Spousal maintenance is the obligation to provide a spouse or previous spouse with housing, food, clothing, education, and even medical care or at least contribute to such spouse’s living expenses.
The court will consider the following facts in adjudicating in these maintenance matters, namely, the need of the applicant to be maintained as well as the financial ability of the other spouse to contribute towards the maintenance of the Applicant.
How is spousal maintenance granted?
Spousal maintenance is usually granted during divorce proceedings but may also be granted as a form of interim relief in domestic violence matters.
Litigants in divorce proceedings usually end up settling spousal maintenance but in some instances, the parties must rely on formal adjudication of the issue, which could take months or even years to finalise. To assist litigants in matters where spousal maintenance cannot be settled, the litigants can claim interim maintenance pendente lite pending the outcome of the divorce, which is commonly referred to as Rule 43 applications.
Applications for the increase or reductions in spousal maintenance are usually dealt with in the maintenance court and according to the maintenance court procedure.
In granting a spousal maintenance order the court will consider the existing means of the spouses, their earning capacities, their financial needs and obligations, the age of the parties, the duration of the marriage, and the standard of living of the parties before the divorce. The court is further also required to take the conduct of the parties, that may have led to the breakdown of the marriage, into consideration when granting a maintenance order.
The Marital Property System that applies to marriage will not affect the obligation of a spouse to maintain the other, irrespective as to whether the parties are married “in community of property”, “out of community of property with the inclusion of the accrual system” or “out of community of property with the exclusion of the accrual system”.
