Financial Consent Form/Clean Break

[John145]

My wife filed for divorce late last year, the Decree Nisi is due anytime now. We both went through mediation which I got on legal aid as I was going through an illness at the time and not working, I am on the way to recovery. We both agreed on split of the sale of the house 60/40 in her favour, our pensions will remain intact and we both agreed on a clean break. I have the Memorandum of Understanding, but as I am not in a position to pay for it to be drafted legally. My wife is in a financial position to pay as during mediation we had to exchange bank statements, so I know she can afford this but why she doesn't act on this I don't know. She left me with our son whilst I was in hospital and went to stay with her dad so I am staying in the matrimonial home, which has now been sold and we have both accepted the offer. The Memorandum of Understanding has a time span of 4 months which is due to run out, the completion date of the house is end of March. My questions are, what happens to the equity once the house is sold if there is no financial consent order in place & 2, is there any way of submitting a Memorandum of Understanding to the court without going through a solicitor. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

[Peridot]

Hi John145,
Sorry to hear of your marriage break up but well done for managing to reach an agreement on how the finances will be dealt with. Unfortunately you do need to have an order prepared by a lawyer which is then sent to the Court for approval and in order to finalise the financial settlement. The Consent Order will reflect the agreement you reached at mediation and will cancel any future claims you could have against each other. If you are both agreed still on the division of the proceeds of the sale of your property then there is no reason the funds can't be paid upon sale to the respective party if you are both in agreement, although it is of course tidier if you have the order in place (if not approved by the Court at least issued at the Court for approval).

The application costs £50. There are other documents that will need completing including confirmation for the arrangements for your child as well as completing a financial statement form before sending it to the Court with the application and the proposed consent order. This government website link will help you see what is needed in order to finalise matters between you:- https://www.gov.uk/money-property-wh...-consent-order

The supporting documents you can probably deal with yourselves but the consent order I would say needs preparing by a family lawyer. There are family law specialists that will do this for a fixed fee where you have both reached agreement and it is just the Order that needs preparing. It may be worth contacting some local firms and asking if they have a fixed fee for this.

Either of you can instruct a lawyer to prepare the consent order and although I appreciate your ex may have more funds available you may have to beg, steal or borrow the money to get the document prepared so that the finances and the decree absolute can be obtained. You probably need to speak to your ex to get things finalised so both of you can move on.