Maintenance & support

Child maintenance

Both parents share the duty to maintain their children — ordinarily until age eighteen, extended where a child is still in education or living with disability. Orders cover the real cost of the child’s life: school and tuition, housing share, food, medical, transport. We prepare maintenance schedules line by line, because a court can only order what it can see.

Spousal maintenance

Under sections 77–80 of the LRA 1976 the court may order maintenance for a spouse, assessed on means and needs and the standard of living during the marriage. It can be monthly, lump-sum, or for a defined rehabilitative period while a spouse re-enters the workforce. Conduct is largely irrelevant to children’s maintenance but can matter to spousal claims.

Interim maintenance — money during the case

A divorce can take a year or more; rent is monthly. The court can order interim maintenance while proceedings run, and applying early is often the single most stabilising step in a contested matter.

Enforcement — the part that actually matters

An unpaid order is just paper. We enforce through judgment debtor summonses, attachment of earnings, and committal where defiance is wilful. Arrears generally remain recoverable for three years, so acting promptly protects the full amount. If you are the paying party and your circumstances have genuinely changed, the honest route is a variation application — not silent default.

Interim maintenance exists so the household keeps running while the case does.

How it runs

The numbers

We build the means-and-needs schedule: income, obligations, the children’s real costs.

Negotiate or apply

Agreed figures become consent orders; failing that, we file and argue the application.

Interim relief

Where needed, interim maintenance keeps the household running during proceedings.

Enforce or vary

JDS, attachment of earnings, committal — or variation when circumstances truly change.

What it costs

Matter	Professional fee	Typical duration
Maintenance application (spousal or child)	from RM6,000	4–9 months
Enforcement of maintenance arrears	from RM4,000	2–6 months

Plus disbursements and 8% SST — itemised in writing before we start. Full list on the fees page.

Asked in this room, often

Is there a standard percentage for child maintenance?

No. Malaysian courts do not use a percentage formula — orders are assessed on the child’s needs and both parents’ means. That is why the schedule of expenses we file is so important.

Can a husband claim maintenance from his wife?

Yes, in defined circumstances — where he is incapacitated from earning a livelihood. It is uncommon but real.

My ex-husband quit his job to avoid paying. Can he?

Courts can assess maintenance on earning capacity, not just current payslips. Deliberate under-employment is argued — and seen through — regularly.

How far back can I claim unpaid maintenance?

As a general rule arrears are recoverable up to three years back, which is why we tell clients not to sit on missed payments.