Child support etc. when STBX address unknown

Hi, My daughter is going through divorce and has just managed to get the STBX out of the MH where he has sat for one year, doing nothing, earning nothing and paying nothing towards the mortgage and children.

After a solicitor''s letter inviting him to vacate the property and asking him to pay maintenance or the threat of court, he packed his bags and went. He told the children to come and find him when they are older and he will tell them the truth! He promised several things - to return with a van the next day, to return in 2 weeks... but so far no contact. The locks have been changed now too. He doesn''t have his passport or driving license with him. We believe he has gone to stay with a chap he hasrecently become friendly with who lives about 50 miles away but we don''t know his name or address.

My worry is that he will disappear and we will have no way of contacting him to a) take him to court to pay towards his children and b) be able to sell the house as his name is on the mortgage. What happens in cases like this? Surely my daughter won''t have to wait years to sell the house struggling to pay the mortgage.

He has spoken of seeing a solicitor but unless he contacts my daughter''s solicitor she is in the dark as to his whereabouts. He is such a bloody-minded person who will not want to give her any money (this is why he gave up work and didn''t claim benefits) and he will assume that she will get the house too. What has he to lose by disappearing?

Has anybody else had any experience of this?

Ann

This is a perenial problem in these sorts of cases, you can get a tracing agent but I would suspect that whatever his arrangement is it is temporary.

Social media such as facebook can prove invaluable in tracing people, and I think you could always apply to serve that way. There was a case a while back that service of documents was allowed by facebook. So there are possibilities.

After all the court has to be satisfied that notice has been given and therefore if he does not engage in proceedings, it does not mean that they will not go ahead without him.

Once any order is obtained, the order should contain a s.39 Senior Courts Act 1982 provision to allow her to sign on his behalf thereby faciliating the sale of the property without him. She may need to show evidentially that she may anticipate that he will refuse to sign, a case from the turn of 20th century will allow the court to make an anticipatory order, ie in anticipating of him likely to refuse compliance with any order. Its a little confusing but I have used this provision a number of times to great success.

Hi AmitSharma,

I was interested to learn more, sadly are you aware that the 3 links you have provided say:

1) page does not exist
2) page not found

Hope your able to rectify it as its all 3 links.

Best wishes,
NWTT

Think the links may need refreshing in AmitSharma''s signature - with a little tweaking I found em all.