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→Collecting arrears of support
}}The collection of debts and enforcement of judgments occupies a whole course at law school and is not a simple matter. The provincial government has, however, established an agency responsible for enforcing support obligations, the Family Maintenance Enforcement Program. Someone who is entitled to receive child support or spousal support under an agreement or order can sign up with this program and the program will tend to the enforcement of the agreement or order without a great deal of further involvement on the part of the recipient.
The ''Family Maintenance Enforcement Act'' gives FMEP BCFMA a lot power to collect child support. The program can start and manage all of the court proceedings that can be undertaken by a private creditor, as well as some unique actions that the program alone can take. FMEP BCFMA can also:
*garnish the payor's wages,
*get an order for the payor's arrest.
While it is possible to make collection or enforcement efforts on your own, this will cost money and time and possibly require you to hire a lawyer and bear that expense as well. Since any private collection efforts you might take may interfere with efforts being made by FMEPBCFMA , recipients enrolled with FMEP BCFMA are required to get the permission of the program's director before they take independent enforcement steps.
You can find more information about enforcing orders in the chapter [[Resolving Problems in Court]], in the section [[Enforcing Orders in Family Matters]]. You can also find more information at the website of the [http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/fl-df/enforce-execution/index.html Department of Justice], which includes a helpful overview of support enforcement mechanisms in Canada.
Section 148(3) of the ''[[Family Law Act]]'' allows a party to an agreement, usually a separation agreement, to file the agreement in the Provincial Court or in the Supreme Court. An agreement that is filed in court can be enforced as if it were an order of the court. It is not necessary for a court proceeding to have been started before an agreement can be filed in court, nor is it necessary that the agreement be a British Columbia agreement.
You can find more information about enforcing agreements in the chapter [[Family Law Agreements]], in particular within the section [[Enforcing Family Law Agreements]].