Financial Agreement before Divorce and Ancilliary

Hi, My stbx and I have been seperated now for about 6 months, I am have applied for access to our daughter and this is still ongoing. The question I had was this, my stbx has stated a number of times that she does not want any financial help from me and that she is not interested in my house either. I have no issues paying for our daughters maintenance but wanted to know if there was a way that I could get a legal document stating that my stbx does not have any interest in my property and maintenance for herself, now and in the future. My stbx said that they would happily sign this as they did not wish to pursue matters through the court and that I could bring witnesses to sign the document also and she would agree everything in the presence of those witnesses. Would this document be legally binding once divorce proceedings start (only ben seperated about 6 months so a while to go before this occurs) , or would they still be entitled to claim ancilliary relief even after signing the document once the proceedings start? I am confused by the offer thats been made and don't know wether I should accept whats being said only to find out later that I would still have to go through the ancilliary relief process. Please help, and if there is such a document available on this sight then could someone direct me to it!! Thanks

The only way to have a watertight legally binding document is to have it sealed by the courts, if the judge feels that the agreement is unfair on either party he may ask you both to attend court to satisfy himself that you both understand the agreement you are entering into.

Thanks for the response, are there any particular forms that need to be completed to get this done. she said that she will say the same in court that she wants nothing apart from child support, I have no isses paying a reasonable amount to her but as some will already know a reasonable amount to a judge or court can be well quite unfair.

You need a Consent Order to end financial claims on one another and form D81 a snap shop of finances, both go to court to be sealed, if your wife asks nothing but child maintenance and there are marital assets a judge will question the agreement (consent order) and probably refuse to seal it making it worthless, the judge has a duty to make sure you both leave the marriage with an equitable share of assets, the priority being the needs of any children under 18.

Dukey

Thanks. thats very helpful. so making an agreement where she agrees to no financial recourse or need is pointless as the court will likely over rule anyway, so may aswell wait for ancilliary proceedings from her side then.

Not quite but any agreement you both make needs to be fair to both of you or the judge will question it.

The easiest way to do this is to talk to a mediator who will take all your details and help you both reach an acceptable agreement, its far cheaper than AR and takes much less time.

Court based AR should be seen as a last resort because of cost and time.

Dukey

Thanks for the replies, I thought it would be too good to be true and not that simple as she made out it was.I'll ask for mediation