Grandparents right to access grandkids !..

[Eamonn T]

Hi,
I would like some advice or opinions on a matter which is currently of concern to my sister in law and her partner. My Sister in-law and her partner have a child together but are unmarried at the minute.

There has been problems with her partners parents on going for maybe 4 years now and around 6 months ago my sister in law and her partner had a falling out with his parents and have not spoken to them since. They made no attempt over the past 6 months to get access to their grandchild and did not even bother getting the little boy a birthday present for his birthday last month or even a Christmas present.


However, lately, they have begun to show up at my sister in laws house with clear intensions of provoking an argument or causing annoyance to my sister in law and her family. They even have their other son making phone calls and visits to my sister in law threatening violence. They keep insisting my sister in law cannot stop them from calling to the house as they have the right to do so as the child’s grandparents.


My sister in law would like to have them stopped from calling to the house and influencing their son to call and threaten violence ect but she is concerned that they may be correct in regards grandparent’s rights. before the argument at Christmas they had weekly access to see the child but She has good reasons for not wanting them to have access to the kid as they seem to find it highly amusing to teach the child foul language and filthy names to call the little boys mum and dad when he returns home !..


I am basically wondering is there a good chance a judge would grant them access to the child under grandparents rights and against the kid’s parents’ wishes. And also would a judge refuse granting some sort of barring order on these people due to the fact they are the kids grandparents?

 

[truthseeker]

Grandparents dont have any automatic rights of access although they can apply to courts for access.

However, your sister in law and her partner need to be getting it on record with the Guards that they are being threatened with violence and harrassed by the grandparents. That should be the first step.

There is some info here:

Grandparents
Grandparents also have certain rights in relation to their grandchild. Where grandparents are having difficulty in maintaining contact with their grandchild, under the Children Act 1997 they can apply for leave to apply for access to the child through the District Court. If the grandparents are the main carer of the child and the child is not being properly financial maintained by either or both parents, the grandparents can apply to the District Court for a maintenance order. Grandparents may be able to adopt or foster a grandchild. Where parents dies without making a will appointing someone to act as guardian of their child, the grandparents can apply to the District Court to be appointed guardians. Treoir have published a booklet entitled Being there for them (pdf) for grandparents of children whose parents are not married to each other.

There is some useful info in the [broken link removed] linked to on that page.

Page 16 says:

Obtaining access for grandparents is a two-tiered process. The first application is applying for leave to apply for access which is basically asking for the court’s permission to apply for access. The Court, in arriving at the decision at this stage, must always have regard to:

your connection with the child

the wishes of the child’s guardian(s)

the risk if any, of the application disrupting the child’s life to the extent
that the child would be harmed by the access

If you are successful at this first stage then you can make the second application to the District Court for the access itself.

From what you are describing the court would have to consider the risks of the access.

However, it seems odd that access was fine until a row with the partner and his parents. If they disapproved with the grandparents behaviour towards the child how come they allowed the access for so long and only stopped it after a row? One would imagine that that in itself is disruptive to a child? Just thinking aloud.....