advice needed: daughter wants to move back home with me

[GREATdadBADhusband]

STBX and I are currently separated living apart for 7 months. State of NY. I now own the house. D14 soon to be 15 has expressed ongoing interest in moving back to live with Dad for many months now. I've had ongoing discussions with her... this is serious stuff. I want school year to end first. Any words of advice on how to proceed / make this as painless as possible?
STBX/NJ isn't going to be happy about this. Can I stop CS as soon as D moves home?

[defaultuser]

What do your court orders say about who she lives with?

If they are silent, pick her up for the summer and keep her. If they are not silent, I'm sure you can get what you want, but it may be more complicated.

[Chris A]

As long as there is a court order for child support never stop paying until the courts have told you that you can or or court papers spell it out clearly that you can stop. Gets real ugly if you dont follow the orders on support.

[GREATdadBADhusband]

there are no court orders. No litigation (as of yet).
We have an unsigned memorandum of understanding written by a mediator.
Put simply, we're (still) a married couple living apart.

[blueTexas]

Without any legal documents, you're not obligated to pay your stbx anything. However, if she is in a financial bind, it might be worthwhile to send her a token amount of support.

[GREATdadBADhusband]

how about I don't make her pay child support?

Our incomes were practically equal for the past 20 years. She's nickel and dimed me for all I'm worth and I've given her everything she ever expressed a desire for- including our breakup.

[nighthawk]

How do you get the cs payments to her? Do you give them directly to her, or do you pay trough another party? Who determined how much you pay?

[GREATdadBADhusband]

How do you get the cs payments to her? Do you give them directly to her, or do you pay trough another party? Who determined how much you pay?

CS is 17% and direct deposit in my case. I believe the state of NY came up with the 17% figure. My employer provides family health care insurance which I pay for. STBX is liable for half D's health care insurance so we deduct that amount from my CS. All of the above corrobrated and written into an (unsigned) MOU with the assistance of a mediator.

[nighthawk]

Reason I asked, is because, the Feds requires each state to assign and collect cs. Although, each state has their own way of doing it and different laws to enforce it. In your situation it seems, from what you say, it's simply a verbal agreement, but the court is involved to the extent they are collecting it and distributing it. I would say, even though there hasn't been an order from the court, nor has the agreement been signed, the state has placed a child support assignment in some way. I don't know NY rules or codes, but I would be reluctant to just stop paying it.

[nighthawk]

Just a thought, do you or your stbx have a lawyer? Have either of you filed anything? If you have, I would go directly to the court clerks office and request to see the file. It may be that the judge signed it and entered it. I would go see the file and make sure what has and has not been entered.