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The requirements for § 1613 BGB is a question about my financial circumstances.

July 22, 2016 | 60,00 EUR | answered by Jan Wilking

What are the specific requirements for §1613 of the German Civil Code (BGB) in my case?
In my case, I was requested via email to pay maintenance for the unmarried mother of my child and our non-marital child (2 years old). However, no questions were asked about my financial situation (income, assets), and instead, maximum maintenance was simply demanded. There was no other communication regarding this matter between the mother of the child and myself as the father of the child.

My question: Can maintenance be demanded in this case only from the day the information regarding the financial situation is requested?

Jan Wilking

Dear seeker of advice,

thank you for your inquiry.

In addition to a request for information, § 1613 paragraph 1 of the German Civil Code (BGB) provides for further possibilities to establish a maintenance claim for the past: default or legal proceedings.

Default could occur, for example, if the email were to be considered as a reminder within the meaning of § 1613 BGB, the claim would be due, and the owed maintenance is not paid within the specified deadline. An overclaim is generally not harmful (BGH NJW 1982, 1983, 1985). Legal proceedings require the service of the application document under § 113 paragraph 1 sentence 2 of the Family Court Act (FamFG), § 261 of the Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO), which, according to your description, is not the case.

Also to be noted are the exceptions of § 1613 paragraph 2 BGB. A legal obstacle in this sense, for example, is the non-recognition of paternity. A factual obstacle would exist, for example, if you have evaded your maintenance obligation by changing residence without informing the child's mother of the new address, or if you have stayed abroad for a longer period of time.

If none of the aforementioned alternatives or exceptions apply, maintenance can only be demanded from the first of the month in which you were requested to provide information about your income and assets for the purpose of asserting the maintenance claim.

Yours sincerely