Husband hiding assets

[Suebromley]

Hi all

This is my first post having been reading the great threads for many weeks and the great advice given. Me and my husband have been married for 6 years and have a 3yr old son and are going through divorce and worried about our financial situation after split of assets

We currently have a flat with 120k equity but 50k of that has to be paid back to his parents who lent him the deposit (agreement in place), and he bought it before marriage my name is not on it. Do i have any right to this?, he has said it is his flat and life is hell living together not abusive physically but just difficult like purposely leaving a mess, i cant move to my mums

I have always worked and earn 30k and 20k savings, he earns 60k with 10k savings...now i have never been involved the with finances but he must have more than this as he used to work abroad and was into stocks and share trading. But in the financial disclosure this is what he declared and his bank statements apparently do not show anything unusual, but he planned the divorce so will have hid it.

My solicitor said as i have no idea about any other accounts there is nothing that can be done. Assuming we split the equity in the flat it doesnt give either of us enough for a 2 bed flat each in our area. We currently have free childcare through a relative which allows us to work, our son will live with me and we havent discussed access yet

Im more concerned about never being able to get on the property ladder and not entitled to any benefits. Just lost what to do how can i find out about any accounts, there is no evidence around house.

I'm sorry you're going through this OP. I suggest you speak to your solicitor about the possibility of hiring a private investigator to do some digging on your behalf? I believe there are firms that specialise in tracing assets. If it's a decent family-law specialist they should have experience of this as hiding assets in divorce is very common. Don't assume the equity in the flat will be split 50 / 50 and you made to move out / sell it. You should at least explore the possibility with your solicitor that you and DS should be allowed to remain living in the marital home. It sounds like you need some better legal advice TBH. Also consider his pension(s) - you may want to argue for half of that.

www.brodies.com/blog/tracing-hidden-assets-divorces/

Thanks i had looked into private investigators but the general views were they cannot really do much when it domes to financial assets and personal accounts and are very expensive which id have to pay for. Plus he did work in dubai and had accounts there which he claims to have closed years back. My solicitor has been good but when your other half has been smart and prepared for this like from the off like many men now do, its difficult

Both our penion funds are around the same value as he started his very late 30-40k

Im not sure i could afford the mortgage on my own as its huge, plus there are high service charges etc.

it depends where you live with regards to the flat. if your in Scotland you would only have rights to the value it has went up by since you were married, you wouldn't get half of the value because he bought it before he married you.

Sorry OP, but Dubai would be one of the worse places to try to find money and even if you did to enforce sharing. There is no enforcement agreement with the UAE so you can't even make them pay child maintenance. Plus sounds like that was from before you married?

My Ex was working in Dubai when we divorced.

He emptied the bank accounts in cash (blatant not even hiding it.)

Our divorce was in the UK - i'm sorry to tell you that i got nothing and there is nothing you can do.

WRT to the house you may get a bigger slice of the equity.

I would recommend focusing on what you can control, where you can live etc and wish you the best of luck!