Warning on Safety Order: Dom Violence

i7yzfew9g6c428

Hi guys, my current partner has recently moved out out of her old family home taking some furniture for herself and two kids. She had a safety order against her ex-husband, which he has breached numerous times already.

Today he raged at her that he was summonsing her to court, that she had not read "the small print" on the documents received by both parties at the time of the safety order. He handed her his document which states at the end:

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*WARNING

A respondent who contravenes this order commits an offence and may be arrested without warrant by a member of the Garda Síochána, and on conviction shall be liable to a Class B fine, being a fine not exceeding €4,000 or to twelve months imprisonment or to both.
A copy of this order is being sent to the Garda Síochána station at .....................

*IT IS AN OFFENCE under section 9 of the Family Home Protection Act 1976, as applied by section 8 of the Domestic Violence Act 1996, for a spouse to DISPOSE OF OR REMOVE ANY OF THE HOUSEHOLD CHATTELS while this order is in force unless the other spouse consents or the Court on application permits it.

A spouse who contravenes that provision shall be liable on conviction to a Class D fine, being a fine not exceeding €1,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both.
*Delete where inapplicable

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However this seems to be only on the document he received. My partners does not state this warning about disposal/removal of household chattels.

My question: Is this warning only applicable to the recipient/respondent of the safety, or is it applicable to both spouses.

Thanks.

Bepolite

Await a better answer as I have no experience with this type of thing but seems pretty clear to me: if they meant respondent only, they would have said respondent.

EDIT:

9.—(1) Where it appears to the court, on the application of a spouse, that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the other spouse intends to sell, lease, pledge, charge or otherwise dispose of or to remove such a number or proportion of the household chattels in a family home as would be likely to make it difficult for the applicant spouse or a dependent child of the family to reside in the family home without undue hardship, the court may by order prohibit, on such terms as it may see fit, the other spouse from making such intended disposition or removal.

(2) Where matrimonial proceedings have been instituted by either spouse, neither spouse shall sell, lease, pledge, charge or otherwise dispose of or remove any of the household chattels in the family home until the proceedings have been finally determined, unless—

(a) the other spouse has consented to such sale, lease, pledge, charge or other disposition or removal, or

(b) the court before which the proceedings have been instituted, on application to it by the spouse who desires to make such disposition or removal, permits that spouse to do so, which permission may be granted on such terms as the court may see fit.

(3) In subsection (2) “matrimonial proceedings” includes proceedings under section 12 of the Married Women's Status Act, 1957 , under the Guardianship of Infants Act, 1964 , or under section 21 or 22 of the Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) Act, 1976 .

(4) A spouse who contravenes the provisions of subsection (2) shall, without prejudice to any other liability, civil or criminal, be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £100 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both.

(5) Where it appears to the court, on application to it by either spouse, that the other spouse—

(a) has contravened an order under subsection (1) or the provisions of subsection (2), or

(b) has sold, leased, pledged, charged or otherwise disposed of or removed such a number or proportion of the household chattels in the family home as has made or is likely to make it difficult for the applicant spouse or a dependent child of the family to reside in the family home without undue hardship,

the court may order that other spouse to provide household chattels for the applicant spouse, or a sum of money in lieu thereof, so as to place the applicant spouse or the dependent child of the family as nearly as possible in the position that prevailed before such contravention, disposition or removal.

(6) Where a third person, before a sale, lease, pledge, charge or other disposition of any household chattel to him by a spouse, is informed in writing by the other spouse that he intends to take proceedings in respect of such disposition or intended disposition, the court in proceedings under this section may make such order, directed to the former spouse or the third person, in respect of such chattel as appears to it to be proper in the circumstances.

(7) For the purposes of this section “household chattels” means furniture, bedding, linen, china, earthenware, glass, books and other chattels of ordinary household use or ornament and also consumable stores, garden effects and domestic animals, but does not include any chattels used by either spouse for business or professional purposes or money or security for money.

That clears it up - Either spouse.

Zambia

Every breach should be reported if she is not the breaches she should.

He sounds like a right prick.

If she has the furniture and has not sold it there is not much he can do. She can always offer to put it back. If a garda does ask her about it contact a solicitor. Or maybe give the garda handling her case a call.

gctest50

Darius Calm Fruitcake wrote: »

.......................................... He handed her his document which states at the end............

*Delete where inapplicable

However this seems to be only on the document he received. My partners does not state this warning about disposal/removal of household chattels.

Most/all of that stuff makes great sense if you can stand back and look at it

I'd be guessing but the two documents are probably different to stop the "offending" spouse selling off all the furniture etc and leaving them with nothing

Little CuChulainn

I think the important part is in the first section. There has to be an intention to dispose of the items or It has to have the effect of making it difficult for the applicant, not the respondent, to live in the home afterwards. To me that doesn't seem to fit her situation, unless he also has an order against her or she is selling the stuff off. That's just my reading of the legislation though.

I've never actually known anyone to be prosecuted for this offence, nor do I imagine any Garda recommending a prosecution for it in the situation you describe. If she's really worried she should contact the Garda dealing with her case or her family law solicitor to clarify what she can and can't do.

i7yzfew9g6c428

Little CuChulainn wrote: »

I think the important part is in the first section. There has to be an intention to dispose of the items or It has to have the effect of making it difficult for the applicant, not the respondent, to live in the home afterwards. To me that doesn't seem to fit her situation, unless he also has an order against her or she is selling the stuff off.

No intention to dispose. She has used some of the furniture to move into a new house with her/his daughter. She would have had no furniture otherwise.

She left furniture that belonged to the ex-husband, cabinets he had hand-made etc. This was agreed at a meeting a while back, he took a witness with him, she did not.

He has no order against her.