How much is my ex-husband / wife / partner allowed to know about my life post separation?

Upon separation, clients usually have many questions surrounding what their ex-partner needs to know about their life moving forward. There are some circumstances where the other party is required to know details about your life, especially when children are involved. Keep reading to determine if you should be sharing more (or less) information about your life with your ex-partner after your separation.

Upon separation you are not required to share personal information such as details of where you live, who you live with unless it is relevant to care of the children of your relationship or where you are trying to finalise property settlement so you no longer have a relationship.It is generally acceptable if parties share children, that the parents would share the address where they each live and their contact details, if they have anyone else living in the home or there is a new partner moving in.

This is because those things could be important when determining if there are any risks or concerns for the children but also just to work out where and how changeover would occur.It is also usually preferred that parties do know where their children are living and usually the Parenting Orders will have a provision for keeping the other parent updated when they move house, change their phone number, email etc.

If there are concerns about domestic violence or a threat to the safety of the parent and / or children many people do then decide it is not safe to disclose where they live. They will explain their reasoning and if the Court is deciding whether the information should be shared that will then be taken into account.

It would be usually advisable to share with your ex partner if you have met and moved in with someone new, especially so that the information is not accidentally shared by the children. Usually sharing the information would be sufficient but the other parent may then ask further questions.

You are only expected to answer reasonable questions and so if you are unsure whether to answer a question it would be recommended that you obtain legal advice.You are not expected or required to share the day in day out arrangements and events which occur in your household when the children are with you e.g. where you went shopping, for lunch etc. That is your personal information and providing your actions do not impact or harm the children it is usually not relevant information.

With respect to property matters there is an expectation and requirement that you do have to share personal information such as your salary, whether you have bought or sold any assets, acquired any liabilities and what you have in your bank account, super account etc. This is generally considered ongoing financial disclosure until your property settlement is complete. You do also need to answer reasonable questions about your finances such as why and what you spent money on if it can impact or diminish the asset pool until you have Final Orders because there is an ongoing obligation of full and frank financial disclosure.Once you have Final Property Orders in place there is no obligation to keep the other party up to date or to answer any questions they have about your finances.

If you have specific questions about the information you must disclose to the other party post separation, please contact us on 07 2113 4645.