Can a child support or parenting order be changed in British Columbia?
Yes, when circumstances have changed since the order was made. For a parenting order, the change must be in the child's needs or circumstances. For child support, it is a change that would produce a different amount under the Guidelines, most often a change in income. Parents can also change their arrangements by agreement at any time.
Parenting orders
Under the Family Law Act a court can change, suspend or end an order about parenting arrangements if, since it was made, there has been a change in the needs or circumstances of the child, including one that comes from a change in another person's circumstances. The Divorce Act asks the same question of an order made in a divorce: has there been a change in the circumstances of the child?
The Divorce Act adds three rules. A relocation of the child counts as a change. A relocation the court has prohibited does not count by itself. A former spouse's terminal illness or critical condition counts. Once a change is shown, the court decides what arrangement is in the child's best interests, the only consideration for parenting orders under both Acts.
Child support
Under the Family Law Act a court can change a child support order if there has been a change in circumstances as the Guidelines define it, if substantial evidence has turned up that was not available before, or if it comes out that a party did not make full financial disclosure. Under the Divorce Act the court must be satisfied that a change of circumstances under the Guidelines has occurred. Where the amount came from the table, any change that would result in a different order is enough: a rise or fall in the paying parent's income is the usual example.
The change can be made for the future or backdated. Both Acts say so.
Spousal support
Spousal support can be changed on a change in the condition, means, needs or other circumstances of either spouse. Support that was ordered for a fixed period, and has ended, can be restarted only in narrow circumstances. An order or agreement can also provide for a review at a set date or event, and on a review no change has to be proved.
Interim orders and agreements
An interim order, made to hold things steady until trial or settlement, can be changed on a change in circumstances or on substantial new evidence.
Parents who agree can change their arrangements themselves with a new written agreement, and a written agreement filed in court can be enforced like an order. A court must set aside or replace a parenting agreement that is not in the child's best interests, and it can replace a child support agreement where it would have ordered something different under the Guidelines.
Property orders are different
The general power to change an order on a change in circumstances does not apply to an order dividing property or a pension. Such an order can be changed only as the property and pension Parts of the Act themselves allow.
The law
Each link opens the source itself: the section on BC Laws or Justice Laws, the court’s own copy of a decision, or the page of the body that publishes it. Checked on November 11, 2026.
- Family Law Act, SBC 2011, c 25, s 47 — changing an order about parenting arrangements
- Family Law Act, s 44 — parenting agreements, and when a court must set one aside
- Family Law Act, s 152 — changing a child support order, for the future or retroactively
- Family Law Act, s 148 — child support agreements
- Family Law Act, s 167 — changing a spousal support order
- Family Law Act, s 168 — reviews of spousal support
- Family Law Act, s 215 — changing orders generally; property and pension orders excepted
- Family Law Act, s 216 — changing an interim order
- Divorce Act, RSC 1985, c 3 (2nd Supp), s 17 — variation of support, parenting and contact orders made in a divorce
- Federal Child Support Guidelines, SOR/97-175, s 14 — what counts as a change of circumstances for child support
People also ask
- Do we have to go back to court if we both agree?
- No. You can put the change in a written agreement, and filing it in court makes it enforceable like an order. If the terms are in a court order, many parents ask the court for a consent order so that the order and the arrangement match.
- My income dropped. Does child support go down automatically?
- No. The order stays in force, and unpaid amounts build up as arrears, until the order is changed by agreement or by a court. Tell the other parent, give proof of the new income and apply promptly if you cannot agree. A court can backdate a change, but it reduces or cancels arrears only where it would be grossly unfair not to.
- Can a final property division be reopened?
- Not simply because circumstances changed. The Family Law Act excludes property and pension orders from the general power to change an order; they can be changed only as the property and pension Parts themselves allow.
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General information about the law in British Columbia, not legal advice. Laws change and every situation differs; speak to a lawyer before acting on anything here.