DIY divorce?

[Crazycatladyx5]

What are your views & experiences of a DIY divorce?
As it's nearly 2 years since ex left (for someone else) I want to go ahead with divorce proceeding & asked him if we coukd talk things through. He was stalling saying he would talk in a few weeks. He did not want to meet up. So I asked if he was still standing by what he said 20 monthd ago & not making any claim on this house, which I actually bought before I even met him. It's in my name, I've always paid all bills & I live here with our 9yr old DD
He replied that he doesn't want anything now but wants a legal agreement that if I sell it before DD is 19 he gets a cut. He says this is to protect her interests so I can't sell it to buy a house with my bf. (If & when my bf & I do eventually live together we will write wills to protect our children's inheritance).
There's no way I could have ex dictating where & who I live with for 10 years.. .I told him this. I told him we would just have to put this house in marital pot along with debts (by time debts are paid half of equity will only be a few thousand) & HIS house. He bought it while still married so it's a marital asset.
So today he's changed his tune...hes been to see a solicitor & been advised it's best to have a clean break now....he he has forms to fill in for DIY divorce which will cost £550. He says we can pay half each.
Would I be mad to still pay my solicitor (up to) a couple of thousand, or more (which I'm having to borrow) to get her to handle it?
I'm seeing mine for first free session on Wed. I'll see her for advice. But will she advise me to get her to handle the divorce just to make money. I don't suppose solicitors like DIY divorces.
I don't trust ex to do it properly. He's too blumin lazy to fill in paperwork. And what if he just doesn't bother cos he knows delaying will affect me. He's become a real control freak, especially since I met my bf.
I really have no idea what to do.
Sorry this is so long.
Thank you for reading.

I think you need to get a solicitor involved or you could easily get shafted. Don't feel bad about doing that. I'd be suspicious why he's changed his tune.

We did ours ourselves. Separated 2 years, fairly amicable, sorted out own finances including joint mortgage, and just paid court costs. Really easy and neither of us used a solicitor or took any advice. Forms were all straight forward.

Think he's changed his tune cos I told him house he bought last year is a marital asset. Don't think he had realised that.
Trouble with DIY with us is things are often not amicable. He criticises me constantly & has done many things to control what I do, or try to. He has DD every other weekend & picks her up for tea 1 night a week from school....but if anything else ever crops up (& it often does) he expects me to be there. Like he said he got too ill to have DD the weekend I was taking my bf away for his birthday. He won't have DD on training days or when I have extra meetings...cos he hates my job & is always saying I need to change it as I put it before DD. She's my priority but I have to work to pay the bills. (When I asked him to have DD on a training day he said "I'm not your childminder so you can go to work.) He moved 15 miles away but expects me to help get DD to & from his as petrol is expensive...Ive refused. He even rang 111 once cos DD was constipated....Id given her stuff, given it time to work, it didn't so got something else from chemist, that didn't work so I took unpaid time off work & took her to doc....got something else which still didn't work but she told me it had! He was going mad & rang 111 and they rang me to see if she was ok! He said Id left it too ling doing nothing! But I was doing something & had to give each new med time to work. D D wasn't in pain.
Being amicable can be pretty difficult, although I wish we could be.

If things are now going to be straightforward I think you'd be mad to pay a Solicitor the amount of money you've mentioned, particularly as a lot of that will just be for undertaking very routine correspondence.
A relative of mine completed all the (very straightforward) forms herself and sought the advice of a Solicitor who agreed to act on her behalf for a flat upfront fee of £500 (plus the court fee). Her ex didn't bother with legal representation at all.
She didn't though own a property, and neither did he and it might be that this makes matters more complicated and therefore more expensive.

I think you need at least a basic solicitor consultation as he won't have your best interests at heart.

Saw solicitor yesterday. She advised to do first part...up to decree nisi....ourselves...but then use solicitor to do all the financial stuff.....so that's what I'm doing.
Thank you for input everyone. It really helped my decision.

I spent £7.5k with my solicitor. Me and my children had to do all the detective work ourselves which paid off in spades.
Was she good?
I don’t know .
Exh solicitor was jumping up and down in front of judge like s Yorkshire terrier while mine kept on saying she had no questions ma’am

I did wonder what was said in front of the judge, the three of them became my ex was trying to stitch me up like a kipper
He’d lied all through his form E

I came away with 72 per cent and him 28 per cent
So maybe she was worth it

I essentially used a quick and easy divorce online service. It was fine until I realised it wouldn't allow me to change a few details I wanted to. But it did give me all the forms pretty much easily filled out and some tips which were useful.

I did pay a solicitor for a financial seperation agreement which was then quoted within the divorce papers I submitted myself. All went through with no issues so normal court costs, about £750 for the solictor agreement and a half wasted £60 on an online service.