QLD Respondant fled Australia after being served

[S_Frank]

Hello,
I live in Switzerland and I am not Australian. Ex wife is Australian, all her grown kids live in Australia, most real estate is in Australia and she spends most time in Australia. We do not have children together. We were married for 20 years, she did hardly any outside work, also did little house hold chores but was good with money.

Thus I have filed my Initiating Application for property settlement in the FCC and served her at her house near Brisbane where she was staying. I did not tell her upfront that I was separating. I had to do this as she controls 65% of all assets, 15% is jointly controlled and only 20% by myself. My lawyers feared that she could easily dispose of them, for example by gifting them to her daughters, and that I would have a very difficult time to claiming my share.

Less than one week after being served, she showed up on my doorsteps, tricked her way into the apartment (with the help of a friend) and claimed she was domiciled in Switzerland and not in Brisbane. She has retained an Aussie lawyer (and so have I). Court date will be at the end of July. Swiss police said that they can't do anything until I have a court order. Interim orders are that she not be allowed into my apartment without my consent and only to pick up her stuff that is still here.

Does anyone know how and if at all her leaving Australia will affect my case. I tried to google "family court defendant flees Australia" but did not come up with anything useful.

What she is trying to do is to establish that an Australian court is inappropriate for the property settlement. Can this move help her? If so, how?

Looking forward to some insight and wishing everybody a lovely weekend.
Frank

 

[thatbloke]

She is Australian, most of the asseta are here, her kids live here and you filed and served her here. I am NOT an expert on these things but you would think this would tick all the boxes to have the matter heard here, no matter how hard she hides

 

[Rod]

Get yourself an Aussie lawyer. Alternative service can be arranged should it be necessary, but this is what you pay a lawyer to do.

You may need to put caveats on real estate as a form of protection while you unravel and split the joint property. Caveats may not strictly be necessary, but are easy to lodge and don't cost much. They are preferable to the alternative of unwinding of 'gifts'. Gifts can be unwound by Australian courts but better not to get into that argument if you can avoid it.

 

[S_Frank]

Thanks for the responses.
I do have a lawyer and I also have caveats put over the properties.
Have a good day.
Frank