How to Enforce a Divorce Decree in New Hampshire

The decree ordered your ex to refinance the house, hand over half the 401(k), or pay you a property settlement. The deadline came and went. Nothing happened. A divorce decree is a court order, not a suggestion — and New Hampshire gives you specific tools to make it stick. The main one is a Motion for Contempt, and knowing how it works changes the conversation.

First: Confirm It Is Actually an Order Being Violated

Before you file anything, be precise about what the decree requires. Enforcement works when a clear, mandatory term is being ignored — "the respondent shall refinance within 120 days," "the petitioner shall pay $15,000 within 60 days," "the parties shall list the home for sale." Vague aspirations are harder to enforce than dated, specific obligations.

Pull your certified decree and identify the exact provision, the exact deadline, and the exact non-compliance. That precision is what a judge acts on.

The Motion for Contempt — Your Primary Tool

When your ex-spouse violates a clear order, you file a Motion for Contempt with the same Circuit Court Family Division that issued your decree. In New Hampshire this is Form NHJB-2076-F.

The motion asks the court to find that your ex has willfully failed to obey the order and to compel compliance. The court can:

• Order the non-compliant party to do what the decree required, often with a firm new deadline.
• Award you attorney's fees and costs incurred in bringing the motion.
• Impose sanctions — including, in serious and willful cases, the possibility of jail until the party complies.

A contempt finding generally requires that the violation was willful — that your ex had the ability to comply and chose not to. Someone who genuinely cannot refinance because no lender will approve them is in a different position than someone who simply refuses to sign a deed. The court draws that line.

There are filing fees associated with post-decree motions, and fee amounts change, so confirm the current schedule with the court clerk when you file.

Enforcing Property Division Specifically

Property terms have their own enforcement paths beyond a general contempt motion:

• Refusal to sign a deed or title. If your ex will not sign a quitclaim deed or vehicle title the decree ordered, the court can, on a contempt motion, order them to sign — and in some cases authorize the transfer to happen without their signature.
• Unpaid money judgment — the writ of execution. When the decree awards you a specific sum and your ex does not pay, you can pursue a writ of execution. This is the enforcement device for collecting a money judgment: it authorizes the sheriff to levy on the debtor's non-exempt property or attach assets to satisfy the amount owed. It converts a paper award into an actual collection mechanism.
• Retirement accounts. If the problem is a retirement share that was never transferred, the fix is usually completing the QDRO, not a contempt motion — the account cannot move without the qualified order regardless of your ex's cooperation.

When Your Ex Simply Will Not Cooperate

A common and frustrating scenario: the decree awarded you the car or the house, but your ex will not sign the transfer paperwork, so the title agency or registry will not process it. You do not have to chase the signature forever.

• File the Motion for Contempt (NHJB-2076-F) and ask the court to compel the signature or authorize the transfer without it.
• Bring proof: the certified decree, the specific provision, and a record of your attempts to get compliance.

If there was abuse or a protective order in your case, do not confront your ex directly to collect signatures. Route everything through the court process and your attorney, and use the court's confidential filing procedures to keep your contact details out of the record.

For readers outside New Hampshire: contempt of a court order is a universal enforcement mechanism, but form numbers, fee schedules, and the specific procedure for a writ of execution vary by state. The NHJB-2076-F form and the NH writ process described here apply to Granite State decrees.

Where Enforcement Fits

Most people never need a contempt motion — but the ones who do usually hit the wall at a specific task: a deed unsigned, a settlement unpaid, a retirement account unsplit. Knowing the tool exists, and having your documentation organized, is what makes the threat of filing enough to get compliance.

The New Hampshire After-Divorce Checklist includes an enforcement guide that lays out the contempt process, the writ of execution, and exactly which documents to assemble before you file — plus a safety track for cases involving abuse, so you can enforce your decree without ever coordinating directly with a hostile ex.

See more New Hampshire guides →