Financial Consent Order Processing Time

[Jonathan70]

Consent order has been submitted via online portal. Anyone submitted theirs recently and can give an idea of current processing times? I know it depends which Court deal with it but would be good to get a idea…Thanks.

I could do with knowing this too. Mine was submitted 3 weeks ago (tomorrow) and fully expecting it to be rejected first time because of assets not appearing fairly split (pension) 😕🙄

@TeeCee8 there's another similar thread I jumped on last week - mine was actually approved on 16th May so was 15 days, don't know which court as I couldn't spot it on the paperwork. It was a 55/45 split in my favour which I was expecting to be rejected but it wasn't. Hope that helps!

I think we’re Birmingham Court (divorce is anyway). I don’t know the percentages but aside the pensions we’re 50/50 on everything else.

@ Teecee8 I am also Birmingham court and I am still waiting after 4 weeks !!

Same here, I submitted 9th May and am hoping that if there was an issue / query with our paperwork that it would have been flagged by now...let me know how you get on! Someone else I know who submitted recently waited exactly 5 weeks and got approved a couple of weeks ago at Bham family court too...

@select2000 I chased yesterday and they said it had gone to judge on week 5 . I am 6 weeks and one day and still waiting .... they said should be end of this week or beginning next week so about 7 weeks

ah ok, it's great you have a rough timescale now! Who did you chase, was there a number to call? I'm desperate for an update too 😩

@Select2000 I chased my solicitor who can log onto the court portal to see where the application was.

My solicitor submitted the consent order on 10th May and was passed to the judge on the 16th. I'm also Bham family court and still waiting. I emailed the financial remedy department to get a rough timescale and they said 10 weeks 🙈 I'm hoping that's just a generic answer.

Oh no! I don’t agree with the system at all, they should at least have some sort of timescale they have to either raise queries and thereafter act within?! Every week feels like a lifetime 😣

yes I think they will be giving hopefully generic worst case scenarios as I’m sure they err on the side of caution! Keep me posted on yours and I will mine!

My update is in now exactly 5 weeks and it hasn’t even been referred to a judge. Joke. I can see this being a 3 monther potentially.

Are you sure? That's a very long time and not even passed to the judge. This waiting game is a nightmare...

@Select20000 @LittleBm
I am stilllllllll waiting. 6 weeks and 2 days and counting.....
Went to judge at 5 weeks and still not heard anything and it's very straight forward consent order.

Yes I’m sure, my solicitor said that ‘sadly it’s not too unusual’ for it to take this long, however from reading these updates it certainly seems very long to not even be with a judge yet… the waiting is the worst bit as it’s an open ended timescale to a degree!

just wanted to add to this thread my brothers consent order was sent 7th May. His ex wife's solicitor told him they could by pass the system and directly email it to the courts which she said would be faster...? this is for Birmingham...as of this morning still no update. If it helps their consent order is very simple...literally just 3/4 points and the solicitor said 100% it will get approved

Has anyone given notice to the other party for the final order? my brother said you need to give the other party 14 days notice you will be raising the final order to end the marriage...he has done this now so once the consent order is approved he can send the request for the final order directly to the courts.

@lutestring34 thanks for.your update. I am stilllllllll waiting. 7 weeks and counting and mine is very simple as well.

My solicitor said that as soon as it comes back we can submit the final order so not heard of 14 days notice. Could be because we both have solicitors maybe ?

Yeah I am guessing this could be why but in the past his solicitor told him he need to give the other side 14 days notice to end the marriage.

I should also add, my brother has to post his final order request to the courts as he doesn't have a solicitor he can't raise this online .

Have a look at form D36

Still waiting for me too. Called the family courts line and their auto vm said 3 to 20 weeks but I'm not sure if that's a standard auto message?!

If you have a pension sharing order in place you need to wait a certain period of time before applying for the final order due to getting nothing if the person were to pass away within this period of time. Just worth waiting on advice before pressing the button online!

@Select2000
Luckily we don't have a pension sharing order to worry about so that's one positive.

I'm sure the final order is just a button online (I did my divorce application online) and almost completely separate to the financial order? Main thing is not to instruct the final order before the financial order. I applied solely for this.

For my brothers case there is no pension sharing order its a very simple case but thank you for the advice.

Yes it is a click of a button if you are a solicitor...if you don't use a solicitor like my brother you have to post a paper form to the courts. He was told he would get the final confirmation of the divorce within two days

ah ok I think we're talking about 2 different things

the final order divorce is done online (anyone can do this) and this is in place to apply for the final order when financial order approved. Think this is very quickly approved in a couple of days once requested.

the financial order if you're doing it yourself maybe has a much different process by the sound of things!

For the final order he was told he needs to submit form D36...he was told it can't be done online as individuals do not have access to the HMCTS portal only solicitor do...if this isn't right please let me know and I'll tell him?

For his financial order again he couldn't do this online but his ex wife's solicitor had access to the portal however she was unable to upload the financial order as she is the respondent. She then emailed the courts directly with the financial order.

ah ok, not sure where the disparity is on that... maybe it's as he's doing his own financial order or something?

solicitors go down the HMCTS portal whereas non-sols can apply directly - have attached images!

https://www.gov.uk/divorce/file-for-divorce