Advice Please on Financial Consent Order After Divorce

[Allycat]

A bit of background, we separated on mutual terms 4 years ago and amicably made a financial agreement, which we had formalised into a Heads of Agreement (witnessed by his Solicitor).

Myself and xh have now been granted our Decree Absolute. However, this was granted by the court out of the blue (months after the Nisi) because we did not respond to the Nisi. (because of my Mother's death happening right at the same time).

Therefore, the consent order was not done and so is not logged with the court.

My xh's Solicitor (I represented myself) has written to me and has enclosed a Statement of Information for a Consent Order in Relation to a Financial Remedy (DIV32), a copy of our previously agreed Heads of Agreement which has been re-entitled with the court name etc and CONSENT ORDER and finally, a Notice of (intention to proceed with) an application for a financial order (DIV_A) which has "FOR DISMISSAL PURPOSES ONLY" highlighted underneath.

He has asked that I sign the DIV32 and DIV_A and return to him.

I am worried that if I sign the DIV_A, I am dismissing the financial consent order, or am I totally confused as to what this means?

Is there any areas of these forms that may be a cause for concern?

We have ticked away for so long quite happily, but my xh is now asking for me to respond to the solicitor and I'm curious as to why. Surely it's more in my interest to get things formalised. Another point to consider is that my partner has now moved in and so this triggers changes regarding a small element of spousal that he was paying me. Is it that these changes are only enforceable once the FCO is logged with the court?

Any advice is really appreciated

Thank you for your response, babybarrister.

The heads of agreement was quite ordinary. It included that I had bought him out of the house, we were to retain our own pensions and the maintenance payments that we had agreed.

Other than this, the have not been any other agreements that could be dismissed.

Is it definitely not the case that you would expect to see a dismissal with a first submission of a consent order? What would be the normal way of logging a consent order with the court following an absolute? To just send in the DIV32?

Is this something that I can do myself directly to the court?

Thanks again for any responses

Definitely not!

I just think it's so morally wrong that a Solicitor could hoodwink someone into signing it all away!

For the record, xh is not the kind that would instigate this - or so I thought

I've said to xh that I've arranged an appointment with my Solicitor and he didn't bat an eye. Even provided me with his latest P60 no questions asked.

Very strange me thinks. Thats why I keep asking if the dismissal is always sent as a way of dismissing the head of agreement, so that the consent order can come into play - although the wording is exactly the same on both documents.

It just doesn't make sense.

Yes I definitely will.

Thanks again for the advice!

Is he the petitioner?

Absolutely what @Familylawsolicitor said. There's a lot here that doesn't add up - the absolute doesn't just happen. It has to be applied for. Who was the petitioner?
Absolutely go and get legal advice on this.

Hi everybody.

Thanks for the replies.

So the dismissal is us saying that we don't need court intervention to agree the consent order?

Yes, he was the petitioner and is using a solicitor. We were granted the nisi in March 2016 and it said that a further application will need to be made for the absolute to be granted. My Mum then died on 31/03/16 and so he backed off to give me time to grieve.

It is possible that he applied, but denies it. I wasn't going to contest it anyway, but it would have been nice to know to expect it!

I did telephone the court, as having not seen an absolute before, I wanted to make sure that my understanding of what I had received was correct. I can't remember whether I asked the court how it had come about, but I did say that we hadn't logged the consent order and she advised that I should definitely do this.

Yes, cohabitation is a trigger point and I am expecting to lose the spousal element (it's under 10% of total maintenance, so not too scary). However, we have not recalculated the maintenance for four years, so Im hoping that this will balance out. He has provided his P60, so I should be able to work this out (although I think I need to deduct his pension contributions first, don't I?)

He is now in a relationship himself. This may be the motivation, although he is not trying to change the terms of the heads of agreement, just transfer it into a consent order.

Is he not able to reduce the spousal maintenance without the consent order being logged with the court? I thought the witnessed heads of agreement was more or less the same thing???

OP he is lying about not having applied, it's as simple as that. So I strongly suggest that you take proper legal advice.

Familylawsolicitor thank you so much for giving such a detailed and informative reply.

My original solicitor advised me that I may be entitled to more, but i didn't want to cause a rift in our ongoing relationship for the children's sake, so I accepted the CSA figure plus 10% spousal and I bought him out of the house (at a reduced rate as I let him keep his pension).

This way we were both able to move on without ongoing ties of a mesher sp? agreement etc.

I'm definitely going to see my solicitor, if just to ask her to cast her eye over the forms to make sure all is in order.

I'll also check the amount he is paying me in maintenance is correct.

Thanks again for your help.

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