The parental obligation to pay child maintenance

The maintenance obligation

Parents have a support/maintenance obligation towards their child, this is laid down in article 203, §1 Old Civil Code. This is a one-sided obligation whereby parents must provide for the maintenance, health, housing, supervision, upbringing, development and education of their children.

Parents have to take care of material needs on one hand, but also ensure that their child becomes an independent adult who can integrate into society. Maintenance therefore covers much more than just the material. The rules for the general maintenance obligation continue to apply if nothing specific is arranged.

The children are entitled to the same standard of living as that of their parents. So parents must ensure and be able to pay for living standards that they themselves have for their children. Thus, they are not allowed to provide only necessities unless their income no longer allows it. The child cannot claim a certain standard of living either. So he cannot demand a higher standard of living than the one the parents can pay.

Maintenance obligation to be fulfilled in kind or with a contribution?

The maintenance obligation is carried out primarily in kind when the parents live with the child. If the parents live separately, each parent contributes in kind whenever the child stays with him or her.

If a parent does not voluntarily fulfil its maintenance obligation, the maintenance obligation will necessarily be reduced to the purely material aspect, i.e. paying a maintenance contribution and covering the child's extraordinary expenses.

Parents are responsible for maintenance

Each legal parent has a maintenance obligation. Whether or not the parents live together does not play a role. The way the parentage is established does not affect this obligation either. In addition, the maintenance obligation does not depend on parental authority either. This means that if one parent exercises exclusive parental authority, the other parent is still bound by its maintenance obligation.

Since it is a parental obligation, this maintenance obligation does not rest on the grandparents and the guardian.  However, the grandparents do have a certain maintenance obligation towards their grandchildren, but it is different.

What about the stepparent and the parent's legally cohabiting partner?

In principle, there is no maintenance obligation on the stepparent(s) or the parent's legally cohabiting partner.

But in some cases, the stepparent will still have to contribute to the maintenance obligation. When the stepparent is married to one of the parents, he must contribute to the expenses of the marriage. This includes the costs of the non-common children. 

The same applies to the person legally cohabiting with one of the parents. In these cases, the legal cohabitant will indirectly contribute to the child's maintenance obligation.

In the same cases, a direct maintenance obligation will arise if the spouse/legal cohabitant (= the child's parent) dies. However, this maintenance obligation is limited to what the surviving partner has obtained from the inheritance, a donation, a property agreement or the marriage contract (art. 203, §3 old Civil Code).

The stepparent's and legal cohabitant's duty of support lapses if the child is unworthy to inherit.

Children who disrespect their parents will still have a right to maintenance. Certain case law ruled that gross disregard of the duty of respect by the child has the effect that the parents are no longer bound by the maintenance obligation, but the Court of Cassation rejected this view. The duty to respect parents is only a moral obligation. 

And the suspected progenitor?

Although no parentage bond has been established between the child and his or her sire, the law allows a maintenance claim against the sire.  The child's presumed sire is bound by the maintenance obligation on the same level as the parent, if the maintenance claim is upheld. However, the sire will only bear the material maintenance obligation. He will have to fulfil this by paying maintenance.