What happens if I don’t pay my alimony?
If you owe alimony to your former spouse and fail to pay, you will still have to make that payment in the near future. If you fail to make the alimony payment on time, then you are considered to be in arrears and/or in contempt. This means you are behind on paying the amount of alimony owed. This balance will not automatically disappear. Instead, you will be obligated to make any missed and current payments until you are all caught up on payments.
If you continue to miss making alimony payments to your former spouse, you could be subject to additional consequences, some more serious than others. Courts are legally allowed to do a few things that you will dislike. This includes authorizing any goods and chattels to be seized and taken from your possession.
The court can take and seize any collection of rent or profits from real estate property you own. Additionally, they can require security to ensure that future payments will be made. The court may also award interest to your spouse on any unmade payments or hold you in contempt of court for failure to willfully make an alimony payment. The court will first require that you be brought before the court, and they will conduct a hearing.
You are technically violating a court order if you are not making alimony payments. Failure to comply with a court order may lead to being found to be in contempt of court. If you can afford to pay and don’t just because you do not want to pay it, you could be held in contempt. If you are found to be in willful contempt of court, you may be sentenced to imprisonment until you provide the alimony payment. Some jail sentences can be up to six months, but imprisonment is unlikely.
If your former spouse has to seek assistance from the court to force you to make your alimony payments, the court may also award counsel fees and costs to be paid to your former spouse. In this case, you will be responsible for paying any missed payments of alimony, the current payment for alimony, and your former spouse's attorney.
You may be able to modify the court order for alimony payments if a major life change has affected your ability to pay. If this is the case, seek relief from the court immediately because once the payment becomes due, you will owe your former spouse that payment.
The repercussions for failure to make an alimony payment are not pretty. The longer you wait to make a payment, the more at risk you become of losing more than just money out of your pocket.