Timeline

[brownbeauty80]

How long goes a divorce take to complete?
I understand every divorce is different

Divorce can be done in z6 months in engLand

financial consent order can take years if you are not in agreement and it’s usually advised not to finalise divorce until you have the finances done

For me...two years in October. Still living together, me still in the spare room. Wasted 18 months on mediating which achieved nothing, just allowed him to drag his heels. No sign of an end yet.
The system is a joke, feels very very unfair and exceptionally difficult.

@Baffers100
How is ur situation now?

Hi, min is now 26

mine took 4 months in 2021 before law change when I petionened under “unreasonable behaviour “. But that was unusually quick and I suspect it was because I’d used word “safeguarding issues” in petition😱

being a long time lurker on this board, and listening to friends and family horror stories, how long it takes is down to a number of factors

1. if you rely totally on solicitor to drive it and do all work. A solicitor will be handling multiple cases simultaneously . They’ll only pick up stuff and do stuff at a prompt. You as individuals can take control of the process and drive it harder and faster
2. How much work you do yourselves. You don’t actually need a solicitor for a lot of stuff. Much quicker to do it yourselves . Use solicitors for specific task you specifically instruct them for,
3. how much you can agree and work cooperatively together on. If you both agree you want this over quick, can park your anger/resentment for greater good of ending marriage quickly and more cheaply, youll be able to drive it yourselves more quickly . Divorce process is about compromise . You’ll both come out poorer and worse off. That’s the point of marriage. If you both can accept this and agree to just get it over then it’ll be quicker
4. how much you trust each other - if one of you is not going to actively and freely do your legal fancial disclosure and is trying to hide assets, then inevitably you’ll have to get solicitors involved and all the factors in 1 And 2 come into play
5. the complexity of your situation: where children are involved it can be longer as this is additional process, and can be complicated if you can’t agree. It can also be more complex to get financial agreement where there are business assets involved. But agian how long these take is more dependant on factors 1-4 anyway,
6. avoiding court action to make your decisions. In other words still down to number 4. But if you can’t agree your own fiancial split and get a consent order drafted yourselves, you will have to go to mediation before a court will take on decision making. All that takes months. So, as point 4 - try everything to sort it between you. Compromise.

At times there have been backlogs at courts. Not seeing many posts lately on thst, and it hasn’t impacted all courts. You can minimise this by ensuring you do everything on line including submitting your draft financial agreement (consent order as it’s called) which a solicitor might need to do (not sure if new update to do to r site allows petitioners to do this themselves now- wasn’t possible 3 years ago and postal consent order got lost. Also ensure if going consent order route, you BOTH take minimum solicitor advice at very least to show court you’ve both had legal advice. It is not rare that courts can reject even consent orders if they feel one person is not having fair settlement and haven’t had legal advice. See numerous posts on this board for examples.

my best advice for quick divorce is from the ADVICE NOW guides - the link to them is sitting above your post in the header.

read them. Read them agian. Get STBEX to read as well.

So...27 months after applying, I am officially divorced!

We started mediating and he just dragged his feet with that whole process. I think I lost at least a year in that process. When he received a solicitors letter it was a real rocket up his bum. Mind you, his mummy had to come to the rescue and fill in the forms and deal with the solicitors because he is still a man child.

In October, we started negotiating a financial settlement. Neither him or me wanted me in the house for the third pretend happy family Christmas. I knew the financial order should be granted by March, so beginning of December I took a punt and moved in to a nice rental house round the corner from the "family" home. Financed agreed and FO sorted and approved by court before Christmas. Settlement due in January.

Really lucky with the timing because the rental properties now available are either unaffordable at one end of the scale or a total dive at the other.

My friend is divorcing, and already talking about getting the house on the market this month, only 8 weeks or so after telling her STBXH the news. I wish I had the same experience, and didn't have the legal costs I have, but tbf with the ex not engaging I think it had to be done the way I've done it. Had I not involved a solicitor I'd probably still be there now.

1. if you rely totally on solicitor to drive it and do all work. A solicitor will be handling multiple cases simultaneously . They’ll only pick up stuff and do stuff at a prompt. You as individuals can take control of the process and drive it harder and faster

Are you able to elaborate on this further Dartwarbler? I'm pretty proactive but my husband can't be trusted. I've gathered a lot of the financial information required so know where money has been invested but there could still be something hidden (though unlikely). I need a solicitor to ensure I am getting the best deal but not necessarily to oversee the whole thing. More advice if you are able to offer it please.

In my experience a solicitor will make it quicker.

Letters from a lawyer requesting a response within 14 days forced my ex husband to engage with the process and sent a major rocket up his arse. Yes your solicitor will have multiple cases, but mine was charging me £30 for every email I sent them, and £500 for a hour long phone call- trust me, they're working for you!

Without my solicitor, I'd still be in the spare room sleeping on an air bed.