Divorce

[apple]

Hi there,
I'm new to this site and would love to hear from anyone who has had the unfortunate experience of going through a divorce in Vienna.
We are both Brits and have been living in Vienna for 7 years.
I saw a lawyer who advised me that as we live in Vienna the divorce would be under Austrian law, but my husband's lawyer told him that as we were married in the UK and are British citizens then it will be under British law.
It's also confusing as we have a property in the UK which will need to be sold/divided. So I don't know if this can be organised by and Austrian lawyer. And at 300euros per hour for a consultation I'd like to pick up as much info for free where possible! So if anyone has any advice and or tips on survival then I'd love to hear from you!
Thanks

[Tatt]

Hello there,

No experience of divorce myself yet but these two articles from the Economist may be useful for you - in Europe whichever country you start proceedings in is responsible, and may calculate for and distribute assets of the marriage.

However Austria counts assets from when you got married, but the UK counts total assets (generally) - that could be a big difference if your partner or yourself bought the property in the UK before you got married.

International marriage
http://www.economist.com/node/21538103

Divorce without borders
http://www.economist.com/node/11849262

[WienA]

Sorry about the divorce, apple. Best wishes.

[djbraun]

I'm sorry to hear about your divorce, and wish you luck in this challenging situation!

This question was also addressed I believe on another expat forum here, called virtual vienna, so you may find more information there as well.

Normally I wouldn't link to another expat site from this one, but we're not in competition, and any port in a storm and all that jazz

[beanbag]

Hello there. Firstly, I'm very sorry to hear about your divorce.

The same happened for me not so long ago in Vienna and I can recommend a good (but expensive) lawyer. He took care of any issues for me and was very effective and sympathetic to my problem. My ex-wife decided to cheat on me with a colleague from work for a significant period of time so it was clear a divorce was in order.

You can find his details here: http://www.becker-law.at/

Please let him know you heard of him through me. (Nick Rennie).

I hope he can help and if you manage to sort things out, divorce can be granted very quickly in Austria.