💰 Alimony Enforcement: How to Locate Ex-Spouse Assets in 2026

Your ex-spouse owes alimony and isn’t paying. This guide covers every legal enforcement tool available, how to find hidden income and assets, and the step-by-step process for compelling payment — whether they’ve disappeared, quit their job, or are hiding money.

Alimony non-payment is devastatingly common. One spouse walks away from the marriage, the court orders support, and then the paying spouse moves, changes jobs, works under the table, hides income in a new partner’s name, or simply stops paying — hoping you’ll give up or can’t afford the legal fight. Many people do give up. They shouldn’t.

The legal system provides robust enforcement mechanisms for spousal support — in many ways, even stronger than the tools available for general debt collection. But using those tools effectively requires knowing where your ex-spouse lives, where they work, what they own, and where their money flows. This guide covers the complete enforcement process from start to finish: locating a missing ex-spouse, uncovering hidden assets and income, and using every available legal tool to compel payment of what you’re owed.

🔍 Step 1: Locate Your Ex-Spouse

Enforcement begins with location. You cannot garnish wages if you don’t know where they work. You cannot file a lien if you don’t know what property they own. You cannot haul them into court for contempt if you can’t serve them with papers. Finding your ex-spouse’s current whereabouts is the essential first step — and it’s the step where most people get stuck.

People who are dodging alimony obligations tend to be deliberately evasive. They change addresses without notification, take jobs for cash, move to different states, use a new partner’s name on utilities and leases, and generally do everything possible to make themselves hard to find. This is exactly what professional skip tracing services are designed to cut through.

💎 Step 2: Find Hidden Income and Assets

Alimony evaders are often sophisticated about hiding their financial picture. They understand that visible income and assets can be garnished, levied, and liened — so they take steps to make their finances invisible. Recognizing and uncovering these hiding tactics is essential for successful enforcement.

🚩 Common Tactics Ex-Spouses Use to Hide Income

🔎 Red Flags That Your Ex-Spouse Is Hiding Assets

If your ex-spouse claims they can’t afford alimony payments, watch for these indicators that tell a different story. Our guide to spotting hidden assets covers these in depth:

🚩 Their lifestyle doesn’t match their claimed income — new cars, vacations, expensive hobbies, and a nice home while claiming they’re broke.

🚩 They suddenly started a new business around the time alimony was ordered — a convenient vehicle for manipulating reported income.

🚩 They transferred property or vehicles to friends, family, or a new partner shortly before or after the alimony order.

🚩 They claim to be “self-employed” with minimal income but show no signs of actual financial hardship.

🚩 They voluntarily left a well-paying job after the court order was entered.

🚩 They filed for bankruptcy — while bankruptcy can discharge many debts, it cannot discharge alimony obligations. Filing may be a tactic to appear judgment-proof. Learn more about finding out if someone filed bankruptcy.

⚖️ Step 3: Legal Enforcement Tools

Once you’ve located your ex-spouse and identified their income and assets, you have a powerful arsenal of legal enforcement tools available. These tools vary by state, but every jurisdiction provides mechanisms to compel alimony payment.

🗺️ State-by-State Enforcement Variations

Alimony enforcement varies significantly by state. Some states treat alimony arrears identically to child support for enforcement purposes, giving you access to the state’s child support enforcement agency machinery. Others treat alimony as a civil debt that requires you to pursue enforcement through the court system on your own (typically through an attorney).

Enforcement Tool	Availability	Notes
💰 Wage Garnishment	All 50 states	Available everywhere. Limits on garnishment percentage vary by state. See wage garnishment laws by state.
🏠 Property Liens	All 50 states	Filing procedures and priority rules vary. Judgment lien guide by state covers procedures.
⚖️ Contempt of Court	All 50 states	Requirements for proving willful non-compliance vary. Most powerful in states that actively jail non-payers.
🛂 Passport Denial	Federal — all states	Triggered at $2,500 in arrears. Certified through state enforcement agency.
📋 License Suspension	Most states	Types of licenses subject to suspension vary. Some states include professional, driver’s, and hunting/fishing licenses.
💳 Credit Reporting	Varies	Some states report alimony arrears to credit bureaus. Devastating to the debtor’s credit score.
🔍 Debtor Examination	All 50 states	Called different names in different states — supplementary proceedings, debtor’s exam, citation to discover assets.

📋 Step 4: Build Your Enforcement Case

Effective alimony enforcement requires more than just knowing your ex-spouse’s location and assets. You need to build a documented case that demonstrates non-payment, ability to pay, and willful refusal. The more thorough your documentation, the faster the court will act — and the stronger your position when the judge evaluates the evidence.

⏱️ How Long Does Alimony Enforcement Take?

The enforcement timeline depends on which tools you use and how cooperative (or uncooperative) your ex-spouse is. Here is a realistic timeline for common enforcement actions.

Enforcement Action	Typical Timeline	Notes
🔍 Skip Trace (Locate Ex-Spouse)	24 hours or less	Professional skip tracing delivers current address, employer, and asset information fast.
💰 Wage Garnishment Order	2-6 weeks from filing	Includes court processing, employer notification, and first garnished payment.
🏠 Property Lien Filing	1-2 weeks	Recording a lien is relatively fast; collection occurs when property is sold/refinanced.
⚖️ Contempt of Court Hearing	4-8 weeks from filing	Court must schedule hearing and serve the ex-spouse with notice. Can be faster in urgent cases.
🔍 Debtor Examination	3-6 weeks from filing	Court schedules the examination date and the ex-spouse must be served with the order to appear.
📋 License Suspension	4-12 weeks	State agency processing time after certification of arrears.
🛂 Passport Denial	6-12 weeks	Requires certification to State Department through child support enforcement agency.

🤝 Working With Your Attorney

While you can pursue some enforcement actions on your own (such as filing a contempt motion pro se), working with a family law attorney dramatically increases your chances of success and recovery. Here is how to work with your attorney most effectively for alimony enforcement.

Provide complete skip trace and asset search results. When you give your attorney a comprehensive report showing your ex-spouse’s current address, employer, income indicators, property holdings, vehicle registrations, business interests, and known associates, they can craft a targeted enforcement strategy instead of fishing in the dark. This saves you legal fees by reducing the attorney’s research time and enables them to choose the enforcement tools most likely to produce results.

Organize your documentation before the consultation. Bring your payment tracking records, the original court order, any modification orders, demand letters, communications from your ex, and the asset search results. The more organized your materials, the more efficiently your attorney can evaluate your case and the less you spend on billable hours for document review.

Ask about fee recovery. In many jurisdictions, the court can order the non-paying ex-spouse to pay your attorney’s fees for enforcement. This means the cost of enforcement comes out of their pocket, not yours. Ask your attorney about fee-shifting provisions in your state’s family law statutes.

Discuss all available enforcement tools. Some attorneys default to one or two enforcement methods. Make sure your attorney considers the full range of tools — wage garnishment, property liens, asset levies, contempt, license suspension, passport denial, and debtor examinations. Often, using multiple tools simultaneously produces results faster than relying on a single approach.

💡 Special Situations

🏃 Your Ex-Spouse Has Disappeared Completely

If your ex-spouse has vanished — no forwarding address, disconnected phone, left their job — you’re dealing with a classic skip situation. This is precisely what our skip tracing services specialize in. Through professional database access, we can typically locate individuals who have moved across the country, changed their phone numbers, and taken steps to avoid being found. See our detailed guides on finding a former spouse for legal matters and finding someone without a forwarding address.

Once located, they must be served with the enforcement motion. If they’re in a different state, see our resources on serving someone in another state. If they’re genuinely evading service, our guide on serving someone avoiding service covers the options including substituted service and service by publication.

💸 Your Ex Claims They Can’t Afford to Pay

An ex-spouse who claims inability to pay bears the burden of proving that claim. They must demonstrate that their financial circumstances have genuinely changed — not that they voluntarily reduced their income or hid their assets. The court will look at their earning capacity, not just their current earnings.

If they petition the court for a modification (reduction) of alimony, you need evidence to counter their claim. An asset search revealing undisclosed property, vehicles, business interests, or lifestyle indicators that contradict their poverty claims gives your attorney powerful ammunition to oppose the modification. A debtor examination puts them under oath where they must answer questions about every dollar they earn and every asset they own.

🏛️ Your Ex Filed for Bankruptcy

This is actually good news from an enforcement standpoint. Alimony obligations cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. Unlike credit card debt, medical bills, and many other obligations, domestic support obligations — including alimony and child support — survive bankruptcy proceedings. Furthermore, they are given priority status, meaning they must be paid ahead of other creditors. If your ex filed bankruptcy to avoid alimony, the bankruptcy court will still require them to meet their support obligations. Learn more about collecting after someone files bankruptcy.

🌍 Your Ex Moved to Another Country

International enforcement of alimony orders is more complex but not impossible. The United States has reciprocal enforcement agreements with many countries, and the Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance provides frameworks for cross-border support enforcement. If your ex left the country, passport revocation (for U.S. citizens who owe $2,500+) and international asset recovery may be available enforcement tools.

👨‍👩‍👧 Your Ex Is Also Behind on Child Support

If your ex-spouse owes both alimony and child support arrears, the enforcement tools may overlap — and child support enforcement agencies in most states can assist with the collection machinery. The child support enforcement system has powerful tools including automatic wage withholding, tax refund interception, and federal database matching that can supplement your private enforcement efforts. Our guide on locating a parent who owes child support covers this in detail.

📜 Your Divorce Was in a Different State

If you were divorced in one state but your ex-spouse now lives in another, you’ll need to navigate interstate enforcement. Under UIFSA, you generally have the option to enforce in the issuing state (the state where the original order was entered), register the order in the new state for local enforcement, or seek assistance through the state enforcement agencies. Each approach has advantages depending on your specific circumstances. A family law attorney can advise which path is most efficient. Our guide to domesticating judgments across state lines explains the process of registering out-of-state orders for enforcement.

🛡️ Defending Against Modification Attempts

Non-paying ex-spouses often file for modification of the alimony order — seeking a reduction or termination — as a defensive tactic when they sense enforcement is coming. Understanding how to counter these motions is critical to protecting your support payments.

The burden is on them. The ex-spouse seeking modification must prove a substantial change in circumstances since the original order. Merely disliking the payment amount is not sufficient. Common claims include job loss, reduced income, health issues, or the recipient’s improved financial situation. The court will scrutinize whether the change is genuine, involuntary, and permanent.

Voluntary impoverishment is not grounds for reduction. If your ex-spouse quit a high-paying job, turned down promotions, retired early, or deliberately reduced their work hours, the court can impute income at their earning capacity — meaning the alimony amount stays the same based on what they could earn, not what they claim to earn. An asset search showing a comfortable lifestyle contradicts claims of hardship.

New relationships don’t automatically change alimony. Your ex-spouse getting remarried does not automatically terminate alimony in most states — though it may be a factor the court considers. Your cohabitation with a new partner may be relevant in some states but is not an automatic termination trigger everywhere. Know your state’s specific rules.

Counter with evidence. When opposing a modification, present your own evidence: the asset search showing their undisclosed holdings, social media evidence of their lifestyle, the employer search confirming their income, and their failure to make good-faith payments. If they claim hardship while driving a new car and living in a nice home, the evidence speaks for itself.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

📌 Can alimony be enforced if my ex moved to another state?

Yes. The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), adopted in all 50 states, provides mechanisms for enforcing support orders across state lines. You may be able to enforce directly in the original state, register the order in the new state for enforcement, or use the state enforcement agency to pursue the matter. The first step is always locating where they moved. Our skip tracing services cover all 50 states and can locate ex-spouses nationwide.

📌 Can my ex go to jail for not paying alimony?

Yes. Willful failure to pay court-ordered alimony can be punished as contempt of court, which carries potential jail time in most states. The key word is “willful” — the court must find that your ex has the ability to pay and is choosing not to. This is where evidence of hidden income and assets — revealed through professional asset searches — becomes critical. Courts are more inclined to find willful contempt when the evidence clearly shows financial ability despite claims of poverty.

📌 How do I find my ex-spouse’s hidden assets?

Professional asset search services reveal real property, vehicles, business interests, corporate filings, and other recorded assets. For comprehensive asset discovery, combine this with a debtor examination where they must disclose finances under oath. Our guide on how to find hidden assets and hidden assets in divorce specifically covers the complete process. Watch for red flags that indicate asset hiding and be aware of fraudulent transfer tactics such as moving property into a new partner’s name or creating shell companies to hold assets.

📌 What if my ex is self-employed and hiding income?

Self-employment makes income harder to verify but not impossible. A business asset search reveals the business entities they’re connected to. A debtor examination forces them to produce financial records under oath. Tax returns, even if they underreport income, must be filed — and discrepancies between tax returns and lifestyle are powerful evidence. Bank subpoenas can reveal deposit patterns that contradict their claimed income. The court can impute income based on their earning capacity and lifestyle rather than accepting a manufactured low-income picture.

📌 Is there a statute of limitations on collecting alimony arrears?

This varies by state. Some states treat unpaid alimony as a judgment with a specific enforcement window (typically 10 to 20 years, renewable). Others have no statute of limitations on alimony arrears. Regardless of the specific timeframe, the clock is ticking — and the longer you wait, the more difficult collection becomes as assets are spent, transferred, or hidden. Check our judgment duration by state resource and consult a family law attorney in your jurisdiction for state-specific rules.

📌 Can I collect alimony if my ex-spouse filed for bankruptcy?

Absolutely. Alimony cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. It is classified as a domestic support obligation and given priority status under the Bankruptcy Code. Your ex-spouse is required to continue making current payments during the bankruptcy, and all arrears survive the discharge. In fact, the bankruptcy may actually help your collection efforts by forcing a full financial disclosure under oath that reveals assets you didn’t know about. See collecting after bankruptcy for the complete process.

📌 How much does it cost to locate an ex-spouse and find their assets?

A professional skip trace to locate an ex-spouse typically costs $75 to $300. A comprehensive asset search ranges from $150 to $500. Combined, the total cost is a fraction of one month’s alimony — and dramatically less than what you’d lose by not enforcing. Compare this to attorney’s fees of $300 to $500 per hour for legal research that could be avoided by providing your attorney with complete skip trace and asset search data upfront. Learn more about skip tracing costs.

📌 Should I hire a private investigator for alimony enforcement?

In most cases, a professional skip trace and asset search provides everything you need for alimony enforcement — at a fraction of the cost of a private investigator. You need your ex’s address, employer, and asset information — all of which come from database research, not physical surveillance. A PI becomes necessary only if you need physical evidence of their activities (such as documenting unreported employment or lifestyle inconsistencies through surveillance). Start with skip tracing — if the situation requires escalation to a PI, the skip trace data makes the PI engagement shorter and less expensive. Read our detailed comparison of PI vs. skip tracing services.

📌 What if my ex-spouse changes jobs frequently to avoid garnishment?

Some ex-spouses job-hop deliberately to stay one step ahead of wage garnishment orders. Each time you locate their new employer and file a garnishment, they quit and take a new job. This pattern of deliberate evasion is itself evidence of willful contempt — document each job change and garnishment attempt, then present the pattern to the court. The judge can impose increasingly severe sanctions. Our skip tracing service can conduct ongoing monitoring to quickly identify new employment whenever it changes, keeping the pressure on.

📚 Related Resources

🔍 Skip Tracing for Family Law Attorneys — Specialized family law investigation services

👨‍👩‍👧 Child Support Enforcement Skip Tracing — Locating absent parents

💍 Hidden Assets in Divorce — Complete investigation guide

💎 Asset Search Services — Uncover what they own

💰 Find Employer for Wage Garnishment — Locate their workplace

🏠 How to Place a Property Lien — Secure your claim

⚖️ Contempt of Court for Non-Payment — When to use this tool

📋 Debtor Examination Questions — What to ask under oath

🚩 Signs Someone Is Hiding Assets — Red flags to watch for

🔄 Fraudulent Transfers — Challenging hidden asset moves

🌍 Find Former Spouse for Legal Matters — Location guide

🗺️ Judgment Collection by State — State-specific enforcement rules