Maintenance obligation in Colombia

The obligation to provide alimony in Colombia is constituted by the relationship with an economically dependent person. Thus, the law establishes that alimony is owed to: the spouse, descendants (natural children and grandchildren), ascendants (natural parents and grandparents), legitimate siblings and to the person who made a large donation.

Types of food

• Congruos: Those that allow the fed to subsist modestly according to their social position. They are owed to the spouse and natural descendants and ascendants.
• 
  Necessary:
  Those who give what suffices to sustain life.

What is included in the obligation to provide maintenance in Colombia?

In addition to food, the concept of food includes what is necessary to obtain housing, clothing, education, health and, in general, what is necessary for a full and dignified subsistence.

Since when is food owed?

Since the maintenance debtor is sued for the first time.

Until when is food owed?

Maintenance shall be owed for as long as the need of the breadwinner persists or, in the case of able-bodied descendants, up to the age of 25 years while they remain in school.

Amount of food

It is variable depending on the relationship with the maintenance debtor, his or her socioeconomic position and needs, as well as the faculties and domestic circumstances of the maintenance debtor.

Who determines the amount and form of payment of maintenance?

It may be ordered by a judge, once sued, by a family commissioner or other authorities under certain circumstances (such as proceedings for domestic violence) or by the parties (debtor and maintenance creditor or their representative, in the case of a minor) by agreement.

Right to food

This is a very personal right and, as such, cannot be transmitted in any way. However, alimony arrears (those that have been established and regulated as a specific debt) may be waived or set off and the right of The rights may be transferred by death, sold and assigned freely.

Voluntary food

In spite of those established by law as compulsory, a person may obligate himself to give food to others, by his own will, by means of a will or a donation between living persons, by himself determining the conditions of this debt.