Getting divorced or ending your civil partnership when you can’t find your spouse can be tricky, but not impossible. However, you will probably have to endure additional Court procedures before your divorce is granted. Here’s what you need to know if you’ve been left wondering ‘how do I divorce if I can’t find my spouse?’
Unfortunately, if you want to divorce but you have no idea where you spouse is, you will be left doing a lot of the leg work. To give you the best possible chance of a divorce being granted in the absence of your spouse, you will need to demonstrate to the Court that you have done everything you can to track down an address for your AWOL ex.
Alternatively, if you know the address of a close relative of your spouse – for example, a parent or sibling – it’s possible to serve divorce papers to a relative if they are in contact with your spouse or civil partner.
Why should I have to find them?
You might be wondering why you have track down your spouse or partner, hardly seems fair, right? Surely their absence is proof enough that a divorce is warranted. Sadly, that’s not how it works. Even if your ex has been untraceable for years, they are still entitled by law to receive a copy of a divorce application.
Plus, it’s very unlikely that a Court will grant your divorce unless you have made every attempt to locate them in order to serve them divorce papers.
However, the Court isn’t completely unsympathetic to your plight. If your spouse or civil partner has relocated overseas, and you’ve little to no chance of getting an address, the Court will most likely let you continue with a divorce application. This will give you several options.
How do I divorce if I can’t find my spouse? The options available
Apply for substituted service of a divorce application
If you know the workplace address of your spouse or civil partner or the address of a relative, you can apply to the Court to have divorce papers served to either of these alternative addresses instead.
However, you will need to prove to the Court that the intended recipient of the divorce application will be made aware of it. If not, you will have to come up with a different way of getting divorce papers to your ex.
Apply to the Court for a HMRC Disclosure Order
If you’re unable to track down your spouse or partner directly, and you have no contact with any of their relatives or any idea where they live, you can apply to the Court for a HMRC Disclosure Order.
However, you can only pursue this method if your spouse or partner’s last known whereabouts were in the UK. An application for a Disclosure Order is made against HMRC, for which you will need to provide your spouse/partner’s:
- Full name
- Date of birth
- National Insurance Number (if you know it)
- Last known address
HMRC will then conduct a search of their database to locate an address for your spouse or partner. If an address is found, HMRC will notify the Court in writing, following which the divorce application can be sent to the address. Should your spouse or partner fail to reply, the divorce process will continue in their absence.
Apply to dispense with the service of a divorce application
If your spouse or partner is a non-UK national, and there’s no way of locating them or a close relative, you can submit an application to the Court to dispense with service of a divorce petition. However, this will involve additional Court costs.
Can a divorce application be sent to an email address?
Serving a divorce petition is generally the responsibility of the Court, but you can serve divorce papers subject to request. If you, the applicant, provide an email address, the divorce petition will most likely be served to the respondent (the person who didn’t apply for divorce) via email, followed by a postal notification that this has been done.
The notification letter will be sent to a respondent’s postal address, notifying them that an application has been made, a copy of which has been sent via email. The email will contain a link to view the divorce petition.
The email address of the respondent should be an actively used account for personal emails. Sending a divorce application to a business email address should be avoided where possible.
How do I divorce if I can’t find my spouse? Help is available
If you would prefer to locate your spouse or partner, but you’ve had no luck with your own investigations, you could try a tracing agent. They specialise in tracking down missing people. However, this will involve additional costs.
