Can divorce be this straight forward?

[Nostrings457]

If H and I agree to grounds of divorce (unreasonable behaviour on his part). And agree on finances (no savings, house was mine pre-marriage & he doesn’t want any of it) and childcare arrangements (DC with me full time - he will visit when he can be bothered which will probably become non existent).

If we agree on all the above can we literally just apply for the divorce online, pay the fee, with no solicitors or financial orders? How long would it take?

What about money for DC? Will he be paying? Does that need to be Court ordered?

Yes.

Me and my ExH did similar. Although at the time we just waited for two years separation.

We didn't touch a solicitor other than me transferring the house into his sole name (which we did when he remortgaged to buy me out).
5 years on, still no problems and we co-parent fine.

Mine took a few months. Literally it just went through the court process. And then I applied for the decree absolute.

If you don’t get a financial separation and one of you comes into money later down the line the other can still claim half of it. I did my own divorce but got a lawyer to do the financial bit which was exactly as you describe - I kept house, no savings to divide, no contest from ex h.

Yes, mine was. In Scotland you just sign a form to say you both agree you’ve been separated for a year, want to divorce and then it’s done. Took weeks, maybe a couple of months, for the paperwork to be done.

@Solasum I will go via CMS.

@Bopahula they sounds very amicable. I’m new to this and 99% of divorce forums are take them for what you can get / get a solicitor / it’s a long and messy process. It’s filled me with dread tbh
What’s the decree absolute after the divorce?

@DragonMovie I read if the court thinks he the split is unfair they will contest it. I worry if on paper it looks as of I’m getting everything it will look unfair on him. So the court might contest it even if he doesn’t

Oh possibly. A lawyer would be able to advise though. I just was told at the time of my divorce that you do need a financial agreement or you’re not financially separated. That was 2016. Mine wasn’t disputed by the court and I kept everything that I had before the marriage, which was the house.

Yes. We just agreed things ourselves (we had three mediation sessions). I wrote up what we'd agreed on the forms and I submitted them. All went through.

Yes, it can be that straightforward, it's what we did - filed for our divorce online, dealt with it all ourselves without solicitors etc BUT you must get a consent order drawn up by a solicitor and sealed by the court so that you have a financial clean break. It's easy enough (if a bit costly) especially if you already agree on all the terms. It's just paperwork.

The court can decline the consent order if they think it's an unfair split but as long as you can demonstrate the reasons behind it, it's fine - plus the solicitor will advise on this. We had a 25%/75% split (I took the smaller chunk) and not en eyelid was batted.

Yes.

You will need to have a consent order because as PP said if finances change down the line you or he could make a claim on them, but that’s all doable without too much legal input.

Me and my eXH did the same. HE bought me out of the house, agreed spousal maintenance, and we did 50/50 childcare. As it turned out the DC stopped going there but he still contributed to them.

Also you don’t have to claim through the CMS, and tbh if you can agree things amicably then it’s better not to as that will cost. We never went through CMS, you can do if anything changes and he stops paying maintenance but otherwise there really isn’t any need.

I did mine online , almost accidentally 🤣 no fuss or bother. Dead easy.

No. It IS very straight forward if you agree on everything. BUT you do really need a solicitor to legalise your financial consent order at minimum. You need to complete Forms E and then summarise onto D81. You can do this together. Then write in layman’s terms what financial split you want. Ensure that it meets the 10 or so criteria the courts use to determine fair settlement (see list on mediate site or Advice now site). Then find a solicitor to write JUST the “draft” consent order and attach it to your court case file, it is in legal speak so you do need a solicitor to do this . It then will be “sealed” by court during the decree absolute process. My advice is that one parties solicitor draws up the draft consent order, and the other party gets 30-60mins with another solicitor just to run through what they’re signing to show court you’ve both taken legal advice.
If you don’t get a consent order for your finances either party could claim on each other’s finances for the rest of your lives. It is just a dumb idea not to do this, no matter what you say now.
The actual divorce process you can absolutely do yourself on line.
Not sure about kids- didn’t apply to me so you may need something in legal speak writing for that and to show courts you’ve made clear arrangements- the courts have a duty of care to ensure provision put in place for kids and finances .

Our whole bill jointly for divorce and financial agreement was less than £1800 last year . We were very specific about what action we asked solicitor for. We didn’t waste money with them asking for information, randomly chatting or Allowing them to take on unnecessary stuff we could do ourselves. Our consent order was a little complex, not massively so, but needed some explanation written into it to ensure courts would understand why it appeared to be not 50:50 and why we weren’t pension sharing. So theoretically yours could be less if it needs no explanations and is a rough 50:50. But do bear in mind that 50:50 is not courts default- the 10 criteria come first.

Also in terms of ease to apply on line. It is seriously very simple. Bit disturbing how easy it is really. Great government web site. Go on now and both familiarise yourselves with process and forms.
I raised my petition in early March last year…got decree absolute my end May- although I did petition for unreasonable grounds. I was a bit gobsmacked how quickly it went through given horror stories you hear. My planning application has taken longer 🤣🤣🤣🙄🤷🏼‍♀️
However, we were very clued up on process going into it, very amicable and jumped on paperwork to turnaround at each stage very quickly.

You can agree things yourselves but you must get it written as a consent order by a solicitor & get it signed before the absolute. My ex and I agreed it between ourselves but he initially refused to sign the first consent order! I then had to renegotiate with him & he signed. It is an expense doing this but it needs to be watertight

My DH got divorced online, however he and his exW had no children or property.

There's cost £1,000 and was was over in about 4 months.

Very straight forward, but as I said no assets or children involved

Mines taken 2.5 years so far and that's with us agreeing on everything pretty much and in theory being straight forward...! Lost court documents and mistakes made on his part delayed things a lot.