Proving cohabitation

[Cross Hair]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio

Our dissolution (which will be final on Feb. 4th.) has a clause that states if my (ex)wife
remarries or lives with another she loses her spousal support. As soon as she moved out of our home (leaving me with the kids who were 17 and 15) she began staying at her boyfriends. From what info I can gather she is there almost every night, spending an occasional night at her parents. She has a car and a truck and they are both at the boyfriends, she has moved her horse to her boyfriends as well. She even won tickets on the radio last week and gave her full name and said she was taking her boyfriend and his kids to the event. Three people called to tell me they heard her, nice job trying to protect our kids.

So what does Ohio require to prove cohabitation? A guy at work told me to send a registered letter to her at the boyfriends address and if she signs for it thats all I need. It can't be that easy can it?

The other thing is I'm sure if I could prove it I would want to wait until the dissolution is final, just so she can't cause other problems.

Thanks,
Cross Hair

 

[mistoffolees]

Sending a registered letter to that address is not going to work. She could easily be spending her daytime or after-work hours there and then go home to sleep, but she would still be there when the registered letter arrives.

I would ask for a clarification of the wording. Prohibiting cohabitation is almost impossible to enforce - or even interpret. If she spends one night a month somewhere else, is she cohabiting? What about 3 nights a month? 10? Simply saying that if she cohabits with someone that she'll lose her spousal support sounds like a great way to make the attorneys rich.

If you really feel that you must prove it, I would guess that a license PI might be able to help you out. Or, you could ask her point blank in court and see what she says (although if she lies, it's her word against yours). Maybe a combination. Hire the PI to watch the house for a while and then ask her in court with the PI there. I'm assuming that a reputable PI knows the limits of what he's allowed to do, so you might ask one.


One thing I forgot to add - check the divorce decree wrt the kids. Mine says that I can not have any non-family members spend the night when my daughter is in the house. If yours says something similar, then she will not be able to take the kids with her and the BF- unless they have a separate room for the BF.

 

[cyjeff]

Where is her mail... regular mail.. being delivered?

 

[LdiJ]

One significant point about cohabitation is that supposedly someone's expenses are lower if a boyfriend or girlfriend is living with them and helping support them.

That doesn't sound like what is going on in this case. If she is leaving her horse at her boyfriend's house (perhaps because there is no place for the horse at her parents house) then naturally she would have to be there daily to care for the horse....and maybe she occasionally spends the night.

However, other than providing a place for her horse, it doesn't sound like the boyfriend is supporting her in any way.