Relocation can lead to serious dilemmas or disputes for parents who are divorced or separated. If you were offered the chance to relocate, would you immediately grasp the opportunity, or would you consult with an ex-partner about the implications for residence and access?
Equally, if your ex-partner wanted to relocate your children abroad or even just to another part of the UK, would you attempt to prevent him or her from doing so? And if you reached deadlock over the issue, who do you think the law would favour?
Such questions are becoming increasingly common for parents, and lawyers, as lifestyles become increasingly international. They can throw post-divorce arrangements for children into disarray, and wipe out all the previous good work to establish workable residence and contact.
If the parents cannot agree a solution –themselves or through lawyers or mediators – the case will end up going to court. Owing to the polarised nature of relocation disputes, this happens often. It’s hard to find middle ground between relocating children to Australia or not relocating them.
Even where one parent moves somewhere closer, there can still be deadlock over the frequency of contact, and the financial implications of contact arrangements.
In dealing with relocation disputes, the courts’ criteria come down to what is best for the children - what would life for the children be like in the new location (be it Adelaide or Aberdeen) versus what it is like in their current home?
The task for each parent, therefore, is to frame what their preferred version would look like. For the relocating parent, this comes down to more than telling the children they can have a pony or a house with a pool. Thorough preparation will be needed on aspects such as the proposed living and education arrangements for the children and plans for them to stay in contact with the “left behind” parent, and experienced legal advice on what the courts will be looking for is essential.
Legally and emotionally, these situations are difficult for all the family members, and there are no easy solutions. But as careers and relationships become more international and mobile, it’s a situation that more and more families may find themselves facing.
