Grandparents right to access grandkids !..

Eamonn T

Registered User
Messages
30
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?
 
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:


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

Page 16 says:

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.....