Urgent maintenance is where one party requires urgent financial assistance.
An example may be upon the breakdown of a relationship where one party has no cash resources, cannot fund accommodation and requires emergency funding.
In an application for urgent maintenance, the Court hears the matter without receiving filed Affidavits from both parties to the proceeding.
Interim maintenance is maintenance payable for a longer period of time as opposed to the stop gap urgent maintenance type Order and, for example, it might be payable until the final property settlement has been achieved.
Examples might include making mortgage repayments and outgoings for a family home occupied by a non-working parent and children which would be paid up until the distribution of the sale proceeds of the home and which time would enable that spouse party to move into alternate accommodation.
Another example may be to enable a former partner or spouse to do a training course for a period of time, so that he or she could re-enter the workforce, be better able to support themselves or, for example, if a former spouse or partner was unwell and unable to work in paid employment.
An Order for maintenance can also be included in final Orders, and it may be that one person will receive more of the property, which might be lump sum maintenance they receive so as to support them in the future or, if they make regular payments to their former spouse or de facto, then that maintenance would be payable up to a certain sum of monies and over a specified period of time.
It is rare to have permanent ongoing maintenance.