Pretoria - A former husband who has been in arrears with maintenance for his two children and owes his former wife about R200 000 will not see the proceeds of the sale of his house for now as the money must be kept in a trust account to ensure he can settle his maintenance debt.
The South Gauteng High Court granted an order in favour of the former wife, and ordered that once the sale of the house had been concluded, the money had to be held in the trust account of the attorneys as security for the payment of the maintenance.
This is so the former wife can meanwhile calculate how much she is owed. She will then be able to turn to the court again to claim maintenance arrears.
The woman launched an urgent application for the preservation of the proceeds of the property, which is being sold.
She told the court her former husband had not paid maintenance for many years. She was not certain how much he owed her, but estimated it to be about R200 000.
The former husband did not dispute the fact that he was in arrears, and also did not dispute that it could be for about R200 000.
He did however explain that it was not his fault that he fell into arrears. He said this was due to circumstances beyond his control, as he was retrenched from his past two jobs, which left him in financial dire straits.
The former husband said he did pay whatever he could from his meagre resources. He said he borrowed money from his family to pay towards his children. The man said, however, he first had to pay his family back before he could worry about his maintenance obligations.
The former wife, on the other hand, said her former husband’s financial situation was leaving her out of pocket.
She believed he was liquidating his assets and would soon apply to be sequestrated.
The woman feared that if this happened, the money would be used to pay off his debts, with little chance of her receiving any money.
She told the court the transfer of his house would go through soon, and this was her only way of getting some of his money.
Although she did ask her former husband to pay her from the proceeds of the sale of the house, he seemed reluctant to do this, she said.
The court found that she was entitled to an interim interdict to secure the proceeds of the sale, pending the exact determination of what she was owed.
Judge Leicester Adams said the woman would suffer irreparable harm if the court did not step in to assist her, as the property which is now being sold, is her former husband’s only asset.
The judge said the former husband had made it clear that the maintenance obligations were not his priority, as he first wanted to pay his family back the money he had borrowed from them.
The judge said there was a court order in place – issued when the couple obtained their divorce – and that he had to honour his obligations.
Pretoria News