Does a payor/spouse have an ongoing obligation to inform the custodial parent of significant changes in income that would affect the appropriate level of child support?

However, in British Columbia the courts seem to have accepted that the payor/spouse has an ongoing obligation to inform the custodial parent of significant changes in income that would affect the appropriate level of child support. In Hietanen v. Hietanen, 2004 BCSC 306, Fraser J. said this at paragraphs 13 to 16: No judge of this court and no lawyer who works regularly in family law can be unaware that children are on the losing end when there is a paying parent who is not paying them the amount of child support that the Guidelines say that they are entitled to. The same applies, in some circumstances, to the recipient parent, for example, where there are things like extraordinary expenses which must be shared. During submissions, I suggested that if the plaintiff in this case had taken a student into her home as a boarder to help supplement her income and had not told the insurance company which provides her with fire insurance that she had done so, chances are that if her home burned down, the insurance company would refuse to pay her, on the ground that she had a legal obligation under the doctrine known as utmost good faith to volunteer that information to the insurance company. It seems to me inconceivable that the law could attach smaller importance to the right of children to have proper child support. I therefore say that as from today in British Columbia, the law is that parents whose incomes are relevant to the financial support of their children, have an obligation to disclose changes in their income from time to time. This is based on the concept of utmost good faith. It does seem to me that the law should not hesitate to require that parents act with the utmost good faith toward their children.