[lady2584]

My husband is paying child support to his x-wife for his 2 children one who is boilogically hi and one who is adopted. He has no problem paying support to his chilren because they are his responsibillity, but he has been laid off twice in the last two years and has be come in arears about 6 thousand dollars. The court has garnished his wages and he is paying arears on top of that. Paying about 8 hundread a month plus arears, he also has two other children at home, We have received a letter from the state of Arizona stating they are going to place a lien on his property, can they do that even if he has wages taken out of his check and is paying arears? Can they put a lien on property that is in my name only? Who is the one that filed for the lien? The state or his x-wife? We are such at a loss right now he is paying more to child support than he brings home he has 2 children at home also.. any help would be great!

[morgaine300]

Every state has different rules about child support, so someone would have to know the laws in Arizona. I don't, but no one has been answering this...

I'd call an attorney is it were me. Where I'm at, there is a percent limit on how much they can take out of a payroll check. It's been a long time since I've done payroll so I don't remember the exact rules - I also don't know where they got the rules. I just had to follow them.

What I can tell you from experience is that any type of government/public agency is screwed in the head and will mess stuff up, guaranteed. I have worked with the IRS, state and local tax offices (income tax, sales tax, etc), unemployment, workers comp, etc, etc. The local tax offices are the least annoying, but they screw up. People are scared of the IRS, but they're one of the easiest ones! The WORST I've ever dealt with is workers comp and, you got it, child support. I would get notices from them that I could stop taking child support out of a check for someone who worked at a company for two entire weeks, two years ago... (gee, yes, I'll stop taking that out of checks that haven't existed for two years). And one situation where a guy's daughter had turned 18, meaning child support stopped. ALL was paid, and ALL checks cashed... but they sent me a notice to start taking it out again, then sent him a notice he owed $4000, and then started garnishing his other part-time job. (Worse is that he didn't even know he had a kid until she was 13 and there was no visitation. They were off in another state where rules aren't enforced very well.)

I believe in the responsibility towards your kids, but from my experiences, it's the men getting screwed most of the time. (Yes, I know there's exceptions, so I don't need to hear from all the ladies who got screwed.)

So don't assume at all that any of this is right. I would call an attorney and find out exactly what the laws are, and what they can and cannot do. Most attorneys will talk to you for free for a short time, which might give you enough info to at least know if you need to actually hire an attorney. Or you could try to deal with it on your own and see what results.

That type of lien has to have gone through the courts, and since the child support was already set by the courts, I suspect the courts did it. Though I wouldn't know why if it's being paid. (This may have happened while he was unemployed and not paying.) The lien doesn't necessarily mean anything will happen to the property. It might just mean it has a "claim" on it if sold. As for the property being in your name, I suspect that depends on whether it's a community property state. You personally have no obligation for his children. (If you're having trouble, you might want to make sure you have a separate bank account so as to separate your personal income.)

I suspect it would have been a good idea to re-open it when he was laid off and try to get the amount changed temporarily. I don't know if that can be done after-the-fact. If the employer is paying to an agency (versus directly to the ex) I would check with the ex whether these payments are actually being received. Who knows that the employer isn't screwing up and not paying it?

Has he even discussed this with his ex?

[Fr_Chuck]

Yes they may put a lien on the home, but that really does not hurt anything unless you are going to sell the property, since as he pays off the arrairs, the lien will be paid off.

Often this is done by the state if the arrears are over certain dollars figures, but again the ex could ask for it, to protect them if they believe they house may be sold.

[morgaine300]

I should have looked for this to begin with. I found the Arizona state agency. You should check this out:
https://egov.azdes.gov/cmsinternet/m...enu=24&ID=2652

You might want to check out the modification workshop. And to the left the section that says "Parents Paying Child Support." There's different ways to make payments. Where I'm at, there is NO option but a wage garnishment (which is silly for someone who pays on time). I would NOT use the option of having bank account deductions - that's speaking as an accounting person. It's just not wise.

I do wish you luck. I don't think the average person out there realizes how out of hand child support can get, even though it's the right thing to do. Even though I know there's plenty of men not paying, I've just seen many getting screwed when they're trying to do it right.

[jtw520]

How can you get a dead beat dad do his taxes, he hasn't done his taxes in 3 years, so the custodial parent can get the money?

[jtw520]

How can I get the non-custodial parent to do his BACK taxes? Because all of it would go to my disabled child.. I could really use it. He owes for 3 years.