Who pay for the valuer in property settlement

[HazelSmith]

I am in the process of preparing an affidavit to file to court for final order sought and financial statement

My ex husband does not provide any meaningful figures for the asset pool and I have to seek orders for appointment of valuer to value his house which is matrimonial home (under his name) and also two companies to find out the real value as he has not done his tax return for both personal and companies since 2015. This includes machinery and business stocks.

He also doesn’t disclose all the bank accounts.

Below are my questions

1. Who will pay for the valuer fee in this case? Do the orders make him pay for his house and companies valuation for the property pool that he has to disclose?
2. Can he use appraisals from realestate agents for the house after the orders are made?
3. In case he change his mind and provide his company tax returns instead, can he do that after the orders are made?


Thanks.

 

[hshkara]

Hi Hazel

Normally you will split the fees for the valuations.

If there are financial circumstances preventing you from splitting the fees, you can ask the court that he pay the costs of the valuation at the beginning and that you could pay your half of the valuation at the end when you get the property split.

You will have to appoint a property valuer that can do a valuation for the family court. There are certain rules around this so make sure the valuer you choose complies with the legislation.

Appraisals from real estate agents are not sufficient.

If he wants to provide his tax returns, that is fine, however it will not determine what the value of the company is.

For example, even if his tax returns show that he is turning over $10,000,000 and making $1,000,000 a year, a valuer may determine that the value of the company may be $3,000,000 or it may be worth $50,000. The way a company is valued depends on many factors, hence why you need a professional valuation from a proper valuer.

If you want more info, you can read this article on divorce and business i think it will be helpful.

 

[HazelSmith]

At this point, the value of the businesses are not much but he bought machinery and new and used equipments in 2016 and 2017 worth almost $100,000 and there are some money in the banks that he has shifted around and doesn’t want to disclose. In this case, I don’t want to spend money on the valuer to see the value of the companies but what have left eg plants and money in the companies. What can I do in this case when I have to seek the order from the court for the property settlement? Please advise the most efficient way to go for. These two companies are registered under his name as a director.

Can I still only include the machenary and cash from the company in my assets pool only without looking at the whole company in this case?

 

[hshkara]

The value of the company will include the money in banks and the machinery and equipment.

If you do not want to pay for a valuation, you could ask him to produce the balance sheet for the company and you can see if it appears there.

If the company has purchased the machinery, then you cannot put the machinery in the asset pool, as you do not own the machinery, the company owns it.

 

[HazelSmith]

My Questions are about business valuation and veracity of records.

the party filed annual tax returns reports for four years (produced by his accountant) to the court and submitted to the forensic accountant for business valuation. however, the annual reports contain the difference figures from the ones he submitted to ATO such as GST PAID, depreciation value and others.

what is the consequence of this act In family law for property settlement? the case has been referred to the before judge due to non compliance before hand as the business valuation was not done. Now the business valuation is on it way but findings of fraud occur. What could happen in this case?