Separation and maintenance

First comes the date of separation. It determines the Trennungsjahr (year of separation), and under § 1379 BGB each side can demand information on the other’s assets as of that day in the Zugewinnausgleich (accrued gains). The cut-off dates for the Zugewinnausgleich (accrued gains) and the Versorgungsausgleich (pension rights adjustment) themselves depend on when the Scheidungsantrag (divorce petition) is served. An unclear date takes effect later in several places at once. So record it as precisely as you can, and at the same time get an overview of the accounts, the powers of attorney and your tax class.

Maintenance law knows three claims, and they do not run into one another automatically. Each follows rules of its own and is asserted on its own.

From the beginning of the separation until the divorce becomes final, the economically weaker side can demand separation maintenance (§ 1361 BGB). The conditions are need on the one side and the ability to pay on the other; a minimum amount to live on always stays with the paying side.

Why the marriage broke down plays no part in this claim as a matter of principle. Only gross misconduct can forfeit it by way of exception.

Once the divorce is final, each side is responsible for itself. Each provides for itself in the first instance (§ 1569 BGB). After that, maintenance is available only where one of six statutory grounds carries it.

Both parents owe their children maintenance, only in different forms. In the usual arrangement, where the children live with one parent, that parent meets their share through the daily care and the other pays in money. The amount follows the Düsseldorfer Tabelle, the table of rates graded by the paying side’s adjusted net income and the child’s age; the floor is the statutory minimum maintenance (§ 1612a BGB).

Where the income does not stretch to everyone entitled, there is an order of rank. Children who are minors come before all other people entitled to maintenance (§ 1609 BGB).

The basis of every calculation is the adjusted net income of both sides, and each can demand information about it from the other (§ 1605 BGB). Spousal maintenance is formed from the difference as a quota, with an allowance for being in work deducted first. In every case a protected minimum stays with the paying side.

The calculation follows the Düsseldorfer Tabelle and the maintenance guidelines of the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt, that is, the guidelines that actually apply to proceedings here. They differ on individual points from those of other Higher Regional Courts.

With maintenance, less turns on the formula than on the timing and on the figures the calculation runs on. Anyone who demands too late loses the period before that; anyone who calculates on unchecked figures calculates past the point.

So we first sort out the starting position: date of separation, cut-off dates, tax class. Then we call for information and assert the claim in time, before there is any argument about the amount. On child maintenance we settle the table amount, the minimum maintenance and questions of rank; on post-marital maintenance the ground, any time limit and the disadvantages caused by the marriage.

The emphasis lies deliberately on agreed solutions, because a negotiated maintenance arrangement holds longer where there are children in common than a court order does. Where the other side blocks, or where an agreement would plainly be at one side’s expense, we represent you in court. That applies in both directions: we enforce your claim, and we fend off excessive demands.

Maintenance matters are handled by Mieke Karcher. As the mother of two children she knows the side of it that appears in no table: that behind every share of care there is a daily life that has to work.

60 minutes, at our office or by Zoom. You describe your situation, and you find out which of the three claims applies in your case and what has to be done first. You are under no obligation to hire us afterwards.