Living abroad - can I claim a share of my husband's Irish assets?

happymumof2

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Hello,

can someone give an advice please? How can I claim my home rights for husband's property in Ireland without using a solicitor?

I just do not have money at all, I am not in Ireland and not Irish.

Briefly about our situation.

We are married 4 years+, have 2 small children born in our marriage. Mu husband is British and I moved to the UK to be with him.
We lived together in the UK, both did not work, I was taking care of children, house etc and helping my husband to manage his rental income.
He owned 3 properties and some land. So rental income was enough for living. Recently he sold two properties in the UK, and bought one in Ireland with no mortgage needed. He still has around 200k euros left in bank + one more property in the UK with tenants. Most of his assets around 700k euros were earned before marriage and inherited. During marriage he was saving about 1000 euros a month, so there was a little bit of increase during marriage as well.
We left the UK last year and spent 6 months together in my home country, then he decided to leave and now he lives in Ireland on his own.
The marriage was not straightforward with abusive behavior being in place. He was keeping me very tight on finances so I have 0 on my bank accounts and he only send 25 euros a week in total for all three of us. As we were changing locations it takes time for me to get spaces in nurseries for kids, need to do some paperwork because foreign birth certificate, also there is a waiting list to get a space. So basically I can not work now as I am a full time carer of 2 young children.
My work before marriage was very time consuming and required about 50 hours a week so I need to find a new direction and that will take time to stand on my feet again.
My husbands thinking and position do not make any sense. He states I can work and leave kids with my mother, but in reality she can not cope even with one child, I can only count on her help randomly but not on a full time basis and not even 20 hours a week.
I asked my husband for 1100 euros a month maintenance for all of us and 25k euros from his 700k assets. as a settlement but he refused saying all his assets are private and he pays a fair maintenance which you can live on (not really on 25 euros a week).
Now I noticed he put all his houses for sale, the last UK one which has been giving a stable income and no problem tenants living in it. And he also tries to sell his Irish property. Looks like he wants to be somewhere where I can not find him to apply to court.
 
Sorry to hear about your situation.
Sounds to me like you really need professional legal advice on all of these issues.
If you are in the UK or if you have entitlements from living there for several years you may be able to avail of free/affordable legal aid:


If you are in the EU there may be similar services available to you.


I'm not sure about further afield/other jurisdictions.
 
There's no point trying to make sense of his behaviour; that's not the main thing you need to worry about right now.

He is no longer in a position to "state" what you should do.

Your job right now is to get proper support for your children.

You need to get legal representation and lodge a Lis Pendens against the properties and that needs to happen quickly.

Borrow the money for the Solicitor if you have to, but get that done right away.

You'll find him quick enough then.
 
You could try https://www.flac.ie/

I am not a lawyer, but...

If neither of you is Irish, if you never lived in Ireland, I doubt it's the Irish courts you should be trying.

If you were married in Britain and he is a British citizen, that would seem to be the place to go after him for all his worldwide assets.

Brendan
 
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You could try https://www.flac.ie/

I am not a lawyer, but...

If neither of you is Irish, if you never lived in Ireland, I doubt it's the Irish courts you should be trying.

If you were married in Britain and he is a British citizen, that would seem to be the place to go after him for all his worldwide assets.

Brendan
If there's property in Ireland the Lis Pendens should be lodged here I would have thought? The OP says her former husband is living in Ireland.

As far as divorce application is concerned, that will depend on who makes the application and what country they are living in at the time of the application. The country they were married in doesn't matter as long as it was a legal marriage.
 
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The only "side" that matters is that children have the right to be supported by both parents.
Marriage also involves responsibilities between the spouses too.
What they are will most likely only be ascertained by negotiation between the individuals - and probably their legal representatives.
Or, if necessary, ultimately by a judge/court.
 
To get back to the original poster's query I don't think that anybody can offer any advice other than that she needs to get legal advice one way or another. The cross jurisdictional issues (Ireland, UK, some other country that has not been identified) could make matters even more complicated than they might normally be in a contentious case of separation/divorce and all that that entails.
 
thank you to everyone.
I do try to find a solicitor. The one I speak to seems helpful but replies to me very slowly like one email a week.
I just was wondering if there is some website of Property Registration Office where I can find some guidance and forms to fill in so I can post it myself? I managed to do it for the UK property but the Irish website that I found is not responding, I can not open it.

 
It is a bit hard to explain the story in short and to not get emotional about it as everything feels very unfair.
Just one example to make it more clear about what sort of person is on that side - once he was switching the hot water off while I was bathing a child. I was switching it back on and he was switching it back off again and again explaining that I should ask his permission to put it on...
 
To put restriction on his property in Ireland so he does not sell it before we complete our divorce.
Otherwise I will not be able to find which country will he go.
I think that would be the lis pendens mentioned earlier.
I don't know if you can do that yourself without a solicitor.
I suspect not.
But others and/or a search about it might clarify matters for you.
On the other hand if you could do this in the UK yourself it may be possible here too given the shared heritage of the two jurisdictions' legal systems.
How exactly did you do it in the UK?
 
There is some information on the PRAI website on the rules for a Lis Pendens.

I don't seem to be able to copy the link just now.
edit here's the link:

From what I can gather it is possible to do yourself; in fact I found a report from the Law Society complaining about the prevalence of Lis Pendens being lodged.

and here's the Law Society report from 2018:
 
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Are you in the EU? If so, and your husband is resident and paying tax in Ireland, you can apply for child benefit here and have it sent to your home country. It's €280 a month for two children and won't cost him a cent. You can email [email protected] to find out how to start the process from abroad.
 
Are you in the EU? If so, and your husband is resident and paying tax in Ireland, you can apply for child benefit here and have it sent to your home country. It's €280 a month for two children and won't cost him a cent. You can email [email protected] to find out how to start the process from abroad.
Why should it cost the Irish taxpayer for the upkeep of their children and failed marriage.
 
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