Divorce

Zeb2001

My wife & I are getting a Divorce. We have an amicable split & have agreed on me paying her a certain sum in exchange for her share of the house/possessions etc. We live in the house under a Declaration of
Trust due to me putting a sum of money into the house before we married (the sum to be paid takes into account this Declaration). We are trying not to use Solicitors. We have filled in the Divorce form "Divorce/dissolution/(judicial) separation petition" but are unsure how the monetary side of things is handled.

The above form offers Financial Orders but we are unsure whether to select any of these options as our understanding is that we need a consent order but can't apply for that until the decree nisi is through.

We are confused as according to the ww.gov.uk website we have to apply for a Financial order & include a statement of information form even though we have agreed in principle to what we want to do.

Can anyone help clarify how/what we need to do? I also assume that the Declaration of Trust needs to be revoked.

Tigsteroonie

The divorce & financial proceedings are separate court proceedings. On the divorce application, you state what kind of orders you are seeking, though it is normal for all boxes to be ticked so that it opens all doors.

Once you have the divorce reference number - you don't have to wait for the Nisi - you can start Financial Proceedings. If you're already in agreement, then one of you should get a solicitor to draw up a consent order (the other should take legal advice before signing!) but you can handle all the court documents and appearances yourselves. Ideally you should get the consent order signed off by the court before getting the absolute.

I would agree that the .gov.uk website is too simplified for this, it used to be better. However, I can well recommend the Wikivorce website for information about the process and a good forum on which to ask questions.

hazyjo

Is there a mortgage on the house? Does she have enough income to take that on herself (in the eyes of the bank!)?

Do you have children?

My ex and I didn't have kids, didn't use solicitors for the divorce, but did have to use them for the financials to draw something up saying what we'd agreed (mainly cos I was buying a house and my mortgage provider needed it in writing from solicitors what we'd agreed).

Jx