A court order for the payment of support is a mandatory direction of the court, and the recipient can take steps to enforce a court order right away, whether the payor has missed any payments or not. A separation agreement, on the other hand, is a private contract between the spouses. To enforce a separation agreement, it must be first filed in either the Provincial Court or the Supreme Court. Once an agreement has been filed, and then it can be enforced in the same ways a court order can be enforced, and the recipient can take steps to enforce it right away.

The Family Maintenance Enforcement Program (FMEP) is a ''free '' service provided by the provincial government. It monitors support payments and enforces court orders and filed separation agreements where support is to be paid. There’s no cost to the recipient for the services of this program.

Anyone who has a support order or separation agreement filed in court can enroll. The application form and information about the program is available online [https://www.fmep.gov.bc.ca/ www.fmep.gov.bc.ca] , or by phone 604.678.5670 in the lower mainland or , 250.220.4040 in the Greater Victoria area, or 250. These 434.6020 in Northern and other FMEP numbers are also listed in the Government of British Columbia blue pages section of the phone directory under “Family Maintenance Enforcement Program”Interior BC.

FMEP will begin to enforce the order or agreement within about four months on behalf of the enrollment date. FMEP manages its enforcement procedures with little or no involvement on the recipient’s part. After enrolment, the recipient can take steps to enforcement the order or agreement independently, however he or she must get the FMEP’s permission firstas soon as all necessary enrollment information is collected.

It is often best to let FMEP handle the matter after enrollment. The program can take all legal actions that the recipient could take, as well as a lot of other actions that the recipient cannot, like suspending restricting the payor’s driver’s licence or taking away his or her passport. The enforcement action(s) that FMEP will use are dependent on how much money the payor owes, what FMEP knows about the payor’s current situation, and the actions FMEP determines will have the best chance of success in each particular case.

Once the recipient has enrolled in FMEP, all support payments must be sent to the program. FMEP will then process and send the payments on to the recipient. FMEP will track when payments are due, and when and how much gets paid. There If payments are missed and arrears accumulate, there are several steps the FMEP can take when arrears begin to accumulate, including: *'''Garnishment''': If a payment isn’t made, the program can seize the wages owed to the payor to cover the support owed. This is normally the FMEP’s first step.  *'''Notice of Attachment''': The program can issue a Notice of Attachment against any person or institution that owes money to the payor, so that the money can be redirected to the program will receive this money insteadand then sent to the recipient. The institutions that can be attached include employers, banks and the Workers’ Compensation Board. Payments from the Government of Canada, like tax refunds, Employment Insurance payments and other federal payments or rebates, can also be attached. *'''Property liensLiens''': The program can file support orders against property owned by the payor, so that the property cannot be sold or re-mortgaged without the arrears being dealt with first. *'''License Denial/Suspension''': When a payor has fallen $3,000 or more behind in maintenance payments and all attempts to collect the maintenance in other ways have been unsuccessful, the program can advise the Federal Government to suspend or deny a payor’s passport and/or aviation or marine licences, as well as instruct ICBC to refuse to renew a payor’s drivers licence.*'''JailDefault Fee''': Whenever a payor misses or is late with two payments within the same calendar year, FMEP will automatically charge the payor a Default Fee. The fee goes to the BC government, not to the recipient, to help the government cover the costs of operating this program. FMEP will also charge the payor daily interests on any late payments. All interest goes to the recipient.*'''Court Enforcement''': Ultimately, if the payor still doesn’t pay, the FMEP can ask bring the case to court . In court, the payor will be required to explain to the judge why payments are in arrears, and the judge can decide to take additional action to send him or her enforce payment of the arrears—up to and including a jailsentence in some cases.

Sometimes The FMEP will do their best to collect maintenance payments. In the kinds vast majority of steps available to FMEP aren’t practical cases, recipients receive some or won’t be successful, for example garnishing wages if all of the payor is self-employed or support that is unemployeddue each year. In cases like theseHowever, lawyers some payors make it very difficult for the FMEP usually to collect—even going to the extent of leaving the country to avoid paying maintenance. Others may have a hearing in Provincial Courtno income or assets, or may be receiving income assistance, called which means it may take a default hearing, long time to collect what is owed to recipients. But FMEP will continue to see how pursue payments as long as the payor can meet his maintenance order or her support obligation and begin to pay down the arrearsagreement is enrolled with them.

The It is always a good idea to be proactive and enroll in FMEP, if there are problems around support payments. If the recipient should register the support order or separation agreement as soon as has not yet enrolled in FMEP and the payor first misses a payment or doesn’t pay the full amount of owing, the recipient should enroll immediately. It can take about four months If the recipient decides to enforce their order or separation agreement on their own, without the help of the FMEP, they should be fully registered with FMEP. Collecting aware that collecting on old court orders or separation agreements can be time-consuming and difficult; thus, the recipient should talk to a lawyer and discuss the options available to collect arrears.

FMEP is free and can do all the things the recipient can do to enforce a support obligation and more. The recipient can independently take certain steps to collect the arrears, but those steps can be complicated. If the recipient is wishes to pursue independent enforcement action while enrolled in with FMEP, she or he or she must let contact FMEP know if he or she intend to try to collect the arrears independentlyobtain permission before doing so.

[updated May 2017March 2018]

'''The above was last reviewed for accuracy by Zahra H. JimaleVictor Liang.'''