Please tell me about your online divorce

[Yellowbrickhouse]

I need to get the ball rolling ASAP. I am divorcing XH on grounds of unreasonable behaviour (DV). He won't be able to contest this as I have official records of the abuse.

It would seem I need to get shot on this man ASAP as he is already reneging on contact and complaining about having to pay CM. It has also recently come to my knowledge that he's got himself into a substantial sum of debt - he has form for this sort of thing.

A few questions that come to mind:
How much did a straightforward online divorce on gov.uk cost? Just the cost advertised, or more?

If you were married abroad/you marriage cert is foreign, were there any barriers to getting a smooth divorce?

If you agreed on CM and child custody/contact between yourselves, did you put this in writing, did XH sign anything?

I can't afford solicitors fees, so I'm really counting on the online service to get my divorce realised. To get it over and done with as quickly as possible, I don't plan on asking him to pay towards the cost of the divorce.

Any insight from those who have been here, or who are going through similar, is very much appreciated.

I would definitely put everything in writing and get him sign or on email so there is a record of agreement if he ever wants to contest

Can’t advise re your other questions - maybe post on relationship thread too?

Thank you, moneymachine I thought as much. If I had to arrange through a solicitor it's much more likely to get his back up, so to make everything official I guess I will need to try to formalise arrangements in writing myself.

@Yellowbrickhouse
Ive just done mine through divorce online. It cost me £49 for the papers, £25 for a notary to sign them and £123 for the court fees. Really easy, did it all in one day.

Thank you Veronicat

Are the costs you mention over and above the £550 fee on gov.uk?

@Veronicat why did you need a notary to sign the papers?

Good question Hello Brass , I'm guessing the notary was needed as your marriage cert was not in English, and needed to be verified?
Luckily, my marriage cert is in English.

No. They were the entire fee. I didn't do it on gov.uk. I used divorceonline.co.uk. I needed the notary to sign mine as I wasn't using a lawyer. I did it all myself. Was so simple. I downloaded the application, filled in my bit, took it to the notary to sign to prove it was me then went to the court and paid the fee for it to be sent off. I had a letter yesterday saying should all be signed off by the end of Feb. My certificate is English as I married in London .

You must make sure you have a water-tight, legal financial agreement, signed off by the courts, which usually should come into effect with the decree absolute, or you could find yourself with financial liabilities way down the line! Check out www.gov.uk/money-property-when-relationship-ends . CM and contact do not necessarily need official, legal agreement, but if he is already reneging you might have to go down the legal line - sadly expensive and time consuming.

Hi, I have recently just been through this. We only used a solicitor to draft up and submit the consent order. This was to cover finances and as we both wanted it to be a clean break. I would recommend you do this. Child agreement was done informally between ourselves but we both signed a copy.

The divorce itself was just the £550 fee on the gov.uk website. It was a good service. Started the process in June, was done before Christmas. No notary required, all very simple.

Thanks daughtersmother and tisonlymeagain
That's very helpful.

I just checked with divorceonline.co.uk and they confirmed you do pay the court fee of £550 on top so cheaper to do it yourself

@tisonlymeagain I am currently filling out form D8 and wondered if you remembered the section on dividing your money & property. I want to do the consent order through a solicitor like you did but there is a section on the form that asks if you want to apply for a financial order, I expect I just say no to this otherwise the court will handle it, is that right?

@Mackers123 I said no to this initially but apparently, that was wrong, not that it made a difference in the end. When it came to doing the consent order we had to complete a Form A for dismissal purposes. The solicitor said that each of us needed to apply to the court for all orders, in order that they can all be dismissed under the Consent Order - it's just a technicality, it doesn't actually mean that anyone is progressing with a claim as the Consent Order gets submitted at the same time. As I understand it, you should tick the box - it doesn't trigger anything and I think you won't have to do a Form A then.

@tisonlymeagain thanks for reply. It's a little misleading on the form as it does say 'if you disagree with your spouse about how your money etc. will be split' we don't disagree we are just doing 50/50

The court fees are £550 irrespective of whether you do it yourself or go through a company. The gov website is really good, still goes through the courts, but you really shouldn’t need a solicitor. Plenty of people just do it themselves these days. If you put a consent order through the courts there is a flat fee of £50.

I've just rechecked . I'm in Scotland - our court fees are £123 as it's different laws. Oppps, sorry for any confusion.

Submitted end of August and got my absolute today. All very straightforward £550 fee. I was allocated to South West divorce courts not sure why I'm Yorkshire based. Applied for my absolute at 630 this morning and it was approved at 430 so shockingly quick for the final part.

Hi all... do you need both parties to be amicable for this to work?
I imagine I'll end up with the bulk of work, and that might be for the best. However the cost is too much for me on my own.

Op, try www.wikivorce.com It's part government funded. It offers independent advice/support and there's a forum with some very knowledgeable moderators.