Enforcement of child and spousal support in Ontario takes place through a branch of the provincial government. This office is called the Family Responsibility Office.
Because the Family Responsibility Office is essentially an enforcement agency, they can legally use a variety of methods to collection on support payments should the payor fail to meet their obligations under court orders. Enforcement of Child and Spousal Support can be brought on further with additional penalties levied against the paying person that are outside the realm of traditional methods of collection like wage garnishment or a lien against the payor’s personal property. If a lien is registered against the payor’s property, they would be forced to satisfy paying of that lien in order to sell the property later on.
For instance, if a person fails to meet their obligations under child and spousal support orders, these payment failures can be reported to the local credit desk. This kind of action can prevent that person from obtaining further credit. In some extreme circumstances the person’s passport can be revoked or temporarily suspended.
There are other different methods of collection the Family Responsibility Office can use to obtain money owed. For more information you should contact the Family Responsibility Office.
The information on this page is presented for informative purposes only. By absolutely no means is this information intended to be legal advice, nor should it be considered a replacement for qualified legal advice. The Ontario Family Responsibility Office can provide you with the information you need to ensure that you can take proper action and direction as necessary to get the payments ordered by the court.