Financial consent order how long

The consent order will then become effective when the decree absolute has been granted by the court and your divorce is finalised. Your divorce and a consent order are two completely different things.

You have to apply separately for a consent order which you should do through your solicitor. If you do not have a solicitor, we would advise instructing one for the purposes of gaining a consent order.

Although you can divorce without getting a consent order, we do not recommend this. A consent order means you can move on with your life without worrying about your ex-spouse making a claim against you, possibly many years in the future, if you have an unexpected financial windfall or there is a big change in your circumstances.

Many people think the fixed fee their solicitor charges for a divorce includes a consent order. This is rarely the case though, so you should always check. The consent order needs to be applied for when you get the decree nisi of your divorce.

We strongly recommend that you get one, even if you have no significant assets now. After all, you have made the difficult decision to divorce because you both recognise that you need to make a fresh start in your lives independent of each other. The only way to make sure that future claims against you by your ex will be dismissed in court is with a clean-break consent order.

Otherwise, you are vulnerable to future claims against you by your ex-spouse, even if you think you have both moved on. You can either agree what goes into the consent order between the two of you, or through your divorce negotiations, family mediation , or by negotiations led by solicitors. If you cannot find a way to agree, you can ask for the court to decide for you.

However, this can quickly get very expensive and you might not get the result you think is fair. Mediation can be really useful in keeping decision-making in your hands and facilitating agreements that work for the both of you. If both of you agree, you can also ask for a review by an independent barrister, who will advise you what a court would be likely to do in your specific case. Very rarely. The circumstances would have to be very extreme for this to make a difference — e. The grounds for your divorce and where any blame lies make no difference to how the assets will be divided.

They are considered completely separate issues. This should be an absolute last resort though. It would be a very good idea to try family mediation first, or other ways to resolve disputes, such as negotiation. You could ask for a barrister review. This is where an independent barrister experienced in family law will write you a report setting out what the law says, how they think it applies in your particular case, and what the courts would be most likely to decide if the case went to court.

It takes three hearings to make an order. It is always quicker, less expensive and much less stressful to reach agreement without going to court. You also stand a much better chance of ending up with an agreement you can both live with rather than one which is imposed by the court and neither party might be fully satisfied with. The court will only grant your order if they agree with it. They will prefer you to have been legally advised about the order.

The court is not likely to tell you how to change your order if they object to it. They will probably ask you questions about it or suggest that you discuss certain aspects of the order once again. You have to make what is known as a financial disclosure. You can make this financial disclosure either between yourselves, or through mediation, or you can use Form E.

It is important to remember to be accurate and completely honest about your finances. If you are not completely honest about your finances, you could also find yourself in contempt of court because this form is a solemn promise to the court. You could even be committing fraud if you are found to have been deliberately dishonest, and that would be a criminal offence.

The court will see a statement supporting the consent order known as a Form D81 which is a high-level summary of your financial situation. This gives the total value of any properties, assets and private pensions you own, and liabilities, i. The absolute minimum needed by the court when they are considering a consent order is the statement in support, the Form D You both have to agree the totals, so if nothing else, completing a full list and agreeing it between you reduces the risk that you forget something.

You need to think about all your savings, values of cars, caravans, etc, any money you may have lent to family or other people which needs to be paid back to you, and all money that either of you owe, either on mortgages, loans, credit cards, catalogues and similar.

So although you only have to tell the court what the totals are and not necessarily how those totals are broken down, you both have to be satisfied that it covers everything. A consent order can include child maintenance arrangements, but the child maintenance element of the consent order will only be legally binding for 12 months.

This includes calculating how much must be paid. One reason for many people including child maintenance in their consent order is so they can show it to prove their income to help get a rental agreement or mortgage. When the CMS takes over from the consent order, they will usually encourage you to agree a family-based arrangement. If you cannot reach agreement, you can ask the CMS to calculate how much should be paid.

This then becomes the legally binding amount, even if the amount you agreed in the original consent order is different. The amount could go up or down through this route. You need to keep in mind that child maintenance family law is a completely different area to spousal maintenance.

Both can involve one party making monthly payments to the other, but the law treats them very differently. This is a very complicated area. We always recommend you to take independent legal advice about this.

Child maintenance can sometimes be combined with spousal maintenance into one overall maintenance payment. Usually, you cannot get a clean break where ongoing spousal maintenance has been agreed. Ongoing agreements for spousal maintenance mean that either of you can ask for the amount to be increased or decreased if any circumstances change.

One party to the agreement can also ask for the spousal maintenance due in the future to be paid now in a lump sum. Sometimes the spousal maintenance agreed might be paid upfront in a lump sum.

In these situations, a clean break can be made. Some couples agree to only a nominal amount of spousal maintenance to be paid when they divorce. This allows for either party to apply to have the amount increased if the family situation changes dramatically.

This could be, for example, if a child needs extra support for some reason. If you have agreed nominal maintenance in this way, you cannot get a clean break consent order. You can apply for a consent order any time after your divorce. Your financial arrangements always should be agreed before your decree absolute, but you can still ask for a consent order even after the decree absolute has been issued and your divorce is finalised. One important thing to remember is that you can claim against your former spouse — or the other way around — any time after your divorce, unless a clean-break consent order is in place.

Consent orders are enforceable through the courts. In the event that either of you does not do what is included in the consent order, that person can be taken to court and the courts will ensure that the order is complied with. Before you consider taking your former spouse to court, you need to give them the chance to put things right.

Family mediation is a very good option here, especially if ongoing spousal maintenance is the issue. The person who has to pay might have a very good reason for missing payments, if their income has stopped because of redundancy, for example, or their business fails.

If you want to enforce an order, form D11 needs to be completed. If your enforcement action is successful, the one who owes money is usually ordered to pay court fees and your legal costs. We strongly recommend you to get independent legal advice prior to trying to enforce your consent order.

Your order will usually need to be drafted by a specialist solicitor. Their fees really depend on how complex the order is, the time it takes to re-draft it and fine-tune the wording, and whether a split of pensions is involved. If the court has questions about the order or need things clarifying, this can also affect the cost. You will probably find many solicitors offering to do your divorce for a fixed fee.

This will rarely include a consent order in the price, so always specifically ask whether the quote includes the consent order. The earliest you can apply is when you have your decree nisi. You should send your application for a consent order to the court straight away when you get your decree nisi because the consent order process can take at least 6 months to complete.

In practice, this means that you and your ex-spouse need to have agreed the terms of your order and finalised it. A solicitor needs to have drafted it in time for when your decree nisi is issued. Even before further delays caused by COVID, courts, were taking about 6 months to finally approve consent orders. Some may be quicker than this, although others could take longer. Everything depends on their workload.

Nothing can be done to speed the process up, but if an agreed draft order has been drawn up, it is more likely that it would be binding on both of you even in the period before it was sealed by the court or your divorce decree has been made absolute. Your financial agreement is only formally legally binding when the court has approved your consent order and you have received your decree absolute.

You could use a memorandum of understanding agreed through mediation to demonstrate your agreed intentions as you are making your new arrangements for the future if you need to prove it to banks, building societies, etc, but in itself, this is not properly legally binding. Sometimes, people ask their solicitor to draw up a deed of separation. This asks the court if they will approve your agreement in case any issues come up before the consent order can be sealed after your decree absolute.

This is another complicated area. Most people prefer not to put their whole lives on hold — possibly for 18 months or more until everything is made legally binding. The short answer to this question is very likely to be yes! A financial consent order is a document that sets out the financial agreement a divorcing couple or couple dissolving a civil partnership has reached.

It is only valid if it has been drawn up correctly and has been approved and stamped by the family court. For example, it could provide for the family home to be sold and define what share of the proceeds each party will receive. Alternatively, the financial consent order could be a lengthy document dealing with the payment of maintenance, multiple family trusts or the transfer of shares in a family business.

A clean break is a financial settlement upon divorce where neither party has any ongoing financial obligation to the other. The clean break can kick in after certain actions have been taken e.

Anyone who gets divorced or dissolves their civil partnership becomes entitled, in principle, to make financial claims against their spouse or civil partner.

What would ultimately happen if a claim were made would depend on a whole host of considerations. Life is unpredictable and the unexpected can happen. Couples who divorce but do not enter into a financial consent order could find themselves in difficulty years or even decades later because of the uncertainty caused by not dealing properly with the financial aspects of their split.

The couple were virtually penniless when they divorced and no financial consent order was approved by the court. Mr Vince, who started out as a New Age traveller, had built up a multi-million pound sustainable energy business. This is an extreme case, but it underlines the fact that financial claims upon divorce never disappear unless a financial order is in place. Few people become multi-millionaires, but very many will build up pensions, savings and equity in property as they go through life, which could become vulnerable to claims by a former spouse if things are not dealt with properly at the point of divorce.

This situation is common and is one where a consent order is very important. A consent order recording the agreement to transfer the house to one party in exchange for a payment to the other would bring such claims to an end and ensure that the clean break they both want remains a reality.

The number of people declared bankrupt in Britain each year is around the , mark. If you have stayed in the family home and bought out your spouse and they later become bankrupt, you could be forced to make payments towards the bankruptcy or even have to sell the property. A consent order entered into at the time of the divorce is the best legal protection against this happening and represents a worthwhile investment.

If a financial agreement has been reached, then there is no need for the court to become actively involved. Provided the order has been drafted correctly and your agreement is reasonably fair, it will be stamped and become binding as soon as your divorce is finalised. Even if you and your partner are finding it difficult to reach an agreement face to face, there are many alternatives to help you sort things out.

One option is to attend mediation. Provided the agreement you reach is later set out in the form of a financial consent order, this could be a good way to achieve a settlement and ensure it is legally binding.

However, if a judicial officer has any queries or concerns, they will write to both parties to seek more information.

At this stage, it would be highly recommended to seek independent legal advice. You must understand the nature and effect of the consent orders you are seeking. Accordingly, seeking independent legal advice is crucial to understand the potential consequences of your proposed orders, even if you are set on completing an application without engaging a lawyer.

We have fixed-fee pricing for family law, giving you a clear sense of the costs from the start, and we will be sure to help you out every step of the way. Contact JB Solicitors today to speak with one of our friendly and experienced family lawyers.

Understanding De Facto Relationship Entitlements. Skip to main content Skip to footer Email Us: enquiries jbsolicitors. For a more detailed guide on how to file consent orders, see the following information: Applying to the court for orders fact sheet How do I apply for consent orders Why Do You Need a Consent Order? Legally, there is no requirement to have a consent order made following a separation.