Cap 192 s 15 Alteration of agreements by court during lives of parties (MATRIMONIAL PROCEEDINGS AND PROPERTY ORDINANCE)

Contents of Section

Chapter:	192	Title:	MATRIMONIAL PROCEEDINGS AND PROPERTY ORDINANCE	Gazette Number:	L.N. 387 of 1997
Section:	15	Heading:	Alteration of agreements by court during lives of parties	Version Date:	04/07/1997

(1) Where a maintenance agreement is for the time being subsisting and each of the parties to the agreement is for the time being either domiciled or resident in Hong Kong, then, subject to subsection (3), either party may apply to the court for an order under this section.
(2) If the court to which the application is made is satisfied either-

(a) that by reason of a change in the circumstances in the light of which any financial arrangements contained in the agreement were made or, as the case may be, financial arrangements were omitted from it (including a change foreseen by the parties when making the agreement), the agreement should be altered so as to make different, or, as the case may be, so as to contain, financial arrangements, or

(b) that the agreement does not contain proper financial arrangements with respect to any child of the family,

then, subject to subsections (3), (4) and (5), that court may by order make such alterations in the agreement-

(i) by varying or revoking any financial arrangements contained in it, or

(ii) by inserting in it financial arrangements for the benefit of one of the parties to the agreement or of a child of the family,

as may appear to that court to be just having regard to all the circumstances, including, if relevant, the matters mentioned in section 7(3); and the agreement shall have effect thereafter as if any alteration made by the order had been made by agreement between the parties and for valuable consideration.
(3) (Repealed 79 of 1981 s. 7)
(4) Where a court decides to alter, by order under this section, an agreement by inserting provision for the making or securing by one of the parties to the agreement of periodical payments for the maintenance of the other party or by increasing the rate of the periodical payments which the agreement provides shall be made by one of the parties for the maintenance of the other, the term for which the payments or, as the case may be, so much of the payments as is attributable to the increase are or is to be made under the agreement as altered by the order shall be such term as the court may specify, but that term shall not exceed-

(a) where the payments will not be secured, the joint lives of the parties to the agreement or a term ending with the remarriage of the party to whom the payments are to be made, whichever is the shorter;

(b) where the payments will be secured, the life of that party or a term ending with the remarriage of that party, whichever is the shorter.

(5) Where a court decides to alter, by order under this section, an agreement by inserting provision for the making or securing by one of the parties to the agreement of periodical payments for the maintenance of a child of the family or by increasing the rate of the periodical payments which the agreement provides shall be made or secured by one of the parties for the maintenance of such a child, then, in deciding the term for which under the agreement as altered by the order the payments or, as the case may be, so much of the payments as is attributable to the increase are or is to be made or secured for the benefit of the child, the court shall apply the provisions of section 10(1) and (3) as if the order to which this subsection relates were an order under section 5. (Amended 69 of 1997 s. 27)
(6) For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that nothing in this section or section 14 affects any power of a court before which any proceedings between the parties to a maintenance agreement are brought under any other enactment (including a provision of this Ordinance) to make an order containing financial arrangements or any right of either party to apply for such an order in such proceedings.

[cf. 1970 c. 45 s. 14 U.K.]