Aronov Law NY – Your Trusted New York Alimony Attorneys:
Alimony is referred to as maintenance in New York. Alimony is money that is paid by one spouse to another spouse to help support them. If maintenance is awarded before a divorce is final, it is called temporary maintenance. In October of 2012, New York introduced a formula to calculate temporary maintenance. Temporary maintenance is paid by the higher earning spouse to the lower earning spouse while the divorce is pending. Once a final judgment of divorce is issued, temporary maintenance ends. Maintenance payments are separate from child support payments. If your spouse is not paying maintenance as they were required to do, you can take legal action to enforce the payments.
How do I get Alimony?
If you need financial support from your ex-spouse, you can ask for it during the divorce proceedings. If you reach a settlement amount with your spouse even before the proceedings, you can present it to court and ask the judge to include the agreement in the court order.If, for one reason or another, you cannot reach an agreement, a judge can decide whether you are entitled to alimony during the divorce proceedings based on your financial capacity to support yourself.
Can I Still Apply for Alimony After the Divorce is Final?
While alimony is requested during the divorce proceedings and should be agreed on before the final court ruling, there are some instances where a spouse does not ask for alimony but later realizes that it is necessary after all. If the divorce has already been finalized and no alimony was requested, it is harder to get a court order for financial support but it is not impossible.It is worth noting, however, that since family laws vary from one state to another, the process may be different depending on your state’s laws. In our practice area which is in the region of NYC, divorce lawyers who have the legal know-how are able to find loopholes to get their client alimony even after the divorce was agreed upon without alimony.
In most states, if a request for alimony is filed after the divorce has been finalized, the party requesting for alimony must be able to provide adequate proof that there has been a change in their financial circumstances after the divorce.
To get a court ordered financial support approved, you must be able to prove that the changes in your financial situation came about as a result of unforeseen circumstances before the final ruling was established. This is harder to prove in cases where the divorce came about as a mutual agreement between both parties and you must be able to show the court that your financial situation did not come about as a result of your own doing (e.g. refusing to get a job after a divorce versus inability to work after a divorce).
What Happens if Your Spouse Refuses to Pay Alimony
In cases where your ex-spouse refuses to agree on alimony payments, it is left to the discretion of the judge to determine whether you will be granted alimony. Since times have changed and most families are now two-income families where both spouses earn a living, it is fairly common for courts to only grant temporary alimony or rehabilitative alimony. In such cases, alimony payments are only given until the receiving spouse is able to get a job or get married again.
In deciding whether alimony will be granted or not (when there is no mutual consent), the judge will examine your financial situation, how much time it will take for you to get employment, your standard of living while you were married, the length of time you were married, the reasons for divorce, as well the mental and physical state of both you and your spouse during and after divorce.
The concept of alimony, otherwise referred to as spousal support, is a financial arrangement between a higher-earning and a lower-earning spouse. The higher-earning spouse is ordered to pay a monthly stipend to their ex-partner to help them maintain a standard of living similar to what the couple enjoyed while married. To ensure an alimony order is fair and does not take advantage of either party’s financial situation, bringing in a NYC or Queens alimony lawyer near you can help.
At Aronov Law NY, we have spent years learning more about alimony laws in New York and how we can leverage their nuances to benefit our clients. We appreciate how stressful it can be to either lack funds after divorce or feel like you’re being taken advantage of in an alimony arrangement. It’s why our attorneys set out to present a rational alimony arrangement that takes everyone’s needs into consideration. Connect with us today to learn more about how we can assist you.
How Is Alimony Decided in Queens, NY?
There are many different factors that aim to help both parties reach a fair and stable alimony arrangement. The court will use a specific formula in addition to considering other influences that will determine how much the alimony payments should be and for what duration. Some key factors include:
Income and Property
All income and property associated with the marriage will be looked into when determining spousal support. All sources of income qualify. This includes each partner’s annual salary, bonuses, dividends, rental income, or any other financial gains. Non-liquid assets are also up for consideration, like a real estate property that was purchased during the marriage. In addition, separate property is considered, such as a vehicle that one partner owned before getting married.
By understanding how much each spouse makes and how their property will be divided after marriage, the court will use this information to arrange a fair alimony payment. For example, if the lower-earning spouse was able to keep the family home, they might not receive as large of an alimony payment if the mortgage on the house was already paid for.
Length of Marriage
The longer a couple is married, the more of an impact the timeline will have on alimony payments. This is because the longer two people have been together, the more they have become dependent on one another to live comfortably. Those in short-term marriages can still be issued alimony payments. However, they are more likely to be for a short period of time while the lower-earning spouse transitions into their new life and works to become more independent.
Age and Health
The age and health of both parties involved can dramatically shape how alimony is issued. For example, if one spouse is older or has severe health complications, it could impact how much money they are able to make through work. This could limit the payments they could provide to their former spouse. Similarly, if the lower-earning spouse has a severe chronic health condition, they may require higher alimony payments to cover these extra medical expenses.
Earning Capacity
The court will make a determination on the income each spouse can make now and into the future. This figure is calculated by looking into their level of education, what special skills they have developed over time, and what work experience is detailed on their resume.
If the lower-earning spouse made the decision to stop their career to take care of responsibilities at home, this could encourage the court to issue a higher alimony payment to accommodate for the difficulty the individual might have reentering the workforce. The extra alimony payments could be spent on enhancing their qualifications for a new job, like earning a new degree.
Custodial Arrangements
When children are involved in a divorce, the final custody arrangement will have an influence on alimony payments. For example, the individual who was awarded primary custody may be limited in how much time they have to work due to the increase in childcare duties. As a result, the court may adjust an alimony payment to help compensate for this loss of income to ensure that the parent is able to afford their children’s basic necessities.
Contributions to the Marriage
There are many different ways married individuals contribute to their marriage. Some of these contributions are financial, while others are not. The non-financial aspects, like homemaking or taking care of children, are recognized by the court as just as significant as contributing financially. For example, if one spouse stays home full-time to care for the children, the working parent may be required to pay alimony to compensate for their non-financial contributions.
Standard of Living
When two individuals marry, the life they create together slowly becomes their standard of living. Once the couple decides to divorce, the courts in New York want to ensure that both spouses are able to maintain the same lifestyle they grew accustomed to. To understand this standard, the court will look into the couple’s living expenses. Having this figure can help the court ensure that both parties will be financially stable when the divorce is finished.
By better understanding how these factors play into achieving an equitable alimony arrangement, a client can work with their divorce attorney to collect and present compelling evidence to help secure the alimony outcome they are looking for.
What Disqualifies You From Alimony in NY?
There are many different reasons why someone might be disqualified from receiving alimony payments in New York. These circumstances are established as disqualifiers to help ensure all alimony orders are issued to be fair and appropriate. Some key factors that will likely result in an alimony disqualification include:
Marital Misconduct
New York is a no-fault divorce state. This means that evidence of marital misconduct, like adultery or abuse, typically doesn’t have any impact on the divorce itself. However, it does have the power to impact alimony decisions. For example, if the court sees evidence of one spouse’s egregious behavior impacting the financial health and well-being of the other spouse, the court may consider increasing their alimony payments as a consequence.
Short Duration of Marriage
Alimony typically is not issued for short marriages. This is because there wasn’t enough time for either spouse to become accustomed to a new lifestyle. Shorter marriages also don’t typically consist of any significant sacrifices, like losing your competitive edge in the job market after spending years at home taking care of children. If there is evidence of financial dependence or sacrifice in a short marriage, the court will take it into consideration.
Self-Sufficiency
When the court examines a divorce case to assess the need for alimony payments, they are looking to see if either spouse needs financial assistance to be independent. If both spouses have the capacity to afford their basic necessities, like housing and groceries, the court may deny an alimony request. While one spouse might claim they need these payments, if their independent salary helps them achieve the same lifestyle standard they had, it will be denied.
Waiver of Alimony Rights
Despite needing alimony payments, a spouse’s request might be denied if they previously waived their rights to them through a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement. As long as these agreements are still valid and enforceable, the court’s hands will be tied. While they might not be able to issue a spousal support arrangement, they could help to meet a lower-earning spouse’s needs through child support.
Failure to Seek Employment
If there is evidence to suggest that a spouse has purposefully not sought out employment to help qualify them for alimony payments, their request is likely to be denied. It is an expectation of the New York courts that both parties make a reasonable effort to support themselves through gainful employment. Successful attempts to find employment are viewed favorably, but a lack of effort will not be enough to successfully obtain financial support from your ex-spouse.
Cohabitation
When one spouse finds a new partner and moves in with them, this could prevent them from being able to acquire or maintain an active alimony arrangement. This is because when someone has a new partner, they typically obtain extra financial support. In this case, the court could deem it unfair for the ex-spouse to continue paying for alimony when their ex-partner has now achieved a similar lifestyle standard that they had in their previous marriage.
Misrepresentation or Fraud
Alimony payments will be denied on the spot if there is evidence that proves a spouse misrepresented their financial situation or engaged in fraud to secure financial support. This can be achieved by underreporting certain assets or excluding components of a salary, like an annual bonus. Without an honest and transparent representation of each spouse’s financial situation, alimony payments are less likely to be awarded, despite the need for them.
How maintenance is calculated in New York
New York does not leave maintenance to pure discretion. A statutory guideline formula produces a presumptive amount, based on the difference between the spouses’ incomes, and applied to the payor’s income up to a statutory cap — $241,000 as of 1 March 2026. Income above the cap is not disregarded, but the court has discretion over how much of it to take into account.
Two versions of the formula exist: one where the payor is also paying child support, and one where they are not. The result is a presumptive figure rather than a fixed one, and a court can depart from it where applying it would be unjust — but it must explain why.
The cap is adjusted every two years, so a calculation done under an older figure will not match a calculation done today.
How long maintenance lasts
Duration follows an advisory schedule tied to the length of the marriage. Under the statute:
- Marriages of up to 15 years: maintenance for 15% to 30% of the length of the marriage
- Marriages of more than 15 and up to 20 years: 30% to 40% of the length of the marriage
- Marriages of more than 20 years: 35% to 50% of the length of the marriage
A twelve-year marriage therefore suggests roughly two to three and a half years of maintenance; a twenty-five year marriage suggests something closer to nine to twelve. The schedule is advisory, not binding, and courts adjust it for the circumstances — but it is the starting point most negotiations work from.
Negotiating a maintenance agreement
Most maintenance is agreed rather than ordered. Negotiating it gives both spouses something a court cannot: control over the structure.
An agreement can set an amount that steps down over time as the recipient re-establishes their earning capacity. It can substitute a lump sum for a monthly obligation, which suits spouses who would rather sever the financial connection than maintain it for years. It can specify exactly what ends the obligation, rather than leaving cohabitation or a change in circumstances to be argued about later. And it can address what happens if the payor’s income rises or falls substantially.
The most consequential decision is whether to make the maintenance non-modifiable. An agreement can bar future changes entirely. That gives certainty to both sides — and removes any recourse if circumstances change dramatically. It is a genuine trade-off, and it is worth understanding fully before signing rather than discovering it years later.
Any agreement must be in writing, signed by both spouses, and acknowledged in the manner required for a deed to be recorded. Agreements have been held unenforceable for defects in that acknowledgment alone, regardless of what the parties intended.
Changing maintenance after the divorce
Where the agreement or order permits it, maintenance can be modified on a showing of a substantial change in circumstances. Unlike child support, there is no three-year rule and no fifteen-percent income trigger — the standard is stricter.
Two points matter practically. First, if the agreement says maintenance is non-modifiable, courts will generally hold the parties to that. Second, modification takes effect from the date you apply, not from the date circumstances changed — so a payor who cannot meet the obligation should apply promptly rather than accumulate arrears that are extremely difficult to cancel.
Remarriage of the recipient typically ends maintenance. The effect of cohabitation depends on the wording of your agreement.
