Do I Need My Ex’s Permission to Take My Child on Holiday?
This is a query we receive more frequently around this time of year as the summer holidays approach us. Many parents will unknowingly break the law and take their child abroad without having written permission from the other parent or persons with parental responsibility. Some will get away with it. If, however, you were to be questioned on this at the airport, it could turn into an expensive mistake.
To put it simply, unless there is a Child Arrangements Order in place setting out that the child or children live with you, you would need the written consent of any person who holds parental responsibility for the child to take them on holiday.
If you are the party named in a Child Arrangements Order as the person with whom the child lives, you are legally allowed to take your child abroad for up to 28 days at a time without needing the permission of any persons with parental responsibility.
Do I have parental responsibility?
Mother’s will automatically have parental responsibility for their child from birth. Fathers can acquire parental responsibility a number of ways, but the most common ways are from being named on the child’s birth certificate as the father or being married to the mother at the time of the child’s birth. Same-sex partners will both acquire parental responsibility if they are married or in a civil partnership at the time of insemination or fertility treatment. Same-sex partner can also apply to the Courts to be granted parental responsibility for the child if they were not married or in a civil partnership at the time of insemination or fertility treatment.
A party, whether a parent or not, if named as the person with whom the child/children live with in a child arrangements order, will acquire parental responsibility all the while that Order is in place.
What are my options if my ex won’t give their permission to take our child on holiday?
If you feel your ex is withholding consent unreasonably, which can often be the case between ex-partners, and is not basing their decision on what is in your child’s best interest, you could make a Court application to have this issue addressed.
The Court would consider both parties positions and make the decision they deem to be in the best interests of the child. There may be genuine reasons for it not being in the child’s best interests to go on holiday. For example, if a child is extremely young and dependent upon one parent who would not be on the trip or there being welfare or safety concerns should the child go on the trip. Simply not wanting the child to go on holiday due to feelings a person has towards their ex-partner is extremely unlikely to be enough for a Court to decline a parent taking a child on a holiday.
If you need assistance or advice with an issue of this nature, whether you are the party seeking to go on holiday with your child or a party who does not deem it to be in the child’s best interests to go, please contact us on 01323 875027 and speak with one of family law team today who will be able to assist you.
Written by Josh Elliott-Noye