The situation
Our client, a Hong Kong permanent resident, divorced in Hong Kong. The Family Court ordered her former husband to pay monthly maintenance for their two children. For a year he paid. Then he took a job in Shenzhen, moved there, and the payments stopped. He had no assets left in Hong Kong, so enforcement there achieved nothing. By the time she came to us, arrears had built up to roughly HK$280,000.
Before 2022, getting a Hong Kong family order enforced on the mainland was difficult. Since 15 February 2022, the Arrangement on Reciprocal Recognition and Enforcement of Civil Judgments in Matrimonial and Family Cases between the mainland and Hong Kong allows many family orders, including maintenance, to be recognised and enforced across the boundary.
What we did
- Confirmed the order was covered by the arrangement and effective in Hong Kong, and obtained a certified copy and a certificate from the Hong Kong court, working with our client's Hong Kong solicitor.
- Located assets on the mainland. Through his employer's public information and our client's records, we identified his employer in Shenzhen and a bank account into which his salary was paid.
- Applied to the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court for recognition and enforcement of the maintenance order, with Chinese translations of all documents.
- Moved to enforcement promptly once the order was recognised, asking the court to freeze the bank account and require the employer to deduct ongoing maintenance from his salary.
- Stayed open to settlement. Once his account was frozen, the father's lawyer proposed a payment plan, which we negotiated so that it was secured and court-supervised.
The outcome
The Hong Kong order was recognised by the Shenzhen court, and the arrears were paid in full within about three months of enforcement starting, partly from the frozen account and partly under the agreed plan. Ongoing maintenance is now deducted directly from the father's salary. Our client did not need to travel to Shenzhen at any point. The whole process took around seven months.
Results depend on the specific facts of each matter; past outcomes do not guarantee similar results.