Separate your finances from your former-spouse and legally protect yourself from any future claims
With a Solicitor Prepared, Court Approved Clean Break Order
It’s a common misconception that divorce also separates your financial ties. However, this is not the case. The divorce process only deals with your marriage, not your finances. And even after many years of divorce, a former spouse can make a financial claim against you, like the EuroMillions winner who had to give his ex-wife of ten years a £2 million settlement.
The only way you can legally separate your finances and protect yourself from any future claim is by getting a court-approved clean break order.
A clean break is a consent order that cuts any financial ties between you and your ex-spouse. Without such an order, either of you could claim against the other in the future, putting pensions, inheritances and properties bought with a new partner at risk.
A clean break order is for couples who don’t have children under 18 and have no assets to divide or who have already dealt with their finances and now want a legally binding order to ensure that neither party can claim against the other in the future. You will need our consent order if you have children or still have assets to split.
Get Your Clean Break Order Here
Clean Break Order
If you have no assets to share- Legally protect yourself from future financial claims
- No complicated forms to complete, saving you time and stress
- Drafted and submitted to the court by an experienced and qualified solicitor who will process it through the court for you
- Save £££'s on the cost of compared to a high street solicitor
One Week Fast Track Service
If you urgently need your consent order- We prepare and draft your consent order within seven days of receiving your completed questionnaire
- Legally protect yourself from any future financial claims
- Essential if you are close to your final order date and don't want to delay your divorce
- The fastest clean break service that is available in the UK
Key Features
- An experienced and qualified solicitor drafts your clean break order.
- We complete the new 23-page D81 Statement of Information form.
- Our solicitors file the clean break order for you and process it through the court, dealing with any objections or refusals should they arise.
- No court appearance is necessary – we deal with any enquiries the court may have.
- We keep you fully updated throughout the process.
- No hidden hourly costs, just one fixed fee of £299.
- Fast service, your clean break order will be ready to file with the court within four weeks of receiving your completed questionnaire. A faster one-week priority service is available for an additional charge.
What is included with this service
- Clean break agreement – protecting you from future financial claims.
- This is a fully managed service, our solicitors file the clean break order with the courts for you to secure quick approval.
What is not included with this service
- Any sale or transfer of assets and liabilities or child maintenance payments – you will need our consent order for this.
- Help to negotiate your financial agreement.
- Amendments to the order by either party if the case becomes disputed.
The court fee for filing a financial order is currently £53.00. You may be exempt from paying court fees if you are on a low income or receive certain benefits.
What happens after I order the clean break order?
Once you’ve ordered your clean break order, we will email you an online questionnaire to complete. Even though you have no assets to share, you both must provide disclosure of your financial situation. We use this information to complete the statement of information and the clean break order. Once complete, we email the documents to you both to sign digitally on your phone or computer before sending the signed copies to the court for approval.
You can only ask the court to approve a clean break order if you have started divorce proceedings and the court has agreed that you can get divorced. This is known as being granted a conditional order (or a decree nisi under the old law). The court takes around four weeks to approve a clean break order, and it comes into effect once the final order (or decree absolute under the old law) is granted by the court, which is a minimum of six weeks after the conditional order.
The ideal situation is to have your clean break order ready for signing once you have your conditional order or decree nisi so that your finances and divorce conclude in the same timeframe.
Next Steps
Read enough and want to get started? Just click on the button below to add our clean break service to your basket. Once you have purchased the service, you will receive an email from us with the questionnaire. Fill this in, and we will take care of the rest.
Clean Break Order – Frequently Asked Questions
Do I get a clean break order automatically with my divorce?
No, you must make a separate application for a clean break order. It is possible to get a divorce without a clean break order, though this isn’t recommended because of the future financial risk.
Unless you buy a specific clean break divorce package, a fixed fee divorce never includes a clean break; it’s a separate service.
We have nothing to split. Do we really need a clean break order?
Yes, you do, 100%. Even if you currently own nothing, if you were married for a very short time or if you both get on great and would never claim against each other, you should still get a clean break order. Anything can happen in the future, and a clean break order will give you lifetime protection and peace of mind for such a small cost.
Can I get a clean break order without being divorced?
No, you can’t. To get a clean break order, the court must have permitted you to divorce. This is known as a conditional order or a decree nisi under the old law. To get permission to divorce, you must have started divorce proceedings.
When should I apply for a clean break order?
You can only apply to the court to approve a clean break order once you have started the divorce and reached the conditional order stage. You and your former spouse need to provide financial disclosure to start the clean break order process, and it then takes three weeks to draft your clean break order ready for submission to the court. Ideally, you want to start the clean break order process about a month before your conditional order date to ensure that all documents are ready for signing so they can be submitted to the court when your conditional order is given.
Do we have to provide full financial disclosure if we aren’t splitting any assets?
A D81 Statement of Information document must be completed and submitted to the court when applying for a clean break order. This document shows your current financial position, which the court uses to decide if a clean break order is fair.
The information needed is:
- Total equity held in properties
- Total savings and investments
- Total liabilities (not mortgage debt)
- The total value of pensions
- Monthly income broken down into income from employment, benefits, child maintenance payments, pension or other sources.
You cannot get a clean break order without disclosing this information.
You don’t need to provide bank statements, property valuations, or other evidence. However, if the court found that a party had been deliberately withholding information to deceive the other party or the court, the clean break order could be voided, and the perpetrator could face prosecution for fraud.
A clean break order submitted to the court without any financial information raises questions in the court, so we ask our clients to sign a document if they don’t have any assets or liabilities.
Can I get a clean break order without my ex’s agreement?
No, you can’t. You must both agree, and your spouse must provide their financial information. We cannot apply for a clean break order if your spouse is unwilling to provide financial disclosure, and we can’t apply for a clean break order if they refuse to sign the statement of information and clean break order.
How long does it take for a clean break order to be approved?
Once you’ve both signed the statement of information and clean break order and you have your conditional order, we can submit the clean break to the court for approval. An Easy Online Divorce drafted and submitted consent order typically takes around four weeks to approve.
How much does a clean break order cost?
The court fee for submitting a clean break order is £53. However, you will need a solicitor to draft your order, and the cost of this will depend on whether you use Easy Online Divorce or a traditional high street solicitor.
Let’s start with the bad news. Going to a high street solicitor can feel like the wild west. We speak to people daily, and the costs they have quoted to them vary wildly from the expected circa £750 + VAT to what can only be described as daylight robbery – £2,000 upwards.
The good news is that Easy Online Divorce has transparent fixed prices.
Our clean break order is £299, including VAT.
Can I get a clean break order after we have divorced?
Yes, you can get a clean break order after a divorce. Although, the best practice is to finalise your financial arrangements before your final order or decree absolute.
Just remember that either party can make a financial claim against the other at any point after divorce unless you have a court-approved clean break order. Some couples part on very good terms, sure that neither will make a claim, only to find themselves in a very hostile situation when one of them meets a new partner.
What is the difference between a clean break order and a separation agreement?
A clean break order is a legally binding agreement approved by a judge. It is 100% watertight, and neither of you can ever claim the other.
A separation agreement, on the other hand, is usually drafted by a solicitor and signed by both parties but is not legally binding. To enforce it, you would have to go to court and apply for a contested financial order (which costs tens of thousands of pounds), so arguably, a separation agreement from a legal point of view isn’t worth the paper (or rather the solicitor costs) it’s written on.
Will the court always agree with our request for a clean break?
No, the court doesn’t blindly approve clean break orders, and they can question the fairness of your agreement. The clean break order process is voluntary between couples, so the court won’t force you to do something if they disagree with your clean break order. But they will ask questions to ensure that a person in a perceived weaker position is fully aware of the implications of the clean break order.
We hope our FAQ has answered all your questions about clean break orders. If you have a question we haven’t covered or need further clarity, please email us or book a call back here.
If you are ready to proceed, you can order your clean break order by clicking the button below.
Get Your Clean Break Order Here
Clean Break Order
If you have no assets to share- Legally protect yourself from future financial claims
- No complicated forms to complete, saving you time and stress
- Drafted and submitted to the court by an experienced and qualified solicitor who will process it through the court for you
- Save £££'s on the cost of compared to a high street solicitor
One Week Fast Track Service
If you urgently need your consent order- We prepare and draft your consent order within seven days of receiving your completed questionnaire
- Legally protect yourself from any future financial claims
- Essential if you are close to your final order date and don't want to delay your divorce
- The fastest clean break service that is available in the UK
