When you get divorced, the terms are meant to be final, since a divorce is meant to permanently break the legal ties between you and your spouse. Unfortunately, you might find yourself in a bad situation after your divorce that leaves you unable to meet your obligations under the divorce agreement.
For example, the loss of a job could leave you unable to make your spousal support or maintenance payments. Or perhaps you kept the house in the divorce but were required to refinance the mortgage to remove your spouse’s name but learn you do not qualify for refinancing.
This can leave you in a vulnerable position because your spouse could file a petition for contempt and argue that you are not complying with the divorce order. A court can impose sanctions if it finds a spouse is willfully disobeying a court order.
Although a divorce order is intended to be final, you may be able to have your divorce agreement modified if you meet certain requirements.
Substantial change in circumstances
Modifying spousal support or maintenance requires showing a substantial change in your circumstances. You can petition the court to modify the terms of the divorce order based on the new circumstances. A new job, cohabitation with someone else or remarriage are common examples of a substantial change in circumstances.
When determining whether to modify the amount of spousal support, a court will examine the same factors as it did when awarding the spousal support. These include each spouse’s income, education and earning capacity.
In terms of property division, you typically cannot petition for a modification of your divorce order since those terms are considered final. However, if legitimate reasons are preventing you from complying with the divorce agreement terms, you can present those reasons to a court.
Using the example above regarding refinancing a mortgage, if you do not qualify for refinancing to remove your spouse’s name from the mortgage, your spouse may file contempt against you.
At a contempt hearing, you can present testimony and evidence to the judge showing your good faith attempts to comply with the divorce agreement and demonstrate why you were unable to do so. Although the court cannot modify the divorce agreement, they could agree to not find you in contempt and refuse to impose any penalty.
Additionally, in these types of situations, spouses are often encouraged to work together to agree on alternative solutions to accomplish the intended outcome.
Regret is usually not enough to change an order
Being unhappy with a divorce agreement or feeling like you got a bad deal are generally not valid grounds for modifying a divorce order. You may have agreed to pay a specific sum of monthly maintenance and then realized that you are not enjoying the same standard of living as you were during marriage.
This is expected. Almost all divorces involve adjusting to a lower standard of living and dealing with difficult financial circumstances, at least for a while. Regretting agreeing to something without showing a substantial change of circumstances is likely not enough to obtain a modification.