When do I owe maintenance? The answer depends on your situation.
The obligation to pay maintenance can arise in three cases. Here, we distinguish between legal maintenance obligations, natural maintenance obligations and contractual maintenance obligations.
The maintenance obligor is the counterpart of the maintenance recipient. In some cases, a relationship arises between two people, where one person (the maintenance obligor) has the obligation to provide the other person (the maintenance recipient) with the resources necessary to meet his or her needs. The maintenance obligation usually consists of paying a periodic monetary allowance.
The legal maintenance obligation
The legal maintenance obligation is the most common. The law defines a whole number of persons on whom a maintenance obligation is imposed, on the one hand, or towards whom a maintenance claim is granted, on the other. These are mainly family maintenance obligations, which have been established since the first version of our Civil Code. The obligation flows from family forms of solidarity that existed before there was any legal maintenance obligation.
There are four categories within the legal maintenance obligation:
First, there are a number of maintenance obligations within the family, such as, for example, a mutual duty to help and contribute to the burdens of the marriage, or the parents' duty of maintenance towards their non-independent children.
Second, there are a number of maintenance claims between persons within the extended family, this goes wider than the family. Examples include the claims of grandparents towards their grandchildren, or between parents-in-law and children-in-law.
Thirdly, there is also a legal duty of maintenance between ex-spouses, but only in cases expressly provided for by law.
Fourth, there is also a legal maintenance obligation on the deceased's inheritance for certain persons/relatives, if certain conditions are met.
The natural maintenance obligation
Between certain persons there is no legal maintenance obligation, but nevertheless the existence of a natural obligation to ensure maintenance is accepted in case law and legal doctrine. Case law and legal doctrine accept this natural maintenance obligation, for example, between siblings.
The maintenance obligation imposed in a contract
Ultimately, persons can also conventionally obtain a unilateral or reciprocal maintenance obligation between themselves when there is no legal or natural obligation. You can then create your own maintenance obligation, the modalities of which you can determine yourself. An example of this is the conventional maintenance obligation that governs the benefits that persons agree to by mutual consent after a divorce.