Mediation Outcome to Consent Order

L_Pacman

Hi All, first time poster long time lurker haha...

I was wondering if anyone has any first hand knowledge of consent orders following mediation outcomes?

In short, I have separated from my partner (unmarried, One child) and we have successfully mediated both child access and what to do with our joint property. The joint property proposal is slightly drawn out due to my ex's affordability, but it works. Since mediation completed there has been an unexpected change in her employment status, and as such I have proposed sticking to the mediation agreement but moving the commencement of her buying out some of my equity till next year.

Therefore, given the length of time it will take to finalise the joint property separation, and recent "hiccups" I feel it's beneficial to get a consent order in place to make sure neither of us resile on our agreements long term.

My main question is around possible costs for this, and whether another party can prevaricate or reject the consent order, if there is already a mediation outcome statement issued supporting it?

Does anyone know/have first hand experience?

ciderboy2009

I think your biggest problem is going to be the fact that no judge is going to make a consent order unless all parties signify their consent as part of the application for it.

TBagpuss

Are you married? If so, you need to get the divorce process underway if you have not already done so, and then get the agreement drawn up as an order and sent to the court. It would be sensible to get a solicitor to draft the order for you. Your and your spouse would then each need to sign the order to agree it, and to fill in a statement of information giving a summary of your current financial position, so the Judge can see the order is fair.

If you are not married, then you won't be able to have a consent order, but you could have a formal separation agreement drawn up, and either in that, or as a separate document, have a trust deed setting out the terms on which you own the property and in particular, who can live n it, who is responsible for mortgage and insurance costs , and any repairs, and the circumstances in which either of you can force a sale, and what % each of you will be entitled to from the sale (and that your ex has 'first refusal' to buy you out)

in either case, you need her to agree to the terms and to having it drawn up in a formal order or agreement.

If she won't then your options are to take her to court, although the mechanics of how to do that will be different depending on whether or not you are married.

L_Pacman

Thanks TBagpuss, that's really helpful to see the process involved going forward for me.

No, we are not married. Maybe I am mis-using the description Consent Order. A solicitior I have discussed with briefly called it simply a Court Order to formalise our mediation outcome.

My concern is around the recent development of her employment status, and that I have made an offer to extend the timescales by 6 month to help the situation. So was initially interested to find out whether my ex could prevaricate things and make it more costly.

It is starting to feel like mediation in this case was a waste of time and money, when the other party is starting to show signs of not sticking to its outcome.