Draft Consent Order

Hi, I'm new here.

Been married 3 years, wife has decided she doesn't want to be part of married/family life anymore and moved out last august after a long period of taking no interest in the marriage. We are now going through an amicable divorce process and the forms have been submitted with me as the petitioner and her the respondent on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour to which she is happy to consent.

We are now looking at drafting a consent order and she is happy to split everything as we are now with no claims over anything from either party. The house was in my name before we met and remains in my name now plus our son stays here on average 5/7 nights per week. She hadn't earned a salary in the 7 years we were together as I supported her through her studying A levels followed by training to be a nurse and then changing her mind to become a midwife. One month after getting her first salary, after 7 years without, she moved out without even telling me.

I'm happy to go for a financial clean break and she has already said she doesn't want anything more from me, including any part of the house. We are happy for no maintenance payments to be made either way. Everything is amicable between us and we don't want to fall out over the legal process of separating.

I've been reading around the internet about clean break orders and the suggestion is that the court will not accept one if it is deemed unfair to either party. ­base­d on the information contained in a consent order it could be considered unfair on my wife because I keep the house with its equity while she gets only her belongings including car, a share of furniture etc that she already has.

However, the consent does not take in to account the fact that I supported her for that length of time in the interests of having two salaries and setting ourselves up for life. It also doesn't take in to account the fact that the equity in the house is now less than it was when we met because we borrowed to do the house up and borrowed to get married, money that I'll be paying for for the next 16/17 years on my mortgage.

She's happy to agree to a clean break and we're staying friends but we don't want the court to intervene and try and block the order thus causing us to fight over finances. Is there anyway to word a consent to take in to account these issues or to make it clear to the courts that we are both absolutely clear that we agree on the arrangements being made?

Thanks.

Hi DG,

How about if in the letter to the court you both confirm you have had the benefit of legal advice. The court will be less likely to interfere then - always assuming you both HAVE had the benefit of legal advice.

YA