Divorcing - Absolute before consent order?

clairey22

Hello everyone,

I am the applicant in my divorce. I have passed the date that I can apply for my absolute. I am keen to get this done as soon as possible. My ex and I have been in agreement about the whole process. We have a house to sell (currently on the market) and two young children. We have both seen a solicitor (different ones) and are thankfully still in agreement on the finances/childcare/split of house proceeds and things are currently amicable.

I understand I need to have a "consent order" drawn up and I was told it would be a good idea to do this at the same time as applying for the absolute. At the moment I do not have the funds to do this so I wondered, is it possible to just apply for the absolute now and then do the financial bit later? What are the implications for this if any?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Sparklytori

Following with keen interest as I too am divorcing....have the nisi and no further funds to do the consent order before the absolute. Lil enough we are in agreement re finances and have an agreement in place already. Just not official.
No words of advice as I told my solictor to go ahead with the absolute over 10 days ago and have not yet heard anything back.

PeacefulWaters

There's no requirement to get a consent order at all. But you leave yourself wide open to the other party changing their mind without one.

So get the absolute done and dusted and then move onto consent order ASAP.

Sicard

I'm in the same boat. Research has told me the best time to get Consent Order is after Nisi and before Absolute. I could be wrong but that's what I'm aiming for.

TBagpuss

Sicard wrote: »

I'm in the same boat. Research has told me the best time to get Consent Order is after Nisi and before Absolute. I could be wrong but that's what I'm aiming for.

Yes, this is the most sensible way to do it.

The reason is that until the absolute is made, you are still married, so you still have rights as spouses to things such as widows/widower benefits under pensions, and inheritance rights if one of you were to die.

It's therefore sensible to have your alternative financial arrangements, in a legally binding order, in place before you sever that tie.

Also, on a practical level,assuming you both want the divorce, there is an incentive to signing the financial order if you know the divorce won't be finalised until you have.

Getting the order done first is particularly important if the order includes pension sharing order or where the total assets are large enough for inheritance tax to bean issue if one of you dies, but it is good practice in all cases

jackieblack

TBagpuss wrote: »

Yes, this is the most sensible way to do it.

The reason is that until the absolute is made, you are still married, so you still have rights as spouses to things such as widows/widower benefits under pensions, and inheritance rights if one of you were to die.

It's therefore sensible to have your alternative financial arrangements, in a legally binding order, in place before you sever that tie.

Also, on a practical level,assuming you both want the divorce, there is an incentive to signing the financial order if you know the divorce won't be finalised until you have.

Getting the order done first is particularly important if the order includes pension sharing order or where the total assets are large enough for inheritance tax to bean issue if one of you dies, but it is good practice in all cases

This ^^^^
Once the court approves the Consent Order it becomes legally binding as soon as the Decree Absolute is issued.

Skintski

My solicitor advised me to get the consent order done before the absolute as it's more difficult doing it the other way round. It was more straight forward than I'd previously though. Good luck.

badmemory

Once you get to decree absolute it is game over. So sort anything you need to sort before then.

PeacefulWaters

badmemory wrote: »

Once you get to decree absolute it is game over. So sort anything you need to sort before then.

You can still get a consent order after the absolute.