Can grandparents support their grandchildren?
Article 94 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation specifies under what circumstances relatives must support their grandchildren. According to this article, grandchildren who need money have the right to receive alimony from their relatives.
It is worth noting that, according to this article, grandparents must provide financial assistance not only to minor grandchildren, but also to disabled grandchildren who have reached the age of 18.
A grandson or his representative can file a lawsuit to recover alimony from his grandparents only if he cannot receive such benefits from his parents.
Rights of biological relatives after placing a child in a family
The child was adopted or taken into care, his life changed. But there are relatives of this child left, and we need to figure out how to communicate with them now. Is it possible? If necessary? How should this be organized from a legal point of view?
When a child appears in a foster family, unfortunately or fortunately, he has a previous history. And his relatives may be in this story. We will now talk about biological relatives, including parents.
Upon adoption
So, the child ended up with you. If the child was given to you for adoption, that is, there is a court decision according to which you are named the adoptive parent, and the child is yours, the question of relatives interests you purely from a theoretical aspect. In practice, they are nothing to the child, that is, all legal relations between the child and his biological family are terminated. Therefore, here there is no legal basis to say that parents have some rights, some opportunities to influence the situation, so it is pointless to discuss this further.
If for some incredible reason you decide that the child needs to communicate with some great-aunt who remains with him from his biological family, this is exactly your fear, risk and everything else. But you have no legal obligations on this issue. The adoption is finished.
In case of guardianship and trusteeship
Now custody. Everything is much more interesting here. Firstly, I recommend that you pick up the Family Code of the Russian Federation and open Article 148.1. These are the rights and responsibilities of a child’s guardian or trustee. We begin to read: “The rights and obligations of a child’s guardian or trustee arise in accordance with the Federal Law “On Guardianship and Trusteeship,” that is, on the basis of an act of the guardianship and trusteeship authority. “Unless otherwise established by federal law,” and otherwise is not established by federal law, and in your case it certainly will not be, “the child’s parents or persons replacing them lose their rights and obligations to represent and protect the rights and legitimate interests of the child from the moment the rights and obligations of a guardian or trustee." This means that even if your child’s parents are not deprived of parental rights, but are absent for some other reason, they do not have the right to protect and represent the legal interests of the child. In particular, this includes the concept of “determining the child’s place of residence,” that is, a parent, even if not deprived of parental rights, but whose child is under guardianship, cannot come, take the child by the hand and leave with him in an unknown direction, say, that I will now live with him.
This is exactly what is said in Art. 148.1, paragraph 2 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, that all rights and legitimate interests of the child are protected only by the guardian, and parents lose these rights even if they were not limited or deprived of parental rights.
Next comes paragraph 3: “Any actions (inaction) to exercise guardianship or trusteeship by a guardian or trustee may be appealed by parents or other relatives or adoptive parents of the child to the guardianship and trusteeship authority.” This means that if the child’s relatives or parents are not satisfied with something in the guardian’s behavior towards the child (rights are violated, for example, some actions are not acceptable. As a rule, we are talking about such actions when, for example, they are not allowed to communicate great-aunt with the child, or they believe that the grandmother does not need to see her grandson), then such actions of the guardian can be appealed by the child’s relatives to the guardianship and trusteeship authorities at the place of residence of the guardian and ward of the child.
Further: “The guardianship and trusteeship authorities have the right to oblige the guardian or trustee to eliminate violations of the rights and legitimate interests of the child, or his parents or other relatives, or adoptive parents. If the guardian or trustee does not obey the decision of the guardianship and trusteeship authority, the parents or other relatives or adoptive parents of the child have the right to apply to the court with a demand to protect the rights and legitimate interests of the child and (or) their rights and legitimate interests. The court resolves the dispute based on the interests of the child and taking into account his opinion. Failure to comply with a court decision is grounds for removing a guardian or trustee from performing their duties.”
Comment is required here. There is a multi-stage system here.
If someone is not satisfied with the way the guardian behaves, for example, the grandmother thinks that she needs to carefully communicate with her grandson, but she herself comes drunk and has not seen him for two years. She writes to the guardianship and trusteeship authority, it considers this issue and then issues a specific order. He has the right to oblige the guardian or trustee to eliminate violations of the child’s rights, that is, the guardianship authority establishes that
- the rights of the child/relative/parent were violated
- obliges the guardian to eliminate such violation
Of course, such a duty cannot be expressed orally. Klavdia Antonovna from the guardianship authority cannot call you and say: “Let me talk to your grandmother.” This must be expressed in writing.
Can a guardian appeal such a guardianship decision?
Of course it can. Besides, he may not even perform it. This is stated in the article because what are the consequences of this failure? A biological parent or other relative subsequently, after a decision has been made by the guardianship authority and after the guardian fails to comply with this decision, has the right to apply to the court so that no obstacles are created for him in communicating with the child. And the court then decides this issue based on the interests of the child and taking into account his opinion.
This means, first of all, that the legislator acted in the following way: he does his best to protect the guardian, the child’s new family, from being suddenly infiltrated by new relatives. That is, first we have a decision from the guardianship authority, i.e. The guardianship authority must consider this situation, then they still leave the opportunity for the guardian to carry out this decision or not, then there is a trial, and only after the trial can some adverse consequences occur.
“Failure to comply with a court decision is grounds for the removal of a guardian or trustee from the performance of their duties.” This means that if a relative of a child approaches you, as a rule, he asks to communicate with the child, whether to give or not to communicate is your area of responsibility, dear guardians and trustees. If you think that this communication is beneficial for the child, then of course you should give it. If you think that this is not beneficial for the child, of course, there is no need to give it. Then let the person apply to the guardianship authorities, and you will present your arguments to the guardianship authority, and then it depends on the decision of the guardianship authority.
Most often, a big conflict arises in the guardianship authority about whether to give or not give a child, and it is not always resolved in favor of, for example, the grandmother.
Let me remind you that we cannot talk about sending you, for example, to your grandmother for an overnight stay or something else, we are only talking about communication with the child. The grandmother has no other rights, only the right to communicate, and not the right to raise, take, etc., so even about this you can argue and present your arguments to the guardianship and trusteeship authority.
Separately, it is worth saying about parents. If the child’s parents or one of them are deprived of parental rights or have limited parental rights, there can be no talk of any communication with the child. If their parental rights are limited, the guardianship and trusteeship authority has the right to allow them to communicate with the child, and then the guardian has no right to strongly interfere in this matter. However, I still recommend that if you are convinced that this is not good for the child, you should prevent it and wait until you go to court and then figure out in court whether the child needs it or not. This is if there was a restriction of parental rights.
If a parent is deprived of parental rights, even the guardianship authority does not have the right to oblige you to allow such a person to communicate with the child, despite the fact that his name may be on the birth certificate of this child. Why? Because deprivation of parental rights in itself means the loss of all rights
in relation to the child, including the right to communicate with him. Therefore, the guardian should not provide such communication. I can imagine a situation where such communication with a biological parent who has been deprived of parental rights will be carried out in the interests of the child. In this case, the guardian can really raise the question: can this child communicate with this “alien uncle” who is his biological parent? But the solution to this issue is entirely on the side of the guardian, and the issue of deprivation of parental rights, decided by the court, cannot be canceled by the decision of the guardianship authority. The guardianship authority cannot decide that the child will communicate with a parent who has been deprived of parental rights.
In general, according to the law, any relatives of the child have the right to communicate with him. After all, no one really deprived a second cousin of parental rights, or rather of “aunthood.” Such relatives can indeed raise the issue of communication with the child, but the paradox is that the Family Code provides for judicial protection only of the rights of close relatives. This means those relatives who are separated from the child by only one birth, that is, siblings, grandparents. These people can go to court with a claim for communication with the child, and the court can decide for the guardian not to create obstacles in communication. All other relatives are deprived of the opportunity to file a claim in court, so the guardian will decide whether to communicate with such relatives. No one can oblige the guardian to organize such communication.
Another thing is that you, as a guardian, must evaluate, first of all, whether this is in the interests of the child, whether he needs it, whether it brings him benefit or harm. This is where you have to use your mind. If, for example, a grandmother tells a four-year-old child that his parents will soon take him away, and the parents have been deprived of parental rights, of course, such communication harms the child, because he is being deceived. Parents will not have their parental rights restored tomorrow. If this happens, it won’t happen tomorrow, it’s a long process. But the grandmother lies, this is bad for the child.
If you don’t even like the grandmother, but the child is happy to see her, then it’s probably better to pacify your feelings and give the opportunity to communicate, because you need to remember that the guardian is not a parent, but a substitute parent
, and unlike adoption, the child remains, as it were, “state”, not yours, you were given him to raise. Under such circumstances, no matter how warm feelings you feel for your child, you need to understand that he is with you temporarily, even if it is temporary and lasts until he is 18 years old.
Here the question also arises with the restoration of parental rights. Indeed, some of the children who are placed in families, a fairly significant part, have their parents deprived of parental rights.
Can they regain parental rights? They can.
But over the past year in the Russian Federation there were only a few thousand such cases out of tens of thousands of deprivations of parental rights. This is most likely not your case. If the mother, after deprivation of parental rights, and usually mothers are not afraid and did not run to the child and restore parental rights, it is extremely unlikely that this will happen in a year or later. Moreover, it is extremely unlikely that the court, considering issues of restoration of parental rights for a year or two or three, will satisfy the request for restoration of parental rights, taking into account that the child lives under your care and, of course, does not know his mother. Such claims are very rarely satisfied. You have to misbehave seriously enough to have your parental rights terminated. And it takes enormous efforts to restore parental rights.
If this does happen, you, as a guardian, will definitely participate in court. You will be the defendant as the legal representative of the child, and you have the right to present your arguments as to why this should or should not be done. You will need to seriously prepare for this process, you need to understand that they will listen to you with great attention, because you have been living with the child for the last few months or years, and the mother or father, who is being restored to parental rights, previously behaved in this way, that the situation was brought to the point of deprivation of parental rights. Therefore, there are chances, even if a parent suddenly changes behavior, it is far from a fact that he will be restored to parental rights without fail.
Fight! There is an opportunity to fight this.
However, if a court decision to restore a parent’s parental rights has happened, this does not mean at all that tomorrow you woke up in a different world. You have parents who have the right to communicate with the child, you have a situation where sooner or later the question of handing over the child to the parents will arise, but, nevertheless, the restoration of parental rights itself does not mean that tomorrow the child will be handed over to the parents. Either there will be a separate lawsuit on this issue, or you decide that the child can be returned to the parent. I remind you of clause 2 of Article 148.1 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation: while guardianship is in effect, it is you who are the legal representative of the child, it is you who determine where he lives and with whom.
After the restoration of parental rights and the transfer of the child to the biological family, guardianship will be terminated on innocent grounds, it will be canceled. You will be relieved of your duties as a guardian, not suspended. And you can raise the question of accepting, for example, another child into the family if you are ready for this. I personally doubt this; psychologists tell me that this is a rather complex story.
Let me emphasize once again: restoring a parent’s parental rights is an extremely rare situation, and you will have time for several months to think about everything connected with this: is it worth doing this, is it in the interests of the child, if so, how to transfer it to the biological family. Let me remind you that guardianship, unfortunately, is a temporary phenomenon. As a guardian, you cannot expect that you will always have a child. If you want your child to be with you forever, then a form of arrangement called adoption is suitable for you. If you are ready to raise someone else’s child and only until the age of 18, then this is guardianship.
But in general, welcoming a child into a family is a great joy. There is no need to think about the fact that if a child comes to you, he will have to be returned, there is no need to worry about it. Situations where a child returns to his biological family are extremely rare, and most likely you will not encounter them. Therefore, boldly go on the road, continue studying at SPR, and then choose a child. And may everything be fine with you.
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When is a child entitled to receive child support from relatives?
In some cases, the obligation to pay money for children extends not only to the mother or father, but also to the grandparents. It is worth noting that this does not take into account on which side they are relatives (on mom or dad). Grandfathers and grandmothers are responsible for maintaining their grandchildren only if the children’s parents do not receive their own income.
The note! Relatives will not pay funds for grandchildren if they do not have enough money to support them. It should also be noted that the ability to work of grandparents does not affect the recovery of alimony from them for the maintenance of their grandchildren.
After the parents divorce, the parent with whom the child does not live is required to pay a certain amount of child support each month. If this amount is not paid, the party with the child has the right to file a lawsuit to recover child support from the grandparents.
The note! If a disabled child does not have parents, he can sue for child support from his adult brothers or sisters. If these relatives cannot support the child, he can file a lawsuit to recover the necessary funds from the relatives.
What to do if your ex-daughter-in-law is against communication?
A woman who is offended by a man quickly forgets how much work, effort, and money the mother of her ex-husband put into their child.
Emotions do not allow us to adequately assess the current situation.
Often the daughter-in-law prevents the grandmother from communicating with her grandchildren, changes her phone number, and sometimes even moves to a different address.
Relatives can refer to the legislation, according to which a minor, after the divorce of his mother and father, living in the territory with one of them, has the right to communicate with all representatives of the family . Even if they are in different states.
The best solution to conflict situations is peaceful. Guardianship and trusteeship authorities can help resolve the problem. But if it is not possible to reach a consensus, you need to go to court. Restricting a child’s rights is a violation of all legal and moral norms.
Such principles on the part of the mother directly harm his mental health. Some women behave aggressively towards former family members and turn the child against them.
When making a decision, the court will take into account not only the opinion of the child, which the mother could impose, but also the arguments of other opponents. Grandmothers can take care of their grandchildren and take care of their health. If there is no verbal agreement with the parents, the court determines the frequency of meetings.
Travel outside the region in which children live is possible only with the consent of the mother or father.
There are precedents in judicial practice when a daughter-in-law uses the services of her mother-in-law as a nanny. At first after the divorce, she accepts the help of her grandmother, and when the baby grows up, the woman goes to work and does not allow them to see each other anymore.
Such incorrect behavior is unacceptable from both legal and moral aspects. The position of the law on this issue is firm - a daughter-in-law can limit communication with a child only if there are facts of a negative impact on the younger generation.
Grounds for receiving alimony from grandparents
Alimony from grandparents is possible only in cases where:
- The child's parents died, and their guardian is a close relative of one of the victims.
- Parents do not pay child support.
- First-degree relatives (brothers and sisters) are minors or cannot pay child support.
- The child is disabled (adult or minor).
- The money provided by parents is not enough for maintenance (the amount of alimony from parents is below the subsistence level in a certain region).
In these cases, the party with whom the child lives or the representative of the plaintiff has the right to sue for alimony from the grandparents in a certain amount.
How much alimony can be recovered from grandparents?
Each region of the country has its own cost of living and, accordingly, salaries and pensions. Thus, if a grandmother or grandfather only has a pension and has no other sources of income, then the plaintiff has the right to claim an amount that goes beyond the subsistence level.
That is, if the grandmother’s pension is 12 thousand 300 rubles, and the cost of living is 11 thousand, then the grandson can claim a maximum amount of 1 thousand 300 rubles.
The plaintiff has the right to indicate the amount that he plans to sue for the maintenance of himself or his child from relatives, but the court has the right to adjust this amount depending on the income of the elderly. Thus, if the amount of the claim exceeds the income of the relatives, the grandson can re-file the claim with the court with an adjusted amount, refuse the requirements, and also change them during the court hearing.
Questions for a lawyer
hello, I’m divorcing my husband, he and I work in another city, my daughter lives with my husband’s sister, the school requires a certificate of guardianship.
Is it necessary to obtain temporary guardianship? My husband has an apartment and a permanent income, I don’t have housing, can I have problems with parental rights in the future and will temporary guardianship affect this? divorce Hello, I have 2 questions for you.
1) my husband and I are getting a divorce in 5 days, after the divorce I would like to go to the sea with my daughter, but he doesn’t want to give us a document physically certified by a notary.
The school management demands that guardianship be granted to his grandmother due to the fact that his mother works and lives in another city. How legal is this?
The school management demands that guardianship be registered for the grandmother; if not, report it to the police and take her to a boarding school, since the mother lives in another city.
Elena, the fact that the school management is demanding that guardianship of the child be granted to his grandmother due to the fact that you work and live in another city is legal.
1. The court may, taking into account the interests of the child, decide to take the child away from the parents (one of them) without depriving them of parental rights (limiting parental rights).
2. Restriction of parental rights is permitted if leaving with the parents (one of them) is dangerous for the child due to circumstances beyond the control of the parents (one of them) (mental disorder or other chronic illness, a combination of difficult circumstances, etc.).
Can a child live with his grandmother for half a year?
I don't have that experience myself. I didn’t send my children alone to their grandparents; if we went, it was with the children. But one of my brothers has this experience.
He and his family went to Magadan to work after graduating from college. We decided that for the first time we would leave our daughter with his wife’s parents in Ukraine for a year. And so they did. She was three years old. Calm girl.
In my opinion, this did not affect the child’s psyche; she tolerated the separation normally.
Can a child live with his grandmother?
In any case, all oral conversations can be ignored, but based on their results, write a statement to the OOiP that on such and such a date (it is better to indicate a specific time), such and such (full name) OOiP employee stated the following in a personal conversation.
(then you list all, in your opinion, illegal conclusions of the OOiP - look at the laws in advance or write on the forum - we will advise).. I ask the OOiP to provide clarification regarding the compliance of the information I received with the current legislation.
A minor wants to live not with his parents, but with his grandmother: what to do?
The child is 10 years old, lives with her grandmother, who takes full care of her for a year. Before that, my mother was mostly involved. Mother and father are divorced. The father does not take any part in raising the child.
The mother is registered with the school, the KDN and the police (for drinking and fighting at home). The child is afraid of her and his father. from the beginning, the mother wanted to steal the child and take her to an apartment where there were drunks. And now my father stole it.
The child is hysterical, does not want to live with them, and begs her grandmother to take her away.
Is guardianship necessary if the child lives with his grandmother?
1 answer. Moscow Viewed 553 times. Asked 2012-02-22 09:12:40 +0400 in the topic “Healthcare and culture” Can a 20-year-old grandson in Ukraine obtain guardianship over a disabled grandmother of the 2nd category, a liquidator of the 1st category? — In Ukraine, can a 20-year-old grandson obtain guardianship over a disabled grandmother of the 2nd group, a liquidator of the 1st category. Further
1 answer. Moscow Viewed 278 times. Asked 2011-04-20 14:29:00 +0400 in the topic “Pensions and social protection” Single mother! - Single mother.
The child lives with his grandmother
Girls, it so happened that we moved, the eldest son went to school, but for the youngest son we decided at a general family council that it would be better to live with his grandmother, because we used to live in the same area and went to kindergarten in the area, the kindergarten is the best - strong teachers, speech therapy. There is no such thing where we moved. We agreed to pick up the child for the weekend; we live very far away.
And so the first week began, when he started going to kindergarten.
The child lives with his grandmother
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(mother of the child's father). The mother filed for child support, although she herself does not participate in life. The father gave the money to the grandmother (his mother, with whom the child lives).
The process of collecting child support from grandparents
The obligations of the grandparents to support their grandchildren come into force after the court hearing and the publication of its decision. After the end of the trials, grandparents, by court decision, must pay for the maintenance of their grandson for a certain period. It is impossible to sue for a certain amount that grandparents must pay in one payment. Most often, relatives transfer a certain amount of money every month to support their grandchild.
After the grandson reaches the age of majority, despite the fact that he is able to work, grandparents can file a claim to recover alimony in their favor.
Situations with the collection of alimony debts
In some situations where one parent is obligated to pay child support but fails to comply, the party with whom the child lives may sue and be ordered to pay child support to the ex-spouse's parents. It is worth noting that in this option, the alimony debt remains with the ex-spouse, and further payment of alimony goes to the grandparents.
If a grandchild lives with his grandparents, and the parents do not provide money for the child’s maintenance, the grandparents also have the right to file a claim to recover child support from the parents.
What motivates grandma?
Why does the grandmother do everything her own way and not listen to the wishes of the young parents? It is unlikely that she saturates her body in this way or copes with fears. Most often, her “willful” behavior is associated with the need for love or respect. If she lacks the attention of older children, caring for her grandson becomes a “light in the window” for an elderly woman. Finally there is a little man who needs her, who loves her! The realization of this need exclusively through the child usually leads to the grandmother overly pampering the baby and fulfilling all his whims. Is this reasonable? Quite obviously not. In order for grandma’s behavior to become more adequate, you need to try to change your attitude towards her. A young family should try to pay more attention to their grandmother and communicate with her. The confidence that she is loved will help her communicate more intelligently with her grandson and listen to the wishes of his parents.
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Another need that comes to the fore after satisfying the motive to love others and be loved is the need for self-esteem and respect from others. It is problems in this area that are the most common reasons for the “stubbornness” of grandmothers. What does it mean? It’s just that every person should feel necessary in this world, confident in their usefulness and competence. Often grandmothers do not behave as we would like, precisely because of an unsatisfied need for respect. And for most retired grandmothers, the sphere of raising grandchildren remains the only area where they can feel needed and competent. In this situation, young parents should emphasize as often as possible that they value the experience of their mother or mother-in-law, respect her position in life and listen carefully to her opinion. In the end, the grandmother raised at least one child (one of the young spouses).
If the parents categorically disagree with the grandmother in matters of raising the baby, they should not stubbornly insist that they are right. It’s better to explain your point of view in a civilized and respectful manner, bring her clippings from articles, and show her relevant books. After all, in the end, the grandmother is driven primarily by love for the baby. And if she does not have to prove her right to respect and recognition, then the whole family will only benefit from this.
In what ways can you solve the problem of alimony from grandparents?
Every child has the right to receive child support from these relatives. To receive funds from your grandparents, it is not necessary to file a lawsuit; you can verbally agree on a certain monthly amount.
There are certain legal norms that govern these actions. Thus, the grandchild or the party representing the grandchild may enter into an oral or written agreement as to how much the grandparent will pay to support the grandchild.
In case of disagreement, both the grandson and the elderly can file a claim in court to determine the amount of monthly payments.
Alimony for the maintenance of a grandchild is paid until he comes of age or until the death of his grandparents. Of course, there are many circumstances in connection with which it would be possible to reconsider this obligation of relatives to pay for the life of a grandchild, for example, the illness of grandparents or the attainment of majority by the child’s siblings.
