If their ex remarries, then it’s almost universally true that the maintenance will terminate. There’s a mechanism where on occasion that doesn’t happen, but in the vast majority of cases, a remarriage will terminate the maintenance obligation. It’s a little bit trickier when the allegation or the assertion is that someone is living with someone. Illinois law requires for that to be a basis to terminate maintenance. It needs to be on a continuing basis – so it needs to be a full-time arrangement – it needs to be tangible in nature, and in addition to that, typically the court is looking for some kind of financial overlap between the co-habiting parties.
Financial overlap can be found where one person is contributing to another’s expenses or maybe there’s a joint bank account, or other things are happening whereby the parties that are living together are holding themselves out for all practical purposes as husband and wife – they just haven’t memorialized the arrangement with a legal marriage.
Chuck Roberts is a family lawyer at Momkus McCluskey Roberts, LLC, one of the largest law firms in DuPage County, Illinois.
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