Asked by the Customer on 16-10-2020 10:38:27
Question posted in the Divorce Law category relating to Western Cape

Good day

I am divorced. We have a son who is going to University next year. According to our Final Agreement "the parties shall share the reasonable cost of the child's tertiary education in proportion to their respective incomes and means at that time, which costs shall include but not be limited to the cost of all university fees and residence fees and the cost of all books, stationary and equipment required as well as reasonable transport and travelling costs."

My ex has a job at the University and our child has to pay no class fees at all.  All other fees are our responsibility.  My ex now however want to take out a student loan for our son and put all the responsibility of all the costs on him to pay for this once he finishes his studies.  I do not believe this is right.  He is paying about R8 600 less as of next year as our son's maintenance falls away.  He thus have this money extra already as of next year.  He has not lost his job.  He has a good job and an income of more than R100 000 per month.

I am willing to pay my proportion of all fees as set out in the Divorce settlement.

Do I have any legal points to stand on for him not to shift his responsibility onto his son?

Regards

Rina vd Merwe

Posted by Att. Patrick on 17-10-2020 17:47:55

Hi there Rina and thank you for your question,

I am a practicing attorney based in South Africa and I will assist you with your question. Please feel free to ask as many follow up questions in order to clarify your question. If you have a new question, you must please open a new thread.

If your ex wants to take out a student loan, then your ex needs to be the applicant and your ex needs to be the person who repays the student loan.

You can't allow your ex to convince your son that the student loan should be taken out in your son's name! You can't! Your ex is required, in terms of the divorce order, to pay his share of the costs of your son's eduction. 

You need to continue with your responsibilities in terms of the consent paper. 

But your ex needs to comply with his obligations. 

You can't allow your ex to strong-arm your son into agreeing to his crazy "student loan" scheme! It is not right, and it is not what you guys agreed to. 

If there is a part of the answer which you need more advice on, or clarity please continue in this same thread instead of opening a new question.

Att. Patrick

Please remember this is a dialog if you have follow up questions please use the REPLY button and ask. If I did not answer the question you thought you were asking, please respond with the specific question you wanted answered. I hope you found my answer helpful, and you have finished asking your questions, please click on the GREEN ACCEPT button in order to mark the question as closed.

Dear Patrick
Thank you very much for your clear answer.
But how can I avoid my ex going ahead taking out the student loan in my son's name anyway? It is so easy to apply for something like this online.
Am I right in saying the only way is to just tell my son NOT to go with him to a bank or sign any forms? (I assume that he (my son) has to somewhere sign a form as well?)
Regards
Rina vd Merwe

Posted by Att. Patrick on 19-10-2020 13:13:00

I think that the answer is that your ex will need to get your son to sign the student loan agreement, in his own name, in order to be bound to the terms of the agreement. So, you need to get your son to "be stong" with his Dad to say, "No Dad, I'm not going to sign these documents, you need to pay for my University fees!"