Husband not responded to divorce paper

[Heatherjayne1972]

Sent divorce papers to BSE in December 2016. (And paid the fee) No response from ex
so yesterday I called the court and no he's not responded to them
So did a bit of digging it turns out he says he never got the papers (he did I know he definitely lives at that address ) and hasn't responded because he has now decided he wants to divorce me!
No real point to this thread but has anyone been through this
So annoying
Rant over

[NutellaLawson]

You can appply for the court bailiff yo redeliver the papers for you in person. My respondent was overseas so i couldn't use this option but i believe it's not very expensive.

You can also try to get some kind of proof that he received it by other means. An email where he mentions he got it maybe. Then, with that, you can apply for 'deemed service' where a judge decides he did get the paperwork.
In my case we were separated for 5+ years so once I'd proven he received it my divorce went through.

[NutellaLawson]

Let him divorce you. It means it'll cost him and he has to do the running around.

[EpoxyResin]

I very much doubt he'll want to divorce you when he realises there's a fee to pay that you've already footed. My ex didn't respond to papers, he simply left the country. The court awarded deemed service and I divorced him in his absence. The only letter he responded to was the one he got on his return telling him he was divorced and the court had ordered he pay me thousands in costs. That letter was priceless :D

[Namechanger2015]

Yes, I have been through this. My ExH refused to sign for months and months. Eventually I got court bailiffs involved for about £100 but it involves court application which was time consuming was told they would only try three times before considering it undelivered. There was a wait time of two months before they would even get to my case (very slow in London).

So I called a private process server instead (googled them) and they did it for £100 within the next week. Good thing was that I paid for unlimited tries, he lied, wouldn't answer the door etc but eventually caved and answered the door. Servers wrote me a report which I submitted to court as deemed service. By this time the court bailiffs hadn't even processed my application.

So I would recommend cutting to the chase and just getting process servers on the case immediately. Good luck.

[Heatherjayne1972]

It costs £120 and takes three months at least to go through the bailiff route
No there's no proof of him getting the papers He's saying he didn't get them but he never opens any mail Grr

[Heatherjayne1972]

Cross post there namechanger
Yeah think I'll do that thanks for your advice everyone

[EpoxyResin]

Namechanger has jogged my memory; my solicitor did indeed hire a process server who tried to redeliver to his parent's address. Whilst he wasn't there his mother did let slip he was well aware of divorce proceedings and this was sufficient for deemed service. The cost of the process server (AND my solicitor) was part of the costs awarded against him for ignoring divorce proceedings that he was well aware of and forcing me to spend the money chasing him. It sounds like your ex is just ignoring the papers to take back control of proceedings (as was mine) which the court took a very dim view of in the end.

[Samatamfabahaba]

I had a lot of trouble with my divorce, he dragged it out as long as he could, it cost me an absolute fortune in solicitor fees, court orders etc... BUT I just got my decree absolute today and it is the best feeling ever so just keep that in mind. It's worth the slog.