How do you get divorced?

[CadvanTheBard]

We split in Dec and stb ex h moved out into a private rented flat. He has no pension and his only assets above £500 would be his two cars. One of those cars is mine but not officially as I'm on his insurance. This will have to changed.

I have a HA tenancy in my name and a pension. He doesn't want my pension or to argue about my tenancy.

All of his belongings he has had back. We've been married 1 year and 4 months. Neither of us want anything from the other. Well I have his cat until he finds somewhere else but we're amicable and I'm happy to look after cat if/when he finds somewhere he can take the cat.

I've looked online with citizens advice and I just can't get my head around what we need to do. We want the no fault divorce and to leave the marriage with what we brought into it.

Everyone's telling me to get a solicitor but we're amicable and will probably sit down together on April the 6th and apply for it online. Do we literally just click apply on the gov website?

yes just do it online, very easy to do. I did it last year and the site just walks you through it.
Have a look at divorce.wikivorce.com/ a lot of useful advice on there.
Have a read about Consent Orders too, www.gov.uk/money-property-when-relationship-ends/apply-for-consent-order
you need one approved by the court to formally seperate your finances, if you don't you or your ex can go for each others assets in the future. So if you set up a business that does really well, or you win £5,000,000 on the lotto your ex could be awarded half of it.

Sorry OP, I think you have to wait til you've been separated 2 years if you want the no fault divorce.

I don't think he'll accept unreasonable behaviour.

Thanks for that wiki site I will have a look through it tonight.

@Kerzehmet there is a new law due next month that will allow expedited no-fault divorces. It was due to launch last year but got delayed, but looks pretty much set now.

@WhatsitWiggle do you know if this new no fault divorce applies in Scotland?

England and Wales, not sure if Scotland will follow suit as the separation requirement is already at one year instead of two.

Ah, thank you wiggle, that's useful to know! I guess that will teach me for commenting when I don't know what I'm talking about . Sorry OP!

@Kerzehmet

Sorry OP, I think you have to wait til you've been separated 2 years if you want the no fault divorce.

From April 6th the No fault divorce changes to 20 weeks “ cooling off” not 2 years. Then the usual gap between nisi and final. This legislation has been in making for nearly 3 years and has been repeatedly delayed - finally the government has got the divorce web site updated and is now ready to go

You can do it on line. Extremely easy. Go to the divorce.co.gov site and walk through steps and forms it gives there. Remember that the divorce process and the financial agreement are separate actions . The divorce itself is sooooo easy - shocking really…will cost around£550 (this may have gone up). You do need to indicate on your potion in the option box you are applying for a financial agreement
In terms of financial settlement- terminology is a bit confusing but if you agree you can get a financial consent order. This is where you and husband draw up in layman’s terms wha you have agreed. You then need a solicitor to write that in legal speak and attach it to your divorce petition in the courts data base. You need a solicitor for this but you can stipulate this is ALL you want them to do. Ours charged about £1000 for this but it was a little complex to get into writing.
Your solicitor cannot finalise the “draft” ( as it is called) consent agreement until you have a court number. It is only received by the court after decree nisi and finalised “sealed” at the decree final.
The court wants to see that your consent order has made adequate provision for you both and is fair. It uses a set of about 10 criteria for this - you can find these on mediate site or advice now sites. Whilst people say it’s assumed a 50:50 split- this isn’t always the case and if you agree s9methingvelse that’s fine BUT it has to meet these criteria. You also must submit a D81 to the court with your draft consent (you give this to solicitor) which is your financial disclosure to each other. This helps court to make decision on whether they can approve your consent order. You have to put down everything and you should use Form E to calculate the details that summarise into the D81. You can download and print these forms from the Gov website and start to fill in now together ideally. You’ll have to countersign to say you have legally stated the truth- fits perjury to falsify these forms
But they aren’t complicated really- valuing pensions is tricky bit…if you don’t want to claim pensions and therefore don’t want to go through hassle of valuing them your solicitor can write some additional explanation on your D81 in language court will understand.

My advice would be to get a solicitor each. One of your solicitors draws up the draft consent agreement. The other sides solicitor is JUST used to run through with other person what they’re signing up to..but not the detail about is it fair. But being able to show courts that you both have taken legal advice means the court are less likely to ask for clarification questions and more likely to approve without hassle.

In total just using solicitors for the legal bits we had to, plus all court fees, we spent about £1800 inc Vat. In total- we had agreed to split these costs between us evenly even though I was petitioning

It is very straightforward. Lots of great web sites that can explain. Look for Advice Now’s guide to financial settlements

Should say do not divorce without a consent order even if you are amicable and say you are leaving with clean break.
Without this your ex will ALWAYS have a claim on your assets accrued long after your marriage has ended. He could go to court, at the least it will cause you stress and anxiety- at worse it could cost you thousands.
He could make a claim on you winning the national lottery, inheritance. You might say to each other you wouldn’t do that..but you would literally have no recourse in court to prevent him legal making that claim. For sake of less than £2000 you need this legal assurance in form of a sealed consent order.

@MayMorris

Should say do not divorce without a consent order even if you are amicable and say you are leaving with clean break. Without this your ex will ALWAYS have a claim on your assets accrued long after your marriage has ended. He could go to court, at the least it will cause you stress and anxiety- at worse it could cost you thousands. He could make a claim on you winning the national lottery, inheritance. You might say to each other you wouldn’t do that..but you would literally have no recourse in court to prevent him legal making that claim. For sake of less than £2000 you need this legal assurance in form of a sealed consent order.

Can you still apply for the divorce to start the process, prior to putting a financial agreement together, or should the agreement be formulated first? We're planning to go through mediation for financial/parenting decisions. Should we do mediation, then apply online for divorce, or is it the other way round?

Hi, yes you can and sort of have to. The consent order requires your case number. When applying on line ensure you check the box that asked if you need the court to make financial settlement- I was confused by that as I though it meant you needed court to decide your financial settlement. It doesn’t. It means any type of financial settlement including a consent order.
You need to get the solicitor to submit the consent order prior to the decree absolute . It can’t be submitted prior to decree nisi in court records I think (again check that online )
The petitioner decides on when to apply for decree final , minimum of 49 odd days after Nisi, but can be longer if you haven’t sorted it all out. The online process sends you email alerts to say when you can apply for final and when your court hearing is, and the decree nisi given etc. it is very streamlined and clear what to do and when