Enforcing your parenting arrangements

The steps you can take to enforce your parenting arrangements, will depend on what type of agreement you have.

Informal agreements and parenting plans

Neither informal agreements nor parenting plans are legally enforceable.

If the other parent breaches this type of agreement, you must follow the usual process for resolving parenting disputes and comply with the pre-action procedures, unless you are exempt.

You must:

• attempt a type of mediation called Family Dispute Resolution, and
• write to your ex-partner to identify the issues still in dispute, make a genuine attempt at resolving your dispute, and state the orders you will seek if you apply for parenting orders.

For more information, see Mediation.

If you have followed the pre-action procedures and still can’t reach an agreement, you may be able to apply for parenting orders. Parenting orders are legally enforceable. If a parent breaches parenting orders without a reasonable excuse, the Court can enforce the orders and penalise the parent in breach.

For more information, see Going to court.

Consent orders and parenting orders

If you have parenting orders, you and the other parent must comply with every order that affects you. This includes taking all reasonable steps to comply with an order.

You will breach a parenting order if you:

• intentionally fail to comply with the order
• make no reasonable attempt to comply with the order
• intentionally prevent a person who is bound by an order from complying with it, or
• aid or abet a person who is bound by an order to breach it.

This includes consent orders and orders made by a Judge after a contested hearing.

For more information about your legal obligations under your parenting orders, see Parenting orders.

If you believe the other parent has breached a parenting order, you must follow the usual process for resolving parenting disputes and comply with the pre-action procedures, unless you are exempt. This includes attending mediation.

Mediation offers you and the other parent the opportunity to address any issues that may be causing the breach or misunderstandings about how your orders operate.

You should also arrange mediation if you want to change your parenting orders. While you are negotiating a new parenting arrangement, you must continue to follow the existing parenting orders and meet your legal obligations under those orders.

If you can’t resolve your dispute at mediation, or you are exempt from mediation, you may be able to make a contravention application to the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.

If you think you might have breached a parenting order, you should get legal advice.

There are serious consequences for breaching a parenting order without a reasonable excuse.           

A court can order the parent in breach to:

• attend a post-separation parenting program
• give the other parent make-up time
• pay compensation to the other parent
• enter into a bond
• participate in community service
• pay a fine
• go to gaol
• pay the other parents’ legal costs.

For more information, see Children: Compliance and enforcement on the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia website.