Clean Break order after divorce

MidsLife

Two years ago my ex and I separated and we split our assets 50/50 between us. Our divorce finally went through in August this year on grounds of unreasonable behaviour (he walked out and stopped paying bills etc).

I’m using a solicitor to obtain a clean break, I spoke to my ex today who has now completed his part of the clean break order. Since we split our jointly owned assets two years ago he has rinsed through all the money, quit his job and moved in with his girlfriend. He has about £400 to his name, no job, no pension etc. Since our separation my mother died and I inherited her house which was sold, so I have an amount of money inherited from outside the marriage.

As my part of the form shows this, plus my job, pensions and home it looks very contrasting to what my ex has. My concern is that at judge would look at this and think something is unfair, even though we fairly split everything, I even stupidly gave my ex some money recently to help him out until he finds a job. Does anyone have any experience of this or know what could happen?

My solicitor is incredibly vague and not that helpful.

Many thanks

Stoke

MidsLife wrote: »

Two years ago my ex and I separated and we split our assets 50/50 between us. Our divorce finally went through in August this year on grounds of unreasonable behaviour (he walked out and stopped paying bills etc).

I’m using a solicitor to obtain a clean break, I spoke to my ex today who has now completed his part of the clean break order. Since we split our jointly owned assets two years ago he has rinsed through all the money, quit his job and moved in with his girlfriend. He has about £400 to his name, no job, no pension etc. Since our separation my mother died and I inherited her house which was sold, so I have an amount of money inherited from outside the marriage.

As my part of the form shows this, plus my job, pensions and home it looks very contrasting to what my ex has. My concern is that at judge would look at this and think something is unfair, even though we fairly split everything, I even stupidly gave my ex some money recently to help him out until he finds a job. Does anyone have any experience of this or know what could happen?

My solicitor is incredibly vague and not that helpful.

Many thanks

Is it all tied up? House now in your name? Divorce finally settled etc?

Can't see how he has a leg to stand on, if he's actually going for this at all.

tacpot12

I think there is some chance that a judge looking at the information on the forms will make an order that treats you unfairly. I think the only thing you can do is explain on the forms what you have put in your post. I would be demanding that your solicitor explains how they will fill the forms out to give you the best chance of keeping the majority of your assets.

Why was the clean break not finalised as part of the divorce?

MidsLife

Divorce is all completed and everything was fully settled. We did the divorce ourselves without a solicitor, I had no idea what a clean break was until I saw something about it on TV. I told my ex about it and we both agreed to do it, we have no joint assets anymore and no children. He doesn’t want anything from me and I don’t want anything from him.

The solicitor has specified on the forms that I now own my own property in joint names with my current partner.
The money I inherited was nearly two years after he officially moved out and during the process of waiting on my decree absolute at the time.

The solicitor believes everything should be fine as we equally split the assets at the time by mutual agreement, neither of us is claiming anything and any money I inherited was outside of the marriage.

I just wondered if anyone else had been in a similar situation before.

jackieblack

MidsLife wrote: »

Divorce is all completed and everything was fully settled. We did the divorce ourselves without a solicitor, I had no idea what a clean break was until I saw something about it on TV. I told my ex about it and we both agreed to do it, we have no joint assets anymore and no children. He doesn’t want anything from me and I don’t want anything from him.

The solicitor has specified on the forms that I now own my own property in joint names with my current partner.
The money I inherited was nearly two years after he officially moved out and during the process of waiting on my decree absolute at the time.

The solicitor believes everything should be fine as we equally split the assets at the time by mutual agreement, neither of us is claiming anything and any money I inherited was outside of the marriage.

I just wondered if anyone else had been in a similar situation before.

Regarding the two phrases in bold, everything may have been settled between the two of you but, as you have discovered, not fully settled legally without a Consent
Order.
IME, if the second statement in bold is true, you shouldn't have too much to worry about. Where the two parties have come to an amicable agreement between themselves the court ihas much more flexibility than if they're being asked to make that judgement because the parties can't agree.
The judge will want to know how and why you've come to the agreement you have detailed on the CO.
If the agreement could appear to favour one party over the other they will want confirmation that both parties have had legal advice on what they are 'entitled' to (which you are then completely free to ignore, if this is contrary to what has been agreed between you), but generally the fact you are both in agreement carries alot of weight.
Given that you split everything 50/50 at the time you separated, there are no children to be taken into consideration and your ex isn't wanting to try and claim anything further from you, it should be straightforward.

TBagpuss

When the order goes to the court you also have to send a 'statement of information for a consent order' - form D81, I think.
One of the sections on it is for 'any other matters the court should consider' with one of the examples being any prior agreement.

So when you complete the form, make sure that that section is completed.

e.g. something like "We / The Parties separated in 2016. At that time the assets were dividing equally with each of us received £xxxx from the sale of the house and with all savings being split equally.
The [applicant / respondent, whichever you are] has savings of £xxx which relate to an inheritance received by her after the parties separated and which the [applicant / respondent, whichever he is] accepts should not be treated as a matrimonial asset. "


In the order itself you can also include a recital at the beginning recording when the house was sold and how much you each received, and what other assets were divided with how much you each had.

This allows the Judge to see that the proposed order is fair, even though it is not equal.


Worst case scenario the court can send the order back with further questions, but if you can show that there are good reasons for the draft it should be OK

BISCUIT1

My Financial Consent Order also looked a little one-sided due to pension and an inheritance after splitting up. My solicitor enclosed a covering letter explaining the circumstances and my ex signed a letter agreeing to it. Also as my ex wasn't legally represented the judge delayed whilst ex had to confirm in writing that he knew he could have legal representation but chose not to..might be best to send that in at the outset to save you the same delay I had. x