Consent orders/ clsan break after divorce. 17 February at 2:18PM edited 17 February at 2:18PM in Marriage, relationships & families 4 replies 229 views

Misteek

Hi guys

My cousin has been divorced from her husband recently.

He's applying for a clean break order.

They have been married for 25 years and sperated for 10 years.

She doesnt seek to gain anything from him. She is living in a rented accomodation with her 3 children who are between 11 and 15.

He has a few assetts including a residential property which he bought after they sperated, He had been working as a Dentist in the last 8 years.

DO any of you have any tips for her as to what to do? Also as to how to keep the legal costs low?

Lavendyr

Well, assuming they are his children too then he will be expected to pay child maintenance if they spend more time with your cousin than with him until each reaches the age of 18. This should be set out in the consent order (e.g. you might agree a monthly amount between you or you might use the government website to determine the amount based on his salary and state that the amount will remain constant with the recommended level per the website which may change based on his salary). It's also helpful to set out the expected time the children will spend with you vs with him - my OH and his ex wife set these things down in their consent order. 

Then in terms of assets, are there any pensions? Savings? I'm not sure what a court would do with a property he purchased after separation but presumably he put together a deposit - was this in savings during the marriage? 

Ultimately they can agree whatever they want to in the consent order, though a court may challenge if they perceive it to be unfairly biased towards one or other of the parties. My ex-husband had substantial savings in addition to a house that we jointly owned, so his assets were significantly higher than mine. But all I wanted was half the house value which we jointly owned and contributed to the cost of - I had no interest in going after his savings. So we drew the consent order up on that basis, got the house valued and agreed a 50/50 split on that; he subsequently bought me out. I came away with much less than half of everything, but that's what I wanted. I explained that in an addendum to the consent order that we drew up and it was approved by the family court. 

My ex-husband and I used a solicitor via Wikivorce who acted on my behalf (my ex didn't take separate legal advice at his choice; one solicitor will not act for you both) to draw up the consent order at a cost of around £350 I believe. It was cheap but it did take time and there were a number of basic numerical errors in the draft document which I had to check and correct carefully. So you can do it cheaply, but it does need you to be willing to check that you are happy with everything. That also doesn't include any advice on how to do the actual split of assets or any issues that would arise should things become acrimonious. 

Ultimately I think it depends on what she wants to achieve. I think it's important to address the children aspect and make sure that your cousin is receiving appropriate child maintenance and that the split between houses of their time is agreed. Beyond that it's really up to her how much she wants to walk away with. If he owns a property and she doesn't that suggests a disparity of assets, but if she really doesn't want to push that, then she can choose not to. 

comeandgo

What does she have?  Any pensions, assets?  Are the children his?   

comeandgo

What does she have?  Any pensions, assets?  Are the children his?   

Lavendyr

@Misteek we would appreciate you coming back to discuss further...