Consent Order

A Consent Order is a legally binding document that outlines the financial agreement reached between divorcing spouses. It ensures that the terms agreed upon, such as the transfer of property, are enforceable by law. A Consent Order also gives you both clean break protection which means that neither of you can make a financial claim against the other in the future. You should consider getting one to formalise the division of assets, property, and financial responsibilities, providing certainty and protection against future claims.

No, you can’t. To get a Consent Order, you must have at least been given permission 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.

Our Fully Managed Consent Order service costs £499. This fee covers the preparation and submission of all necessary documents and communication with the court to ensure a smooth and efficient process.

Court Fees also need to be considered as they are not included in our service price. All Consent Orders issued in England and Wales require a mandatory court fee of £60 to cover the court’s staff costs.

The process to secure a Consent Order typically takes around 8 weeks – this is 4 weeks to draft and 4 weeks for the court to approve the clean break order. If you opt for our Fast Track service, the Consent Order can be ready for court filing within 1 week of receiving your application, and it takes the court on average 4 weeks to approve so total time from start to finish of 5 weeks

To start the process, you will need to provide key pieces of information which is submitted through our easy to use online questionnaire. This includes the following:

• Details of your financial situation
  • Total equity held in properties
  • Total savings and investments
  • Total liabilities (not mortgage debt)
  • The total total cash equivalent transfer value (CETV) of pensions
  • Monthly income broken down into income from employment, benefits, child maintenance payments, pension or other sources.
  • Any prior agreements or settlements made with your ex-partner and your planned financial settlement.

You cannot get a Consent 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.

In most cases, you will not need to attend court for the Consent Order to be approved. Our team handles all court communications and submissions on your behalf, making the process as smooth and stress-free as possible. You will only need to attend court if the court is not satisfied that your Consent Order is fair. If for example, one party was being bought out of their share of the former family home for less than market value the court would question the fairness of the agreement.

The purpose of a Consent Order is to prevent any future financial claims from your ex-spouse, regardless of changes in your financial situation (e.g you coming into substantial wealth you previously did not have). Once a Consent Order is approved by the court, it is legally binding and cannot be altered.

Yes, our service handles the entire process from start to finish. We manage all documentation, court submissions, and communications, ensuring that everything is completed accurately and efficiently.

No, pension rights are not included in the Consent Order. You will need a separate Pension Sharing Order to address the division of pensions and ensure both parties receive a fair share.

To ensure the Consent Order is fair, both parties must fully disclose their financial circumstances. Our team drafts your order that reflects your individual circumstances, and the court will review the agreement to ensure it is fair and reasonable.

While it is possible to file a consent Order yourself, the success rate is low – a consent break order is a very powerful document, it details how assets such as the former family home are to be dealt with and it protects both parties from the other making a financial claim on the other in the future, for this reason the agreement must be rigorous and written in a very specific way. If you submit a consent order to yourself and the court refuses it, they will offer no guidance at all on how to correct it, they’ll just tell you it’s wrong so you’ll have to get a solicitor to fix it, costing you more money and delays. Using a solicitor or a professional service like ours ensures that all documents are correctly prepared and submitted, minimising the risk of mistakes and delays.

Without a consent order, how you deal with current assets is up in the air and you have no certainty over your financial future. If your name isn’t on the mortgage your spouse could sell the property and control how the proceeds are distributed between you. In the case of a property transfer, most mortgage providers will not allow a party to be removed from a mortgage without a court approved consent order, and without a consent order in place your ex-spouse could make future financial claims against you, even years after the divorce. This can include claims on any assets or income you acquire post-divorce. Obtaining a consent Order provides legal protection and financial certainty.

No, you need to make a separate application for a consent order. It is possible to get a divorce without a consent order, though this isn’t recommended because it leaves your finances without legally defined ownership.

Unless you buy a specific package that includes a divorce with a consent order, a consent order is never included in a fixed fee divorce, it is a separate service.

Yes, you do. Even if you both have remained the best of friends, you should still get a consent order. It’s a wise and practical thing to do as a consent order legally defines the ownership of your assets. Anything can happen in the future, and a consent order will give you lifetime protection and peace of mind that your agreement today will remain in place.

You can only apply to the court to approve a consent order once you have started the divorce and reached the conditional order stage. Financial disclosure from you and your former spouse is needed to start the consent order process. It takes four weeks to draft your consent order for submission to the court. Ideally, you want to start the consent order process at least four weeks before your conditional order date to ensure that all documents are ready for signing so they can be submitted to the court when you receive your conditional order.

Yes, you do. A document known as a D81 Statement of Information must be completed and submitted to the court. This document shows your current financial position, and the court uses this information to decide if a consent 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.

The court will not approve a consent order without this information.

No, you can’t. You must both agree, and your spouse must provide their financial information. We cannot apply for a consent order if your spouse is unwilling to provide financial disclosure or if they disagree with the financial settlement proposed.

Once you’ve both signed the statement of information and consent order and you have your conditional order, we can submit the consent order to the court for approval. An Easy Online Divorce drafted and submitted consent order typically takes around four weeks to approve.

The court fee for submitting a consent order is £60. 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 high street solicitor.

If you’ve called some local solicitors in your area, you’ll know that their costs can vary wildly from £1,500 for a simple consent order to £6,000, which can only be described (politely) as daylight robbery.

The good news is that Easy Online Divorce has transparent fixed prices. Our standard consent order, which includes a clean break, the sale or transfer of property, lump-sum payments, child and spousal maintenance and splitting savings and debt, is £499 including VAT.

Yes, you can get a consent order after a divorce. Although, the best practice is to finalise your financial arrangements before your final order or decree absolute. Just remember that ownership of any assets can be disputed at any point after the divorce unless you have a court-approved consent order in place. Some couples part on good terms, with agreements in place, only to find themselves in a very different situation when one of them meets a new partner.

A financial consent order is a legally binding agreement approved by a judge. If your former spouse doesn’t meet their obligations as agreed in your consent order, the courts have the power to enforce it.

A separation agreement, on the other hand, is 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 thousands), so a separation agreement from a legal point of view isn’t worth the paper (or rather the solicitor costs) it’s written on.

A separation agreement can be helpful for some couples, especially those who want help to set boundaries in the early days of separation. If you feel like you need a separation agreement, you might find it more helpful to go to mediation which will be much more cost-effective.

You can agree on the details of your consent order between yourselves through mediation or solicitor-led negotiation. If you can’t agree, you can ask the court to decide for you.

Deciding between yourselves is the least expensive option, but it does require openness and a willingness to cooperate. Meditation is a very effective way to reach an agreement for couples having difficulties. Although mediation is likely to cost somewhere in the region of £500, it is still less expensive than using a solicitor or going to court.

In some situations, a solicitor or court is needed. However, be aware that a court will expect you to have at least tried mediation. Solicitors are very useful in some situations but be mindful that their business model is to charge by the minute, usually in 15-minute blocks – this means there is a natural conflict of interest between making money for the firm and resolving issues quickly.

If you do have to go down a solicitor route, make sure that you are clear on what you want your outcome to be. If that is to resolve your divorce and finances quickly and as smoothly as possible, be cautious if your solicitor displays an overly aggressive approach to negotiation.

Except in rare circumstances, such as murder or gambling addiction, who was to blame for its breakdown does not affect the division of assets. Divorce and financial orders are two separate cases. And now, with the new no-fault divorce law, neither party has to blame the other. Instead, a statement is made that the marriage has irretrievably broken down.

Many spouses want to include child maintenance in a financial consent order to demonstrate proof of income to help them get a mortgage or a rental agreement.

Child maintenance can be included in a financial consent order, but it is only legally binding for 12 months. After this time, the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has jurisdiction over enforcing child maintenance, including calculating the amount due. Decisions by the CMS override any agreement that you previously made between you.

Fundamentally, the law regarding consent orders hasn’t changed. What has changed is the trigger to allow you to submit your consent order to the court. To send your consent order to the court for approval, you must have at least been permitted to divorce. This is known as a conditional order under the new no-fault divorce system (decree nisi under the old law). You can ask the court to approve your consent order as soon as you have either of these.

One of the most confusing aspects of the new no-fault divorce process is the page following the question about whether you want a financial order. This page, titled ‘How to apply for a financial order,’ instructs you to complete another form (Form A or Form A1) and pay an additional fee. However, this information can be misleading.

Form A, a notice of intention to proceed with an application for a financial order, is typically for couples in agreement. If you are using an online service like Easy Online Divorce, you do not need to complete Form A. Our service directly submits your intention to the court department’s systems, simplifying the process for you.

Similarly, if you have a contested financial agreement, you need to complete a Form A1 (notice of intention to proceed with an application for a financial remedy), but again, if you have to go down this route, you will need a solicitor to help you, and they will complete the form A1 for you.

No, the court doesn’t blindly approve consent orders, and they can question the fairness of your agreement. The consent order process is voluntary between a couple, so the court won’t force you to do something if they disagree with your order. But they will ask questions or ask you to consider certain agreements to ensure that a person in a weaker position is fully aware of the implications of the order.

There are no official statistics on how often a judge rejects consent orders in the UK. However, if the agreement is fair and meets legal requirements, it will be approved by the court.

Form D81 (Statement of Information) is a required form in a divorce. It shows the court a summary of both people’s finances, including income, savings, property, and any debts. This helps the court decide if the Consent Order you’ve agreed on is fair for both sides.

Not exactly. A clean break order is a type of court order that ends all financial ties between you and your ex after a divorce. It’s best used when there are no ongoing financial commitments (like child maintenance) and no assets to divide. Once approved by the court, it protects both parties from any future claims on income, inheritance, or windfalls.

However, if there are significant assets to divide, such as property, or savings, or if there are ongoing financial commitments, a clean break order alone won’t be enough.

In that case, a consent order is required. This is a legally binding agreement that sets out how finances will be divided. It can include things like property transfer, lump sum payments, and maintenance. A consent order can also include a clean break clause, which works similarly to a clean break order by preventing future financial claims once all terms are met.

Both orders must be approved by the court to be legally binding, and it’s strongly advised to have them drafted by a qualified divorce solicitor, which is what we can provide.

If you’re concerned about your pension during your separation, our Pension Sharing Consent Order service provides a clear and legally binding solution.