Divorce - hidden bank account and the legality of opening mail

[WhatsTheStoryThisTime]

Going through a traumatic and long drawn out divorce and currently putting together my info for a full financial disclosure.
ExH is dragging his feet and it looks as though it will go to court. Some of his redirected mail has failed and has come to the marital home that he has not lived in for 18months.
Where would I stand if I were to open a letter the mail shows a new bank account (which he may or may not declare) Could this be used as evidence or would I be breaking the law?
Does anyone have experience of this?

Hand it to your solicitor, he shouldn't be using your address for new financial transactions and certainly shouldn't be setting up new business and moving assets during a divorce.

I opened anything that came for my exH and contacted banks, credit cards etc. to tell them he was no longer at my address, at the suggestion of my solicitor. One actually came back to me to confirm they'd spoken to him and updated the address on his account, which surprised me. My exH was being lazy and knew he would be moving again and didn't want to have to update his address again.

Once you're divorced and all joint accounts, joint credit etc. is closed I would recommend contacting the credit agencies Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, Crediva and ask them to remove the financial association between you.

You can search on companies House using his name which is how you discovered this information. It is in the public domain and you have been given a helpful point in the right direction!

Her solicitor would be obliged to report it and hand it over to his solicitor. They can’t use confidential information obtained in this way directly in court.

The OP would be better off telling her solicitor he has set up a new company. Then get the lawyer to ask about that company, his relationship with it, ownership stake and any transfer of assets. Eventually accounts will be filed.

The problem is a company is generally a shield and a legal one at that.

No no no no do not open his post. I am a family law solicitor and this does not constitute legal advice but there's the Immerman rule - google it. The evidence could be disregarded by the judge if you opened any post or went looking for financial documents which aren't in your name.

I feel for you, OP. It’s so frustrating.

I am heading towards court too, and I know that exH has not been honest with his financial disclosure. He has never supplied full bank account details, and each year has had gaps which he refuses to supply details for. He now (4 years on, this has really dragged on and on - his delays, not mine!) claims it is unreasonable to ask for historical information, and that he has now supplied all details (having squirrelled it all away and hidden the trial by previously not disclosing fully). The most obvious one is he is claiming not to have any premium bonds invested, but I have his bond number logged on the app (from when we were still together), and his non-existent premium bonds win him a prize virtually every month (wish I could have some of these - could do with bro no given money for no investment!), but there are many other examples.

hopefully this will all not be looked on very favourably once we actually get to the hearing, but who knows?

I would open it and read it in a heartbeat

I would then let my solicitor know that there "may be an account at x bank" and let her or forensic accountant "find it" via Open Banking.

I have accidentally opened mail that has not been for me that has come to the house on a few occasions.

They had my address but wrong name.

It happens.

A forensic accountant is money well spent when things are messy.

i'm in your position at the moment. i'm opening all the post addressed to him, taking a copy of it and sending back the original to the company that it came from with a cover letter from me telling them that he doesn't live here any more and please send to xxxxx address.

if post is still coming here then i'm opening it. i don't care if it's wrong. he should have given a forwarding address.

Yikes @ElfDragon !! How has it got to 4 years?! I’m at two years post separation but only filed for divorce in August due to being emotionally manipulated and controlled. I feel like such a fool now and I’ve done everything by the book 😞

1. That would be illegal;
2. Beware the Pot of Gold. A lot of weaker spouses convince themselves of a mythical pot of gold that their spouse is hiding somewhere. It's far more common for them to be rubbish with money than to have a secret account. They then spend a fortune trying to find it.

Simpler solution. Believe their form E whilst occasionally mentioning the fact that any dishonesty invalidates the entire court order.

My concern is what options you have on discovering this potential evidence of fraud?
The form E is voluntary and frequently has omissions it's my understanding that until it goes to court if it goes to court that full answers can be demanded. I am in the same boat after my ex husband went awol at the point of post form E questionairre. He refused to answer any of the questions regarding Airbnb payments to a personal account not showing on his tax return not to mention family trusts and more. My only option to get the true picture of his finances is to take him to court at great expense.
Be your own detective, good luck 😌

Well I’d open it, whether it’s legal or not, if I suspected he was hiding bank accounts. If he’s playing dirty then why shouldn’t you. I’d just say it was in a pile of post you were opening when doing something else and hadn’t noticed it wasn’t addressed to you

A person might accidentally open it,assuming it was yours. If a person accidentally did become aware of it, they could inform their solicitor of the accident and seek advice.

The solicitor won’t touch it. They will tell her to send it to him or return it.

The best approach the OP is to tell your solicitor that he has an account with that bank which is known to you because he receives letters from them to your address up to x date.

Is a form E discretionary? You don't have to complete one? If you do the divorce yourself, are any forms obligatory?

If it is a new account why would he give them his old address? Very odd

Interesting that he is having to use your address to get past the credit checks. I don't know how the finance company or your solicitor would view that detail.

sorry I'm late to the party, but you can find out a great deal about your former partners finances via your own Credit Reference Agency Reports. There are aggregators such as Check My File which allow you to look at all you CRA reports, as you scroll through you will be able to see 'connected persons' those include people you have had financial relationships with, and most definitely husbands or former husbands.. One of my friends did this and found an absolute GLUT of businesses her ex was involved in that she had no idea existed.... Once you have an idea of what he's involved with, you can then do a bit more research on Companies House. Your CRA data is YOURS, and anything on companies house is public domain.