There's a particular kind of fear I want to talk about directly, because people often feel ashamed to name it.
It's the quiet sense that the money is moving. A flat suddenly signed over to your spouse's mother. A business that's "not doing well" right when you start talking about separating. A new partner whose name is appearing on things. You can't always prove it yet, but something in you knows.
I want to say two things to you about that feeling. First: trust it. In my experience, that instinct is usually picking up on something real. And second, and this is the part that lets you breathe, Polish law is genuinely strong here. A spouse who tries to empty the pot before a divorce is not nearly as clever as they think they are. Let me show you why.
During the marriage, you cannot simply be written out
While you're married under the ordinary Polish regime, the things you build together belong to both of you. Your spouse cannot quietly treat the shared home, the savings, the business as if they were theirs alone. Key dispositions of joint property need both of you, and assets that are made to "disappear" don't just vanish from the maths.
When the court later divides your estate, it can account for what was wrongly given away or dissipated. So the first reassurance is this: hiding an asset doesn't delete it from the division, it usually just delays the moment it's counted back in, and damages the credibility of the person who hid it.
The classic move, and why it rarely works
The most common manoeuvre I see is also the oldest: transferring the home to a trusted relative or a new partner, often dressed up as a "property settlement" or a sale, sometimes with the transferring spouse keeping a lifelong right to live there.
On paper it looks tidy. In a Polish courtroom it looks like exactly what it is. And there is a specific, powerful tool that exists precisely to undo it.
The backstop: actio pauliana, the law that claws transfers back
Once you have a claim against your spouse, a buy-out, maintenance, arrears, the law treats you as a creditor. And a creditor in Poland has a remedy called skarga pauliańska (Article 527 of the Civil Code) to reverse transfers made to put assets out of reach.
A 2026 ruling shows just how sharp this tool is. A man facing his creditors transferred the family flat to his wife and, in the same breath, had her grant him a lifelong right to live in it. The court took it apart, point by point, and every one of these points matters for a divorce too:
A "gift" to a close family member can be undone even without proving the recipient knew anything. Because the transfer was effectively gratuitous (Article 528), the court didn't need to show the wife was in on it. With genuine gifts, the recipient's innocence is simply irrelevant. That removes the hardest thing a wronged spouse usually has to prove.
The law presumes that close family knew. Spouses, parents, partners living under one roof are presumed to know each other's financial troubles (Article 527 § 3). The "I had no idea" defence starts on the back foot.
You can't dodge it by transferring before the debt exists. The law reaches future creditors too (Article 530). A spouse who offloads the house now, anticipating your claim later, is squarely within reach.
The "I'll keep living there for life" trick backfires. Courts refuse to treat the transfer and the lifelong-living-right as two separate clever moves, they're read together (Supreme Court, March 2022). Worse for the schemer, that lifelong right actually drags the property's value down and makes it harder to realise, which is itself evidence of an intent to frustrate the claim.
Shifting stories sink the whole defence. In that case, the couple kept changing their account of who "really" paid what, 66,000, then 101,000, then a 150,000 top-up. The court read those moving numbers for what they were: a story built after the fact. One clear, documented version survives scrutiny; a story that grows each hearing does not.
What this means when one of you is foreign
The principles are the same; the vigilance has to be sharper, because assets can sit in more than one country:
- Assets moved "back home." A transfer to family abroad is not beyond reach, but it does need to be found, documented, and acted on. Quiet patience is the enemy here; timing matters.
- The honest inventory runs both ways. Accounts, property, and savings held overseas belong in the true picture, whichever of you holds them.
- Act before, not after. The most powerful thing you can do if you sense assets are moving is to get advice early, securing evidence and, where appropriate, protective measures before more is shifted.
Which country's courts decide, and which law applies, depends on your circumstances under EU rules and treaties, and where assets sit abroad, that's a conversation to have at the very start.
A steady word to end on
If you're reading this with a knot in your stomach because you think it's already happening, please hear me clearly: you are not powerless, and you are not too late just yet. The spouse who hides assets is relying on you staying silent, ashamed, and slow. The law is on the side of the person who acts calmly and early.
You don't have to become an investigator or a financial expert overnight. You only have to do one thing: bring me what you know and what you suspect, in English or in Polish, and let's look at it together, clearly and without panic. That's where getting your fair share begins.
This article explains principles from recent (2026) Polish court rulings, anonymised in the public case database. It is general information, not legal advice, and every case turns on its own facts. For advice on your situation, please contact the firm.