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If no financial agreement was issued when the divorce was issued how do I obtain a financial order? My ex husband left the country & then sold all my possessions & had previously signed the house over to himself - then sold it.
Hi, thank you for your question, I will assist with this.
Do you know where your ex husband is? Have you remarried or are you cohabiting? What order are you wanting to seek?
Hi, yes I know where he now lives - back in scotland - Stonehaven. I'm not married or cohabiting. I'm looking to get my fair share of our marital property. He smashed up our house & took a motorbike, car, hifi stuff, laptop & my jewellery before the divorce was issued. Before the divorce I thought the proerty was in our joint names but during the divorce dealings it came to light that he had forged my signature & signed the house over to him alone. He was charged with fraud a few years earlier for signing my name to obtain housing benefit. I was told that he agreed to sign the house back over to me if I paid him £10K & he would walk away with his debts & personal items (clothes etc). I was not in attendance forthe final divorce hearing & was not even in scotland, I had escaped to Bournemouth due to him smashing in the house & beating me up. My solicitor withdrew from my case as I was unwilling to give my contact details - I was in fear for my safety & didn't want my ex to find me. I contacted the court & was advised to obtain a new solicitor & told I would be advised of a new date. The next thing I hear is from my ex solicitor to say he had my decree. I was not in a position to travel to scotland or even get a new solicitor as I was penniless & living in a woman refuge. All of this took place in July 2005. I hadtries to located my ex husband but he had left the country for Nepal with the woman he had left me for (who he is now married to). I was able to locate him in dec 2006 when he was selling our house. He wouldn't give me access or any of my personal belongings, he sold the property for £115,000 21/12/2006. He then disappeared again. I found him again earlier this year.
All I am interested in is obtaining a fair share of our property & the contents. When we were married I was the main bread winner & we had a very good life style - 3 cars, 4 motorbikes, racing quad, latest hifi & computers (I was a computer programmer & had a lot of expensive kit), expensive holidays, expensive furniture, fully renovating the house which required rewiring, woodwork, heating installed, kitchen fitted - the property was uninhabitable when purchased.
I do not know what kind of order I require. I contested the divorce. The court only issued the divorce no financal agreement was issued. If you can point me in the right direction I would be very grateful as I believe I should have been given at least 50% of our belongings.
Many thanks
Bev
Hi, thanks for the additional information - but I need you to confirm if you divorced under Scottish law as this is very different to English law.
Hi
Yes the divorce was issued in Stonehaven Court, Aberdeenshire. Just another piece of info my ex husband has a law degree & was a tutorial lecturer at Aberdeen University. He was also in the Police force for just under 2 years but was kicked out. He was constantly stating he was above the law &knew lots of ways of "working the system" as he called it. Basically I knew little & was (& still am) very intimidated by him.
Hi, thank you for confirming this.
Unfortunately, under Scottish law, you cannot seek any financial provision after decree of divorce.
If you lodged a "Notice of Intention to Defend" and there remained any financial matters to be resolved you had to resolve these within the set time frame. If you did not and the decree of divorce was pronounced you have lost any opportunity of making a financial claim.
The only possible resolution to this could possibly be a claim against your former solicitors for professional negligence. However, if they withdrew from representing you as you refused to provide contact details or an address (for whatever reason), it may be difficult to pursue.
I am so sorry that I cannot provide more positive news.
Is there no way I can make any claims via small claims court for the vehicles & furntiure. He sold a motorbike before the divorce. They were all in my name & the police reports state that he took them before the divorce was finalised. I just don't think that it is fair that he can get away with taking everything - I left with only a bag of clothes & he's living in the lap of luxury!!!
I agree it is a very unfortunate and unfair position that you are in, but I fear you have left it too late. However, if limitation to pursue an action has passed you could apply to the court for them to accept any claim out of time.
In terms of selling your motorbike for example, in order to sell this your ex must have good title. If you owned the motorbike then your ex did not have title and therefore the motorbike cannot be sold - legally you may still own the motorbike.You have the police report and therefore you could have issued proceedings against your ex for return of the motorbike or for the return of the vehicle. But again there is a time frame within which to commence legal proceedings.
The right to bring an action in the civil courts is subject to time limits, as set out in the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973. The time limit would be 3 years, which has passed. There is a proposed change to this legislation for actions for recovery of property obtained from unlawful conduct, but this has not yet been brought into force.
However, I would recommend you seek face to face legal advice from a Scottish lawyer regarding your possessions and/or perhaps a criminal complaint regarding the fraud on your signature re the house etc. It may well be that a formal solicitors letter to your ex outlining what your claim is and how you will proceed if this cannot be resolved would allow the matter to settle (although not as easy as it may sound).
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Thank you
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