Maintenance Enforcement and Locate Services

Maintenance Enforcement and Locate Services (MELS) has responsibility for programs that assist families to receive the financial support they are entitled to under court orders or agreements.

MELS delivers:

• The Locate Services program, which employs Search Officers who have legal authority to conduct searches to find a person’s location, assets, employment and sources of income in support of establishing and enforcing family orders and agreements. They also have authority to request information from federal data banks on behalf of other justice partners, such as the BC Family Maintenance Agency.
• The Interjurisdictional Support Services, which ensures child and/or spousal support applications and support orders flow smoothly between reciprocating jurisdictions, B.C. courts and the BC Family Maintenance Agency when parents and ex-spouses live in different provinces, territories or countries.
• The Child Support Recalculation Service, which recalculates child support amounts in orders and agreements made or filed in a B.C. Provincial Court to ensure that amounts owing are properly adjusted and in line with parents’ incomes.

MELS also supports the work of its family justice partner:

• The BC Family Maintenance Agency, a Crown Agency that monitors and recovers support payments owing under support orders and agreements that are filed with it.

Learn more about the BC Family Maintenance Agency.