Maintenance obligation: Persons liable for maintenance

Maintenance obligations may exist towards children, spouses, life partners or other relatives. Find out here when a maintenance obligation occurs and what conditions are attached to it.

Maintenance obligation refers to a legal obligation to provide maintenance within the family. First and foremost, this is associated with monetary maintenance, the so-calledalimony; but also maintenance in kind, for example in the form of child rearing and care or housekeeping, contribute to maintenance. The maintenance obligation finds its legal basis in the German Civil Code (BGB) and can exist vis-à-vis direct relatives, (ex-)spouses, registered (ex-)life partners or the other parent of an illegitimate child.

Forms of maintenance obligation

The maintenance obligation can take the following forms:

• Family maintenance: This – actually self-evident – form refers to the mutual maintenance obligation of spouses. They are mutually obliged to support the family adequately through work and property. In addition to pure monetary maintenance, family maintenance also includes maintenance in kind.
• Child maintenance: If the parents of a child live apart, the parent with whom the child does not live usually pays child support. Detailed information on child support can be found in our separate article “Child support: What you should know”.
• Separation maintenance: In the period up to the divorce, the lower-earning spouse is entitled to separation maintenance so that he or she can maintain his or her previous standard of living as far as possible. Detailed information on separation maintenance can be found in our article “Separation maintenance – when do you get it?”.
• Post-marital spousal maintenance: It comes into effect after a divorce and is subject to certain conditions. Spousal maintenance is available in situation-dependent forms, e.g. as care maintenance, old-age maintenance or top-upmaintenance.
• Maintenance for other relatives: There may also be a maintenance obligation towards direct relatives – with the exception of siblings. The best-known form is certainly parental maintenance. This can be incurred, for example, if the parents live in a retirement or nursing home and cannot pay for the costs themselves. Other family relationships can also give rise to a maintenance obligation, for example grandparents towards grandchildren.
• Maintenance during and after pregnancy: A mother who is not married to the father of her child is entitled to maintenance if, as a result of pregnancy and childbirth, she is unable to earn sufficient income to cover her costs. The maintenance obligation usually begins six weeks before the expected date of birth (in some cases even earlier) and usually ends at the latest with the third birthday of the child. This form of maintenance obligation is independent of the child maintenance due anyway.

Order of precedence of maintenance obligations

A maintenance obligation may exist towards several persons, e.g. a child and a separated spouse. Priority is always given to maintenance obligations towards minor children and adult children up to the age of 21, provided they are still at school. This is followed by obligations towards the (ex-)spouse or .dem other parent of a common child.

Only then do other relatives come, such as adult children in education, parents, grandparents or grandchildren; Younger (descending line) take precedence over the older ones (ascending line) and closer relatives over more distant relatives.