Divorce when you do not know your spouse's address: the court's routes, and where a solicitor and a trace fit in

Start with what you can find out safely

Before applying for anything, the court expects you to have made genuine efforts to find your spouse's current or last known address. Government guidance suggests asking relatives, including adult children, friends, their last known employer, and any trade union or professional body they belonged to. Their email address, a phone number and any social media accounts they use are worth noting too, because some of the court's routes use them.

Keep a written record as you go: who you asked, when, how, and what they said. If you later need the court's help, that record is the core of your evidence.

Only contact your spouse, or people close to them, if it is safe for you to do so. If it is not, you do not have to, and the section on safety below explains what to do instead.

The court's routes, in the order they are usually tried

A fee is payable on these applications unless you qualify for help with court fees, and the amounts change, so check the current fee on GOV.UK before you apply. The court decides each application on the evidence, which is why the record of what you tried matters.

What the court expects you to have tried

For alternative service, and above all for dispensing with service, the court wants to see that you made reasonable efforts to find your spouse and that the method you propose, if any, is likely to bring the application to their attention. A good statement sets out:

• the last address you had for them, and when they were last known to be there;
• when you last had contact, and how;
• each person and organisation you asked, the date, and the answer;
• letters, emails and messages you sent, and whether they came back or were read;
• any searches made, by you or on your behalf, and what they found;
• why you believe the method you propose will reach them.

A thin statement invites a request for more information, which costs time. Dates and specifics persuade; "I have tried everything" does not.

Where a solicitor and a professional trace fit in

A family solicitor can advise which route fits, make the applications and prepare the statement. Where an address is needed, for service at a current address or as evidence of the efforts made, a solicitor can instruct a tracing agent. A dated report with your spouse's current registered address and a confidence rating supports service there. If the trace finds nothing, that is recorded too, and it is evidence for an application for alternative service or to dispense with service.

Family work is where tracing can do real harm, so Trace Bureau handles it differently from other instructions:

• Instructions come from a solicitor or on the direction of a court, never from a party personally.
• They are refused where any non-molestation order, restraining order, injunction, bail condition or similar order is in place against the person who would use the result, or where the person being looked for has told the police or a court they do not want contact.
• A person reads the instruction and the purpose before any work starts, and the result is released to the instructing firm.
• The person traced is not told who instructed the trace.

For firms, a trace is £150 on the Standard service, delivered within 3 to 5 working days, or £200 on Priority, delivered within 2 to 3 working days, with the matter reference on the report and a signed statement on request. It is charged only when a private investigator has verified a current address. Not found, no fee. The page for family solicitors has the detail.

If you are applying without a solicitor

Many people divorce without a solicitor, and the court's routes above are designed to be used by applicants in person. If you have no address at all, the request for a search of government records exists for exactly this situation, and the court then decides how service takes place. If your spouse has an email address or a social media account they still use, an application for alternative service may be quicker still.

What Trace Bureau will not do is trace your spouse for you directly. That is not a judgement about anyone's motives. It is because we cannot tell from an online form whether an order is in place or whether the person left for their own safety, and the court and a solicitor can. Advice agencies and the court's own guidance on GOV.UK can help you choose a route, and some solicitors will take on a single task, such as the service problem, rather than the whole divorce.

If you are worried about your safety

You do not have to find or contact your spouse yourself if it is not safe. Tell the court, and your solicitor if you have one, about any risk. You can ask for your own address and contact details to be kept confidential from your spouse on the application. If you need protection, the family court can make a non-molestation order or an occupation order, and in an emergency you should call 999. Organisations that support people affected by domestic abuse can help with all of this, free and in confidence.

Finances, children and child maintenance

A divorce ends the marriage but does not settle money or property. A financial remedy application has to be served on your spouse too, the same problem and the same kind of court routes apply, and the court's request to government departments can be made in financial proceedings as well.

Where children are involved, finding a child, or the person a child is said to be with, is a matter for the court, never for a private search, and the court has its own powers to order it. For child maintenance, the Child Maintenance Service has its own powers to find the other parent. Trace Bureau traces a child, or anyone under the care or protection of the state, only through a solicitor or a court.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Everything above describes England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own divorce procedures, forms and rules on service when a spouse cannot be found, and in Scotland the court asks for particular evidence before it will proceed without an address. Take local advice. The address trace itself covers the whole of the UK, instructed through a solicitor in the same way.

When a professional trace makes sense

When your solicitor needs a current address to serve at, or a dated record of the search for an application, and the free routes have not produced one. Ask your solicitor to instruct. If you are the solicitor, instruct a trace online or open a firm account. Serving court documents without an address covers the equivalent rules in civil claims.