Divorce legal costs

[Alea34]

I am thinking about divorce and I am preparing for a very stubborn, non-cooperative stbexh. I will need probably to go through all legal procedures to get myself out, including a court order for selling the house, or splitting the assets. Anyone knows how much money do I need before acting, and if any of the divorce costs are supported by the non-cooperative part?

It’s hard to guess really, but plan for it being a lot. Even just a court order to force the house sale could cost £2-5k and if you’re going to have go to through it all legally and using a solicitor a good one could cost you £350 an hour. Some of them though will allow you to just pay a deposit /retainer amount and then will take the rest of the payment from the divorce settlement once it is all sorted.

Also general rule is that each party in a divorce pays their own costs, so for example the house sale court order is “your” cost, if you are the one who files then you would also be the one paying that fee, any of your solicitors costs are your fees. His solicitor is his cost.

Average costs to final hearing for a financial remedy case would be around £20k. As posted above some firms would take their costs at the end of the case but may charge more for that.

Thanks

My solicitor is expensive ( she became a partner after I first found her and before I started the legal process) it's so expensive. If you can come to some sort of agreement with your husband before you start, that really helps. Some solicitors will offer an external credit source ( ours is am ex). You can get divorce loans but they are as expensive as bridging loans. I need assets sold before I can continue to pay my solicitor. Apparently, you can't afford not to have legal representation if your spouse is going to be difficult. I initially had my solicitor give me as hoc advice and I did the paperwork for the first stages of the divorce so I could save money but now we have got to the offer / counter offer stage, I have instructed her to do the work. All the best.

I think I was lucky, mine cost 750, then another 650 for financial with the coop.

House split 50/50, no pensions taken into account.

I told him to just agree and he did

It can be very expensive; I'm supporting a friend through her divorce from a mentally abusive and very devious individual. He's a millionaire who encouraged her to give up her employment at the start of the marriage, saying he would take care of her - and stupidly she did. After 20 years she has nothing in her own name and he continues to make sure she runs up legal costs as a result of his lies and unreasonable questions posed through their respective solicitors.

So far, she's incurred costs of over £70k, paid for by exhausting her meagre savings, loans from her elderly mother, and loans from friends. After the Christmas break she will be looking at a litigation loan. The divorce hasn't even reached the FDR stage.

Her barrister is confident she will eventually be awarded a seven-figure sum, but the stress of it all is making her her wonder if she should just cave in and stop fighting so she can just get on with her life - which, of course, is exactly what her STBX is hoping to achieve by his behaviour.

This is extreme, but with solicitors charging circa £300 per hour and starting the clock every time they undertake any work, the costs soon mount up.

In terms of solicitors' fees in general, it's worth noting some firms charge for their time in tranches; if they operate on a 15-minute tranche they will charge for the full 15 minutes even if a phone call only lasts for five minutes. (My friend's solicitor works on 6-minute tranches.)

If he's going to be uncooperative just represent yourself and go straight for a court hearing. The judge will be fair, your ex won't.

Or you can spend £20k and 3 years trying to get him to be reasonable and end up in court anyway.

If there is no abuse involved, have you considered counselling first to avoid divorce to begin with, maybe you can get to a happy place again?

Thx, to be fair every day I am thinking that I will be making a mistake if I leave and half the night I think I need to leave asap, and build a life on my terms. During the day I am alone, at night he is next to me.
We are not suited, and I stayed for the children. I will be giving it a year I think after the children are gone to make up my mind and get finances ready as well.

If I move out but still pay half of the mortgage, is my husband required to pay me rent? That will be during divorce, anyone knows?
I could rent a room in this case and not deal with the whole atmosphere in the same house…plus he’ll have to sell in this case.

There’s no hard and fast rule on this. The general position is that the person staying in the home takes over the mortgage in return for sole occupancy. However, if he can’t afford to pay the mortgage on his own, or refuses to do so, you have little choice but to continue paying your share as you’re jointly liable.

If you think he’ll obstruct selling the marital home then obtaining a court order for this should be among the first things you do.