Advice Centre

What Can You Do if You Suspect Your Spouse Has Not Disclosed Assets Abroad?

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Posted in: Divorce, Family and children
Date published: 21/09/2021

The divorce process can be complicated and emotionally challenging, particularly if there is suspicion around whether both parties have been truthful about the full extent of their assets. We regularly help clients who suspect that their spouse has attempted to hide assets in anticipation of divorce. These suspicions can be painful, and they can make divorce proceedings even more complicated. But what can you do? In this post, we look at some of the options available to you if you suspect your spouse has hidden or plans to hide assets during the divorce process.

What is asset hiding in financial settlement and divorce?

During the divorce process, both parties are required to disclose all of their assets. This includes personal property, property held overseas, investments, savings and business interests – the process is referred to as ‘financial disclosure’.  Financial disclosure is designed to ensure that any divorce settlement reached is reasonable and fair. However, where one party is not honest during financial disclosure and hides assets, the court will not have the opportunity to consider the hidden assets, and the final settlement is likely to be unfair.

What can I do if I suspect my spouse has hidden assets?

There are several options available to you if you suspect your spouse may not have been honest about the extent of their assets, even where these assets are held overseas.

Prevent your spouse from disposing of assets using a court order

If you suspect that your spouse is going to dispose of assets, we can assist you in making an application for an order under section 37 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973.  If your application is successful, the order prevents your spouse from disposing of any assets they have not yet sold or otherwise passed on. Also, such an order can require your spouse to transfer back any assets they have already disposed of. This can be an extremely effective means of forcing your spouse to disclose assets and obtaining a fair divorce settlement. In order to apply for such an order, you must be able to demonstrate that the asset was disposed of to prevent you from receiving a fair financial settlement in the divorce.

Freezing orders in financial settlement and divorce

You can also apply to the court for a freezing order. A freezing order will prevent your spouse from disposing of or mismanaging any assets. A typical example of when a freezing order may be used in divorce is where one spouse spitefully attempts to spend as much money as possible, or to sell assets to prevent them from being considered as part of the financial settlement. A freezing order is a powerful tool as it can be made without the other party knowing. A freezing order can also prevent the disposal of assets abroad, which can provide much broader protection for international couples.

What assets can be frozen under a freezing order during divorce?

Most assets can fall under the remit of a freezing order, but typically in divorce and financial settlement cases, it will apply to bank accounts and property. However, it can also apply to assets not under the control of your spouse yet, for example, a financial award from a pending court case.

When will the court make a freezing order in a divorce case?

Certain conditions must be met for the court to grant your application for a freezing order. Generally, the court must be satisfied that the other party is about to dispose of or sell assets with the intention of depriving you of a fair financial settlement.

Taking action in the situation where you believe your spouse is hiding or disposing of assets can be complicated. We must advise that you do not attempt to find evidence or take action yourself and instead that you seek specialist legal advice from our experienced team. We have helped many spouses who suspect their spouse has not been honest during financial disclosure. Get in touch with us today.

Contact Our UK Divorce Solicitors based in Manchester, London and Birmingham

Our specialist international divorce lawyers will help you every step of the way during this difficult time. Our divorce team is experienced in divorce proceedings with an international element and financial settlements. To arrange an initial consultation about divorce, call our specialist Divorce Solicitors on 0330 107 0107 or request a call back.

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.

Published by:

Iwona Durlak Senior Partner

Family Law – IMD Solicitors LLP


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Example of cases we have dealt with:

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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