Alimony & Spousal Maintenance in Texas

The duration of Texas spousal maintenance depends on how long the parties were married and/or the reason why it is being awarded. Typically, the parties must have been married for at least ten years for a spouse to be eligible for maintenance in a Texas divorce. Spousal maintenance may be awarded sooner, however, if family violence has occurred; in these cases, the court could award spousal maintenance for up to five years even if the parties have been married for less than ten years. Except in situations where a spouse or child of the marriage is disabled, the length of time the court may order maintenance for is:

• Five years if the parties were married for 10 to 20 years
• Seven years if the parties were married for 20 to 30 years
• Ten years if the parties were married for 30 years or more

The duration of a maintenance order is limited to the shortest reasonable period that allows the spouse seeking maintenance to meet their minimum reasonable needs by obtaining appropriate employment or developing an appropriate skill. The exception to this is if the spouses’ employment is substantially or totally diminished because of one of these factors:

• Physical or mental disability of the spouse or a child of the marriage
• Duties as the custodian of an infant or young child
• Another compelling impediment to gainful employment

The court may not order maintenance that requires a spouse to pay more than $5,000/month or 20% of the paying spouse’s average monthly gross income, whichever is less.

Once a court determines that a spouse is eligible to receive maintenance, there are other factors that must be considered when determining the nature, amount, duration, and manner of payments to the receiving spouse.

In most divorce decisions, receiving alimony is conditional. If a certain condition occurs, the alimony payments will end, even if a spouse is supposed to receive them for a longer period of time. While a divorcing couple can agree to any terminating condition that seems just and fair in their divorce, Texas statute controls alimony when it is awarded by the court after a trial.

Laws governing Texas spousal support have been put in place to respect the needs of both the person paying support and the person receiving. In a Texas divorce, alimony ends when the person receiving alimony gets remarried. Texas alimony also ends if the court determines that the person receiving alimony is cohabitating with a significant other.

Terminating alimony in a Texas divorce because of cohabitation requires the court to find that the receiving party “cohabits with another person with whom he or she has a dating or romantic relationship in a permanent place of abode on a continuing basis.” Going on a short vacation together, sharing a hotel room for a few nights, or having someone occasionally spend the night when that person has their own residence is not cohabitation.