as he is caught up there isn't much they can do other than tell him not to do it that way,

You need to figure out how much he held back by saying they were with him and take him to court to try and get that amount off him as well.

Generally support is annualized and then divided by 12 so it does take into account periods when the child is with the non custodial parent.

Since the support is court ordered then take him back to court. Let them interpret the court order.

He can ask that he not make payments if he has them for a full month.

HOWEVER, as scott said, Child support is based on a yearly amount. They divide that by 12. So if his CS was say 6K a year. That break down to 500 a month for 12 months.

If he was to petition court to remove 1 monthly payment as he has the kids that month, they may grant his request. But will also change the amount of support due. In the above case scenario, his support would rise to 545 a month for 11 months.

Tell your ex to think about it this way...

If he were to go on a month long vacation, he would still have his mortgage to pay, his utlities, his insurance... If may be a little cheaper as he didn't use those services. But they still need to be paid.