[Legal status as at January 2019]

Most often we meet with alimony, which is paid for the maintenance of children by one of the parents. It is worth recalling, however, that alimony may also occur between persons who also belong to a distant family. This is important in practice, especially when parents can not afford to support a child.

At this point, I provide specific rules regarding maintenance obligations between relatives and relatives. The maintenance obligation therefore applies to relatives in a straight line (grandparents, parents and grandchildren, etc.) and siblings (brother and sister), but also spouses (also former), adopted and adopting, stepmother and stepchild (that is even people who are not formally related).

An important rule in alimony is the order in which you can claim maintenance from individual relatives. Well, the maintenance obligation burdens the descendants before the preliminary, and preliminary to siblings; if there are several descents or preliminary ones - it is charged with a degree closer to the others. Relatives to the same extent are burdened with the maintenance obligation in parts corresponding to their earning and wealth. The obligation of one spouse to provide means of support to the other spouse after the dissolution or annulment of the marriage or after the separation has preceded the maintenance obligation of the relatives of that spouse. If the effects of adoption depend solely on the creation of a relationship between the adopter and the adopted one, the obligation to pay for the adopter is imposed on the adopter before the preliminary and siblings, and the maintenance obligation towards the preliminary and siblings charges the adopted person only last. If one of the spouses has adopted the child of the other spouse, the adoption does not affect the maintenance obligation between the adopted spouse and the other spouse and his relatives. The maintenance obligation of the person obliged subsequently arises only when there is no person obliged in a more strict order or if the person is unable to fulfill his obligation or if it is impossible or difficult to obtain from him for the time needed by the liable person.

What is important, the maintenance obligation acts in a way "two sides". It is not the case that only the younger can demand maintenance from an older person, but if someone needs alimony, he or she may also be asked for by younger family members (eg grandparents from grandchildren).

As a curiosity it can be stated that in relation to siblings, an obliged person may evade alimony payments if they are combined with excessive prejudice to him or his immediate family

Special rules apply to stepson. Well, a child can demand maintenance from his mother's husband who is not his father if it suits the rules of social coexistence. The same entitlement is given to the child in relation to his father's wife who is not his mother. However, the mother's child's father, who is not his father, may demand maintenance from the child if he contributed to the upbringing and maintenance of the child, and his demand corresponds to the principles of social coexistence. The same entitlement applies to the wife of the child's father, who is not the mother of the child

Alimony may also be paid between former spouses. A divorced spouse who has not been found guilty of the breakdown of his life and who is in need, may demand divorced from the other spouse to provide the means of subsistence to the extent corresponding to the legitimate needs of the person entitled and the earning and property opportunities of the obligee. If one of the spouses has been found guilty of the decomposition of a divorce and the divorce results in a significant deterioration of the innocent spouse's condition, the court may order the innocent spouse to decide that the spouse is obliged to contribute to the justified needs of the innocent spouse, even this one was not in need. The obligation to provide livelihood to a divorced spouse will expire if the spouse has entered into a new marriage. However, if a divorced spouse is deemed not to be found guilty of the breakdown of the marriage, this obligation shall also expire five years after the divorce, unless due to exceptional circumstances the court, at the request of the right holder, extends the said five-year period. In the case of separated spouses, there is no time limit of 5 years.

Obligation to support siblings, stepchild, stepmother and stepfather