The Family Law Company acted for a wife who had been married for 10 years. The couple had one child, aged 8.
During the marriage, the husband had taken charge of all the finances – his wife knew very little other than the fact that her husband owned some properties.
The husband failed to provide disclosure of what he owned, so we made an application to the Court. The Court ordered that the husband provide full disclosure but he failed to comply. We then applied for a penal notice to be attached to the order, which told the husband if he failed to comply, he would be sent to prison. He still refused to do so.
Next, we applied to the Judge to sign a form on behalf of the husband to enable a search against his name at the Land Registry. This showed that the husband owned 11 properties. Through further investigation, we then discovered that the husband had transferred ownership of some other properties to a friend who was about to auction them.
We applied for an order to prevent the properties being sold and for the transfer of the properties from the husband’s name to his friend to be set aside. These orders were granted. Following a final hearing, the wife was ordered to receive a mortgage-free property and a number of properties as investment income.
The husband failed to cooperate with this process, so we applied for the Judge to sign the documents transferring the properties on his behalf. Due to the husband’s litigation conduct, we asked the Judge to order that the he pay the wife’s costs. This was deducted from the husband’s share of the sale proceeds of one of the other properties.
