What is a consent order in a divorce?

A consent order is an agreed court order.

In divorce proceedings it most often means a legally binding financial agreement.

This type of legally binding agreement is  actually a financial order that is made ‘by consent’. This means that you and your spouse consent to the terms.

When to apply for a consent order?

When you reach the final stage of your divorce, the court will ask whether you have a  financial agreement. You can send it to the court, to make it legally binding.

You do this by making an application for a consent order.

What goes into a consent order?

The order records how you will share your assets at the end of your marriage.

If you don’t have any assets to divide, it records this fact instead.

Clean break clauses state that neither of you will have the right to ask for more in the future. 

The financial responsibilities and rights each party to the marriage has to the other are brought to an organised end.

Agreements to sell and divide property in the future

It is still possible to have a clean break if you are keeping a property or other assets for a while after your divorce, perhaps until children are grown up.

You will need more details about your agreement in the order, such as when the property is to be sold and how the proceeds will be divided.

It is often much easier to agree these things whilst you are getting divorced, than have to start negotiating again further down the line, when the children are grown up.

The consent order will deal with issues such as the property going up in value and how to deal with mortgage payments etc.

This will enable you to move on financially and often reduces stress and arguments that happen when you don’t have a legally binding agreement.

Agreement to share a pension

An agreement to share or split a pension can only be implemented by a court order.

Pension sharing is where a pension is divided so that the pension provider transfers a specific percentage of a pension from one spouse to the other.

Summary

A consent order:

• records a financial agreement on divorce
• is legally binding
• is the only way to share a pension by agreement after divorce
• makes it clear that your agreement not to claim from each other is final and complete.