A wife has been awarded £1.75 million from the sale of the former family home after a Family Court judge rejected claims that her husband owed a £1.6 million debt which would have largely wiped out the value of the property.

The case arose from financial remedy proceedings brought by the wife following the parties’ divorce in Nigeria.

For several years, the dispute centred on claims by the husband that he owed £1.6 million to a company owned by his brother. The alleged debt had been secured against the former matrimonial home in north London through a charging order, potentially leaving little or no equity available to meet the wife’s financial claims.

However, following a rehearing in 2025, Mr Justice Peel found that no part of the alleged £1.6 million debt was owed. The court set aside the registration of the Nigerian judgment in England and Wales and discharged the charging order against the property.

In a subsequent judgment dealing with the parties’ financial claims, the judge said the husband had been “determined” to thwart the wife’s claims. The court later concluded that the husband had failed to provide sufficient evidence of his financial position and was likely to have undisclosed assets.

The court heard that the parties married in Nigeria in 2004 and moved to the UK in 2009. They have four children, including a teenage son with autism who now requires round-the-clock care. Since the parties separated in 2015, the wife has been the children’s primary carer.

The judge found that the husband had failed to pay court-ordered interim maintenance of £1,000 per month since 2019, leaving arrears of approximately £72,000.

Although the husband claimed to have few assets and an income of only £8,000 a year, the court concluded that he had not provided adequate evidence about his finances. Mr Justice Peel said it was likely that the husband had assets in Nigeria, but their extent was impossible to determine because of the lack of disclosure.

The former matrimonial home was valued at around £2 million and represented the principal asset available for distribution. The judge found that the wife had accumulated liabilities of more than £649,000.

In making his decision, Mr Justice Peel concluded that those debts were a direct consequence of the husband’s conduct during the proceedings and should not reduce the wife’s entitlement.

The court ordered that the property be sold, with the wife receiving 90.21% of the net proceeds, amounting to approximately £1.75 million on the judge’s calculations. The husband will receive the remaining share together with modest sums remaining from two other property transactions.

The judge said the award met the wife’s housing and financial needs and reflected the husband’s failure to provide sufficient evidence of his financial position and the likelihood that he had access to additional resources.

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Case Details

Case: Wife v Husband
Court: Family Court
Citation: [2026] EWFC 31
Judge: Mr Justice Peel
Date: 16 February 2026