Consent order question

My wife and I are in the early stages of the divorce process. We are doing it ourselves, I will only be involving a solicitor to make up a Consent Order. We want to keep things civil between us, fighting will just draw out the process and skyrocket the costs.

Briefly, she has been cheating on me and is leaving to cohabit with the other guy. We have been married just under 2 years. No children. She does not contest the adultery.

We bought the marital home at the end of May using the help to buy scheme, so with a minimal deposit, so equity will pretty much be nil (the equity there is would mostly be eaten up by estate agency fees and mortgage early redemption charges). There is a credit card debt of 2k in my name, built up together. At the time the Nisi is issued I should have 12 grand or so in savings. We both work, she part time at the moment, making 7 grand a year, though she could go full time and double that. I work full time, wages of 46 grand last year. She hasn''t contributed to the purchase or bills of the marital home. No other assets worth mentioning.

She wants me to have the house and furnishings, she doesn''t want any financial compensation for this. She also doesn''t want to make a claim on my pension or other finances. I will pay the credit card debt. Her job situation might change as she is moving to the other side of the country to be with her new boyfriend, though she is probably just going to be transferring within the company she now works for.

Would this pass the scrutiny of a judge as being fair, keeping in mind she is the ''guilty'' party and is going to be cohabiting with the other guy?

Also, would it be possible to word the consent order that she passes full ownership of the marital home to me, but agrees to stay on the mortgage/deeds for up to 2 years, so she can be removed when our initial 2 year fix ends. This would save me fees and give me more time to arrange everything properly. I would include that I take in the costs of the mortgage repayments and any other costs relating to the house. The few example consent orders I have seen all mention transfer of equity and removal from mortgage within 28 days, so I want to know if doing this over a longer period is normal/possible. I have run through some lender calculators and taking over the mortgage should not be an issue on my wages alone. Luckily we didn''t stretch ourselves on the price of the house we bought.

Many thanks for your help.

I have a consent order and no mention in it includes the 28 days for transfer of mortgage. I am wondering why if there is no argument about money why you need a consent order. A full break divorce should kick any issues about saving and pensions into touch. My Order was set up to protect my interest in the property. The only fly I could see is if your ex decides she wants to buy within the next two years as a lender is unlikely to lend whilst on your mortgage. Apart from that it seems OK, I doubt a judge would see any issue with the content as described.

The general rule of thumb with a short marriage is that you take out what you put in. As far as the staying on the mortgage bit goes, well I guess that could go in if she agrees to it. You can indemnify her against payments.

If she doesn''t agree it may be better to bite the bullet and pay the charges rather than incur legal fees.

To make a consent order watertight you do need it to be drawn up by a solicitor. This is not something you can save money on. Wiki does a cost effective consent order managed by a solicitor.

Hadenoughnow

I am actually the one that wants a consent order, more to protect future assets than current ones. I pored the bulk of my savings into the new house and furnishing it. Also, I have a rather generous company pension, which I have been paying around £350 a month into for over 11 years now, so I want to protect that for my old age.

We basically just want a Clean Break, no chance of future disagreements/claims, hence the consent order. She goes her way, I go mine.

I''m not forcing anything on my wife, I''ll only move forward if there is mutual agreement on how things should be handled.

I have always been the one in the relationship that has paid the rent and bills. If my wife has contributed a few grand over the 7 years we''ve been together, I''m probably being generous. Her money has nearly exclusively been used to pay for things she has wanted for herself and her hobbies and, as I work abroad 3 months at a time, she has paid for her own food out of her wages in those periods when she''s had a job (she has been unemployed for around half the time we''ve been together, during which I paid for everything). In light of this, I think it''s only fair she does not make any claims on assets beyond her personal possessions.

The idea about keeping her on the mortgage/deeds is to arrange everything at once at the point the mortgage deal can be renewed. As most mortgage renewals include the cost of legal work, it will hopefully reduce the bill I have to pay. Also, the lender has told me if I want to take her off the mortgage at this point, I will have to be reassessed under the new MMR rules. This in itself isn''t a huge issue, it just takes more time than I want to invest into the process right now. I want to get the divorce done and my new life alone on track first, worry about sorting the mortgage later. I will only be home for around 6 or 7 weeks anyway when I get back from my current ''tour'' abroad (no, I''m not in the military, just seemed a fitting word to describe it as I work on merchant ships).

Another point is I might decide to sell up and move elsewhere. With my wife gone, I have nothing binding me to where I live and might consider moving elsewhere within the next 2 years to facilitate a possible career move. If I sell, it would mean no legal fees would be necessary to transfer equity etc., my wife would just have to sign off on the sale, which I am sure she won''t be difficult about.

My wife and her new boyfriend are looking to rent for now, so her remaining named on the mortgage for 22 more months shouldn''t have any effect on her life, I''m sure they''ll have other priorities over buying their own place to deal with first.

I plan on using Wikivorce for the consent order, it''s not something I want or even can do without legal advice.

Where you are today does not mean to say you will be in the same position in two years time she could hate you with a vengeance

A clean break is a clean break get it now finalised stamped so
It''s done over no two years dangling aound

Hence why I asked if it would be unheard of to add those clauses to the consent order. That way neither party could back out of the arrangements without making themselves liable for a civil suit. If it''s on paper and stamped by a judge, that might well be sufficient consent for the mortgage provider to remove her anyway...

You don''t mention your ages and some of the timings have changed in later posts.

You mention in one post that you were married two years and in another that you were together seven. Did you cohabit in this time?

If the total relationship was seven years rather than two and you earn £46k to her £7k the outcomes may change a little from the original idea of you both going your own ways.

You say you have substantial pension savings and £12k in liquid savings. It might be worth posting more details of the assets you both have and your ages for someone to give a more detailed response.

Who was to blame for the relationship breakdown or who contributed what during it don''t come into the equation.