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Divorce/separation

Here you'll find divorce help and support from other Mners. For legal advice, you may find Advice Now guides useful.

Original poster

Cheapest legitimate divorce

85 replies

WinoLino · 05/03/2023 07:56

Hi there.

Looking to divorce ex husband. We have been separated for about 5 years and had no reason to get it done as neither party looking to remarry and things amicable, we get on, co parent etc. No messy financial stuff to sort. Quickie Dirvorce want £199. Is this legitimate? Can't work out if they are offering a proper process or if it's a bit of a scam.

Thanks for reading.

OP posts:
Loubelou14 · 05/03/2023 07:58

I am in same situation and I thought it was through gov.uk for £593 assuming you don't require a financial agreement. I'm not sure I trust promises of quickies because I think they have to go through the courts the same way so the £593 is the court fee. Not sure though. Been on my mind this week too

ElizabethinherGermanGarden · 05/03/2023 08:45

I would expect that the 'quickie divorce' is a service that shows you how to fill in the forms and then you'd have to pay the court fees on top.

The forms themselves are not hard and if you have made your own financial arrangements and know the whole thing will be uncontested, you can do them yourself just by reading what it tells you to put.

The strangest thing, I found, is that when you get the decree absolute, it is just a sheet of A4 from a normal printer, not any kind of official-looking form. Don't throw it away by accident!

ElizabethinherGermanGarden · 05/03/2023 08:50

BTW I did mine myself but circumstances meant that we didn't need any kind of financial settlement, just the agreement between ourselves. We owned a house together but that was split 50/50 going in and going out, we'd split expenses 50/50 from the start, and with no kids together and no time out of work, I had my own full pension and didn't need to make any claims on his due to loss of earnings.

I think my situation was unusually simple! If you have kids, or if you have no pension because you've had time out of work during the marriage, I would say that you need a solicitor.

Equally, if you don't trust your stbxh, you may need a clean break settlement. I did trust mine (about money) and knew that we didn't need anything about finances nailed down. If there are significant debts between you, or debt-building behaviours eg gambling, general uselessness, you will need a financial clean break, and I would say you do need a solicitor to help with that.

Chasingsquirrels · 05/03/2023 09:00

I'd say you need a financial consent order AS WELL as the actual divorce (do the divorce yourself, just download the forms and pay the court fee).

Regardless of how happy you are with the split of assets, not having anything to split, no pensions etc - the financial consent order will cover you both in the future as well, so neither can go back and claim against the other.

CornishGem1975 · 05/03/2023 09:02

You don't need to use any service, got to Gov.uk and file it yourself. You'll need to pay the £500 or whatever it is now.

But you will need to pay for a consent order separately, that cost us about another £2000 but essential for a clean break. We made all our own financial agreements, we just had it finalised.

Original poster
WinoLino · 05/03/2023 09:46

Thanks everyone. Lots of useful advice here. It's extremely amicable, there is no way on the earth that either of us will try to claim money from the other into the future. I can't afford another £2000 on top of £500 so is it possible to just pay the £500 odd?

OP posts:
CornishGem1975 · 05/03/2023 09:54

WinoLino · 05/03/2023 09:46

Thanks everyone. Lots of useful advice here. It's extremely amicable, there is no way on the earth that either of us will try to claim money from the other into the future. I can't afford another £2000 on top of £500 so is it possible to just pay the £500 odd?

I think you'd be foolish. It's amicable now.

Fourmagpies · 05/03/2023 09:57

It doesn't have to be £2k to do the consent order if you're amicable. You could do it yourself and it would only cost the official fee (think it is £53), or you could get a solicitor to draft the order for you for about £500.

Iworkmiricles · 05/03/2023 10:04

It's all on line, you pay the court fee and then that's sorted. You probably wait about a month for a conditional order (decree nisi) and then you have to wait six weeks and one day before applying to court again for the final order.
Please get a financial order , a clean break. if you win the lottery, he can still claim or if he has a new partner who wants your money, you are open to them claiming. A financial order is pretty straight forward and £256 I think is the court fee for that. You can do it through mediation companies, which if it's straight forward, you get all the paper work and probably costs about £500. That's £120 each for the MIAM, and then if you are already sorted, a further £180 for a joint session and then the paper work. If it's amicable, it's easy, but it really isn't that straight forward, people change.

stripedcurtains · 05/03/2023 10:23

You can still get a consent order after divorce if it's something you can't afford or don't want to do now. I don't think there's a time limit.

The £199 fee will be for the company to fill in forms which you can do yourself - not worth wasting money on that as it's very easy to use the gov. uk site, and you will still have to pay the £600ish fee on top of that.

I'm in the middle of a fairly amicable divorce. We split the £600 between us and applied jointly, and are currently sorting out finances. We will pay a solicitor to write up the consent order because we want that peace of mind that there can be no further financial claims made by either of us, whatever happens in the future. We were quoted around £400 by a local solicitor to write up the consent order, plus there's a fixed court fee of £53.

If you're splitting pensions you need a consent order to show the pension company before they will enact the split (or so my ex was told by his pension provider).

Can2022getanyworse · 05/03/2023 10:24

Holy fuck.

You should ALWAYS get the consent order. Without one either party can approach the other to make a future claim (can't initiate the claim if you remarry but can be subject to one).

It doesn't have to cost anywhere near £2k if you're amicable - get one party to draw it up, the other pays for advice to approve, then rubber stamp at court.

You should not consider yourself fully divorced and all ties broken until you have a consent order.

Anotheradventureforme · 05/03/2023 10:32

I had a similar dilemma.
There are unavoidable costs such as the £593 fee. I filled all the forms in myself online, it was reasonably straightforward and there is lots of free online help.
You do need a financial consent order. This is to safeguard yourself in the future against claims to your property, pension etc (and vice versa).
You can do this yourself (there are filing fees) but it is quite complicated and is recommended you have legal advice. In fact some courts will reject without. this is to safeguard vulnerable people and to ensure you fully understand all obligations.
We did ours through divorce online. I went for the solicitor consent order (£599) but there is a cheaper one. It was worth having the solicitor as the judge queried our split (it made sense to us, but looked unfair) and she helped with wording to draft the document and resubmit.
Yes - it is expensive! I was shocked. Although by being amicable and having everyone's best interests at heart (after all, once upon a time we were very important to each other and we have lovely kids and owe them this) we saved thousands.

gogohmm · 05/03/2023 10:41

Online for the divorce, diy.

For the financials it appears you can diy but I'm going to use an online service for £250 as I need specific piece of paperwork for the pension company

gogohmm · 05/03/2023 10:42

Need to file my consent order imminently so will report back

stripedcurtains · 05/03/2023 10:55

@Anotheradventureforme can you give reasons on the consent order for an unequal split? I'm asking because ex now lives (by choice) in another part of the country where houses are less than half the price of where I live. So we've agreed to split our capital in a way that means we can each have a similar size home. I'm worried that a judge will reject our consent order as I'll be getting something like two thirds of the capital because of the difference in property prices for the two areas.

theemmadilemma · 05/03/2023 11:05

We drew up a financial agreement ourselves. Sent off the paperwork with that attached. Paid the court fee only and done.

So yes, you can.

Fourmagpies · 05/03/2023 11:14

@stripedcurtains We haven't got that far but I understand there is a box for adding more information and you can include information as to why the split isn't even. It doesn't need to be even, just needs to be fair and yours sounds fair.

SquishyGloopyBum · 05/03/2023 11:42

If it's amicable can you split the fees, it shouldn't just be on you to pay.

You do need a financial order though as well as pp have said.

Original poster
WinoLino · 05/03/2023 11:58

Thanks

@CornishGem1975 it's always been amicable. This isn't a recent split. There is no way in a million years we would request money from one another. We argue to give each other money, not the other way round. It's just how it is. However I shall look into one if it doesn't involve £2k

OP posts:
millymollymoomoo · 05/03/2023 13:06

You really should get a financial settlement! It’s naive not to. Things and people change and you only have to read on here to evidence that!

really really get one! If you are amicable now you can agree between yourselves without much fuss or cost

PritiPatelsMaker · 05/03/2023 13:16

Quickie Divorve charge you that just to fill in the forms.

It's no quicker than anyone else's Divorce and it's dearer as you can fill in the forms yourself.

The firms are here.

Are you getting legal advice regarding the Financial Arrangement Order?

Original poster
WinoLino · 05/03/2023 13:20

Thank you.

I'm not sure @PritiPatelsMaker, at the moment just learning how to go about it all!

OP posts:
Original poster
WinoLino · 05/03/2023 13:20

Are the consent order and financial agreement order the same thing?

OP posts:
Original poster
WinoLino · 05/03/2023 13:21

Sorry, financial arrangement order?

OP posts:
Xenia · 05/03/2023 13:23

Ex wife of a hippy 20 years later made huge claims and won . The husband had become an eco millioanire. They had no consent/financial order that could be found from the time so there is no time limit on claims in England.

Very risky not to have a consent order - what if you win the lottery and win £100m in 10 years' time?