Implications of accepting Final Order before applying for Consent / Clean Break

TL;Dr; Joint application. England. My STBX applied for a final order today before sorting out the Consent Order. Is it possible to get a financial Clean Break order before finalising the divorce?

I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction. A little bit of context. We started with a joint application. England. My STBX and I agreed a financial settlement back in January and a legal service was hired to write a Draft Consent Order. The document was produced and was sent to me a couple of months ago, I revised the D81 and the Draft Consent Order and I signed and send the documents back to them. My STBX said she has not yet received these documents - the legal service stated they sent them twice by email, anyway my STBX is not engaging in the process. To sum up we have not yet applied for the Consent Order.

The final order email from court was sent today. My understanding is that we had 12 months to apply from today for a final order. (www.gov.uk/government/publications/myhmc...or-joint-application).

As I have read, the normal process is having a consent order / clean break approved before asking for a final order.

Quoting today's email.

If you have not yet finished any negotiations or legal proceedings about your money, property or other assets then you should seek legal advice before finalising your divorce.

And quoting www.gov.uk/divorce/finalise-your-divorce

If you want a legally binding arrangement for dividing money and property you must apply to the court for this before you apply for a final order or Decree Absolute.

The situation is that my STBX applied straightaway for a final order today. As it is established, I now have 14 days to respond. If not she will be asked to switch to a sole application. At this point it looks like the final order is submitted and automatically reviewed in 2 working days.

The other applicant will now become a respondent. Both you and the respondent will receive a notification confirming that the final order has been submitted.

The application will be reviewed by the legal advisor. If they grant the order, you and the respondent will receive another confirmation within 2 working days.

The marriage will then be legally ended.

Am I understanding the full process correctly?

1. Is there a way to do at this stage the Consent Order process first?
2. If not, is there an advantage by delaying on my side the final order process?
3. What are the implications of accepting a Final Order before the Consent / Clean Break is approved?
4. And more importantly, is there a way to get my STBX to engage in the process of completing the Consent Order?

A final order can be granted after 12 months. The deadline is not absolute. If you do apply our of time, you would need to state that you have not lived together as man and wife since conditional order and there are no (further) children of the marriage. You also need to explain the reason for the delay.

If neither party has a substantial pension, there are no home rights notices in place and maintenance pending suit is not a likelihood then a final order can go ahead without financial settlement. If any of these apply, an application can be made to delay final order.

If your ex is not responding and claims not to have received documents, you need to make sure they have been served on her rather than just emailed. This may be via recorded delivery that she's signed for but if necessary you may need a process server.

If she's had the documents but won't sign, you need to check if she's changed her mind. Have you had legal advice that the proposed order is fair and likely to be approved by a judge?? Has there been full financial disclosure?

If you are sure it is fair you could apply for a Notice to show cause. If there's any dispute, you may need to revisit the settlement via mediation and possibly an application to court if things cannot be resolved.

In the first instance you need to find out if she no longer agrees with the proposed settlement. Without agreement you cannot have a consent order.

Hadenoughnow

If neither party has a substantial pension, there are no home rights notices in place and maintenance pending suit is not a likelihood then a final order can go ahead without financial settlement. If any of these apply, an application can be made to delay final order.

Thank you for the detailed answer.

We do not meet any of this criteria. As she already applied for the final order and the 14 days are counting, would it be wise for me to apply on my side, and deal with the consent order afterwards? It is a joint application.

If your ex is not responding and claims not to have received documents, you need to make sure they have been served on her rather than just emailed. This may be via recorded delivery that she's signed for but if necessary you may need a process server.

She claims not to have received the drafted consent order ,documents which they are supposed to be sent via email. I will see if I can arrange recorded delivery/process server from the legal service to hers.