Many couples have assets overseas, but the division of these assets can be difficult to navigate when it comes to divorce and financial settlement. Regardless of whether you have bought a holiday home in the sun, or both partners own businesses in their home country, such property will need to be dealt with as part of the financial settlement process.
Defining property for the purposes of financial settlement
When ‘property’ is discussed in this context, it refers to homes, land or any financial assets such as bank accounts, investments or a share in a business. The property may be held solely or in joint names, but all property must be disclosed as part of the financial settlement process.
How are assets held overseas valued?
Any assets that either party holds overseas will be considered in the divorce settlement. A value for the asset must be determined, but how this is achieved will depend on the nature of the property.
Arguably, the most straightforward property to value is any banking or investment account. The partner who holds the account can simply produce a statement demonstrating the value.
For houses, apartments, buildings or land, you will need to obtain a valuation from a qualified surveyor in the country where the property is located. Parties to the divorce may wish to agree on the professional they will use beforehand to avoid a dispute about the valuation at a later date.
If you have shares in a foreign business, you may need to instruct an accountant qualified in the country where the business operates to value it.
How are assets held overseas divided in divorce?
When you are divorcing in the UK, after the asset has been valued, it will be treated following the same legal principles for financial settlement as all other assets. The law in England and Wales does not seek to provide a percentage share to each party but to provide a fair settlement.
Many factors can influence how assets might be divided and whether the division of assets should be in favour of one spouse over another. Factors that may affect the division of assets include:
whether assets were acquired before the marriage
the length of the marriage
the housing needs of the parties
any children that are involved
the earnings or earning potential of each of the parties
It is essential that you have specialist advice on your individual circumstances. We can advise you to ensure that your interests are properly represented.
I suspect that my spouse has not disclosed assets held abroad, what can I do?
In many cases, if one spouse has lived or worked abroad during a marriage, they may fail to disclose assets held overseas. We can help you to raise your concerns and make enquiries to determine whether this is the case.
Initially, we will raise a formal request with your spouse’s solicitor setting out the nature of your suspicion. Where this is not successful, we can seek an order from the court. Depending on what the assets are, we can also assist you in appointing a forensic accountant. A forensic accountant will analyse all of the assets that have been disclosed to look for inconsistencies and errors which may indicate that assets are being held overseas.
If your divorce has been finalised and it later becomes apparent that your spouse has been hiding assets overseas, the court may reopen your financial settlement.
What happens if undisclosed assets overseas are uncovered?
Where one party deliberately hides assets during financial settlement, the consequences can be significant. The court has broad powers to penalise the party wilfully hiding assets and may reduce their overall financial settlement or even impose a custodial sentence.
How can I enforce a court order overseas?
When you and your spouse agree about the division of your assets, we can then apply to have the agreement made into a court order. It is essential to craft the settlement or court order to ensure that it complies with each foreign jurisdiction’s requirements.
If your spouse does not comply with the terms of the court order concerning assets held overseas, enforcement can be challenging. The approach we will take will depend on the country where the assets are held. Many countries have agreements in place to recognise financial court orders from UK courts, but others do not. We can advise you fully on the steps we need to take to ensure you receive what is due to you under your financial settlement agreement.
Contact Our UK International Divorce Solicitors at our Manchester, London and Birmingham offices
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Please note that the law may have changed since this article was published.
F v F - Acted for a German husband in a complex financial remedy matter. He decided to instruct IMD Solicitors after he had lost trust in his previously instructed solicitors and feared that he would not achieve a favourable outcome from the proceedings. The relevant assets were spread across the globe with some located in the UK (including a multi-million pound business), Gibraltar, Spain, Dubai, and Poland. The overall value of assets exceeded £24 million. The husband had been cut off from the matrimonial assets and excluded from control of the business that had been established by his family. The case involved the instruction of numerous experts, for business valuations, Capital Gains Tax reports, and opinions on the enforcement of orders in foreign jurisdictions, and dealing with several applications, including applications for orders to freeze assets, prevent the disposition of assets, for the joinder of parties, and to litigate conduct issues. The final result exceeded the client’s expectations.
L v L - We were instructed by a mother in a complex international children matter. She was required by orders of the UK courts to return the child to the UK from Poland. She had travelled with the child to Poland but, following unsuccessful application to extend her stay there in August 2017, she decided not to return to the UK because the child disclosed sexual abuse by a member of the paternal family and the father. In September 2018, the Polish court dismissed the father’s Hague Convention application for the child's return on the basis of Article 13(b), a decision which the father appealed. In March 2019, the father applied to the UK High Court for an order for the child’s return pursuant to the procedure set out in Article 11(6) – (8) of the Brussels IIA Regulation. Despite the father's unsuccessful Hague Convention application in Poland, the UK court ordered the return of the child. Article 11 does not allow the court of the returning country much discretion. After all of this, the mother instructed IMD Solicitors to apply to discharge the orders of the UK Court for the return of the child. Even in the face of the fact that most applications to discharge such return orders fail, we succeeded. We are currently awaiting a decision in the UK courts on a further application for the transfer of jurisdiction to the Polish courts where the mother resides with the child.
G v P - We represent a Spanish mother in respect of an urgent application for a Child Arrangements Order and Specific Issue Order in the UK seeking the relocation of the child to Spain. This was after the return of the child to the UK under Hague Convection proceedings which this mother lost in Spain.
She was asking for an order for the relocation of the child back to Spain and an urgent interim Child Arrangements Order to allow her to see the child pending the final outcome of the UK proceedings. IMD successfully argued that, regardless of the return of the child to the UK under the Hague Convention, the mother should be allowed unsupervised overnight contact with the child. We were delighted to be able to secure her contact with the child for Christmas and she said that it was the best Christmas gift she could have wished for. The outcome of the application for the relocation is pending.
S v V - We currently represent the father in Child Arrangements Order proceedings issued by the mother in relation to variation of a UK order made in the face of numerous other international proceedings. He is an Italian National who has been living in France for the last 20 years and the mother is a Lithuanian national. The child is now 11 years old and proceedings concerning the child have been ongoing in various jurisdictions for the majority of the child`s life. Contested divorce proceedings including child arrangements took place in Monaco. The French Court and authorities were also involved, and various proceedings had been ongoing between parties since 2013 in France and Monaco.
The parties’ divorce was pronounced in Monaco. Thereafter, in December 2020, the mother submitted an application to relocate to England with the child, and the relocation took place in June 2021. Upon relocation, the she lodged a child arrangement order application, seeking to register a judgment made in Monaco and to vary the same in respect of the contact arrangements between the father and the child. The father seeks for the child’s return to Monaco.
Due to the parties’ mutual allegations and the associated international elements, various authorities and courts that have been involved in the case, the local authority has become involved with the family and a guardian has been instructed to represent the child in the UK proceedings. At present, these proceedings in England are ongoing and the outcome of the professional reports regarding the family are awaited.
P v P - We have acted for the Respondent Husband in relation to the financial remedy proceedings in the UK. The parties had various assets in the UK and Romania consisting mainly of the portfolio of properties but conduct issues were raised by the Wife due to a business of the Husband over which she had lost control and her allegations of dissipation of assets. The value of assets excluding the business were in a region of £3 million.
K v K - We act in financial remedy proceedings for a wife who is a Polish national. The matter's complexity mainly comes from a dispute between the parties around land in Poland. Its value was initially in dispute but was then assessed by a joint expert to be in the region of half a million pounds. The total assets in this case are estimated to be worth over £1 million. The land in Poland is a subject to contract with a third party and is being leased as a photovoltaic (solar) farm. The division of the land to achieve an equal share of the assets is complicated due to the contract in place and plans for the future use of the land. Currently the parties are awaiting a final hearing but efforts are being made to reach a settlement with the aid of alternative dispute resolution and in order to save the parties money and avoid further delays.
R v O - We acted pro bono and worked together with a law firm in Poland to ensure that the Costa Rican Mother regains access to her child. The Mother's only child was abducted from the UK in 2014. The Mother was successful with the abduction case and the UK family courts ordered the return of the child. The orders were recognised in Poland but unfortunately due to various issues with the Mother's immigration status and court's delays in Poland, the orders were never enforced. The Mother was facing removal from the UK and prospects of never seeing her child again. We have corresponded with various courts in Poland dealing with international abduction matters and we decided that an application for contact should be issued rather than any proceedings for further enforcement of the orders, as the Mother had not seen the child for around 7 years. At the same we secured the Mother's stay in the UK making successful outside of immigration rules application to extend her stay. We now receive regular photos from the Mother with her daughter, as face to face contact is taking place. We helped to secure an order of the Polish courts for the Mother to see the child regularly in person, whilst when she instructed us she was facing a prospect of never seeing her child again and being deported to Costa Rica.
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