Consent order before divorce proceedings issued?

Hi there

I went to buy Consent Order forms online but it seems to imply that you need to have commenced divorce proceedings first - is that correct? I don't want to divorce stbx due to unreasonable behaviour because since I left him things have been unexpectedly amicable between us and I'd like to keep it that way, but I don't want to wait for a 2 year separation either.

Any advice gratefully received

Yes in order to apply for Ancillary Relief and complete a consent order you need a Decree Nisi. The eaarliest you can apply for any financial order is when there is a Petition at which point a maintenance pending suite application can be made (probably not applicable in your case)
If you both agree to divorce either one can petition the other for Unreasonable behaviour - you can agree the reasons between you before applying, if you do that you may be better doing an online divorce as well.

Many thanks for your reply. We had been booked in to see a solicitor tomorrow but they cancelled at the last minute saying I had to get my own sols due to conflict of interest, however we can't afford them running up the legal bills between them.

Neither me or stbx are bothered about getting divorced quickly but stbx's mum is putting up the cash to buy me out so she wants something put in place legally. Why oh why did I ever get married

Thanks again for the advice.

Why don't you both go to mediation--it's much cheaper and if it's amicable, you should be able to reach terms of agreement without involving solicitors and have something in writing.
Be cautious though, because it's really advisable to then go to separate solicitors to have a formal Separation Agreement drawn up because the agreement won't be binding on you both unless it's formally drawn up, based on full disclosure of both your finances (which the mediator will do) AND you've both had independent legal advice.
Even then a separation agreement isn't quite as watertight as a Consent Order in divorce proceedings but it's much better to try and get the finances sorted when you first separate rather than waiting a few years down the line when either or both your circumstances might have changed massively and it's much more difficult to decide what's then fair.