DIY Divorce

AuntyJean

I am about to be divorced by my husband and we have agreed to a DIY divorce with a 50/50 split.

I am considering buying out his share of the house and have taken financial advice (fortunately I work for a firm of insurance brokers that has a financial services sister company). They have put me in touch with a solicitor to carry out the legal paperwork with the transfer of the house but they are concerned about the implications of a DIY divorce and in particular a Court Order. ("I have discussed this aspect of the transfer and remortgage with our senior partner Mr ........, and he feels it advisable that you should come and see him so he can give you some advice about the implications of a DIY divorce, particularly if a Court Order is not obtained to protect everyone's interest.").

What is a Court Order and what is the purpose?

Bossyboots

You need, at the least, a consent order preventing either of your being able to make future claims against each other.

For example, if you one the lottery your ex could apply for a share if you do not have an order stating that the settlement agreed now is in full satisfaction of any claims each may have against the other.

Edit: Try googling Consent Order divorce and you will get some info. There is a company offering an on line service http://www.clean-break.co.uk/home.html. I have no idea who they are or if they are any good but it serve as a starting point.

What you could do, after researching it a bit more is draw a consent order up and then get it checked out by a solicitor for completeness and accuracy.

jazzyjustlaw

In general or in relation to a Divorce. Basically it is my view that it is not sufficient to deal with a Divorce oneself where there are issues of Ancillary Relief (i.e. finances) this is because without a Court Order to the contrary either party may still make a claim against the other in the future.

If Bossyboots comes on she/he will give you a more detailed explanation as I am only a trainee.

AuntyJean

Thanks,

Is this something we can do ourselves or would we need a solicitor for this?

jazzyjustlaw

How funny but yes I was going to mention a Consent Order but thought Bossyboots would be on and on she came.

jazzyjustlaw

Best way in my view is to deal with a Consent Order through a Solicitor as it needs to ne approved by the Court.

AuntyJean

Thanks,

Its just that I have a distrust of solicitors (they seem to take money for nothing). When my father died, my mother appointed a solicitor to deal with probate (he died intestate). The solicitors took nearly a year to sort everything out and only obtained one letter of administation. This cost mum over £2,000. When mum died a year later (again intestate!!), my sister and I DIY'd the probate, I obtained three copies of the letters of administration and tied the whole thing up in less than six months at a cost of around £500.

Obviously, it is important to get things done properly but I just want to keep the costs to a minimum. How much would I expect to pay for a Court Order? Can I ask a solicitor to just do this bit for me/us? Do we each have to have a solicitor?

jazzyjustlaw

I think a Solicitor could just do the Consent Order for you. Perhaps as bossyboots said you could draft it and get a Solicitor to complete it although it might be just as easy to tell the Solicitor want you want included as is standard wording for Consent Orders as far as I am aware. I am not sure how much a Solicitor would charge for a Consent Order. Best way is to phone 3 or 4 to compare them. Your husband would need a Solicitor to advise him independently on the Consent Order. He needs to make sure he is getting a decent settlement and so do you. Speak to your friends and seek out a Solicitor although you cannot use the same one as there would be a conflict of interest.

elvis_girl

I agree. I think if the consent order is not looked over by solicitor for both parties it can be negated later on. Can anyone confirm this? I have only one thing to say about DIY divorces - avoid, avoid, avoid. Unless you have no assets, its better in the long run to have proper legal advice, or these things have a tendency to come back and haunt you!
Just my opinion

Bossyboots

I agree that solicitor needs to cast an eye over a consent order and there are standard wordings. It is of course absolutely correct that you each need your own solicitor.

The risk is that one of you will be told that the settlement is not fair to one of the parties. You both need to be firm that what you have agreed is what you want and you should be asked to sign a disclaimer to say that despite being advised a more advantageous settlement is possible, you wish to continue with the terms you have agreed between you.

You will also need to complete a form called an Information for Consent Order which sets out your finances in short form. This can be downloaded from the Court Service website (but not today because they are having technical difficulties) and completed yourselves. This then needs to be filed with the consent order.

If you source the consent order from one of the online companies and then arrange a fixed fee interview with a solicitor to check it for you, that would probably be the most cost efficient way. You should not apply for the decree absolute until the consent order has been dealt with.

This site http://www.swarb.co.uk/lawb/famConsentOrders.shtml explains it in easy to understand terms.

Bossyboots

elvis_girl wrote:

I agree. I think if the consent order is not looked over by solicitor for both parties it can be negated later on. Can anyone confirm this? I have only one thing to say about DIY divorces - avoid, avoid, avoid. Unless you have no assets, its better in the long run to have proper legal advice, or these things have a tendency to come back and haunt you!
Just my opinion

Doing the actual divorce yourself is fine, but it should be combined with legal advice on settling the assets. Paying a solicitor to handle the actual divorce is just money wasted.