Form D81 & Consent Order

Hi there,

Having reached an agreement, we are about to file a draft Consent Order and Form D81 with the court. I have a couple of quick questions, if someone would be so kind as to assist:

(I have attached a blank D81 to this post for reference)

1. On page 2 of the D81 form, section 7 (Capital) asks you to list your financials. My question is, does one answer this based on the agreement reached, or should this be pre-agreement? (i.e. if I have £10,000 in savings in my name, but we have agreed to split 50/50 ...should I put £10,000 in my (respondent) column, or £5,000 in each column for applicant and respondent ...and so on)?

2. Same question for income (page 2, section 8); if (as per the agreement reached) the applicant "will" be receiving maintenance, benefits etc - should this be put here, or not?

3. Should the covering letter provide any rationale for the agreement reached, or should it just be a non-descript covering letter, inviting the judge to convert the draft consent order into an order of the court?

4. Is there a court fee for this (i.e. for the applicant's application for a financial remedy order)? If so, would you know what the fee is?

5. Once the draft order/D81 is signed and gone to the court, can we begin to execute the order even before it is approved/stamped by a judge? (we are keen to start moving forward, sell our house, buy two new ones and so on) ...or do we have to wait? (I hear this could take several months to get the order approved)

Many thanks in advance.

I do not know I am afraid. However I have a salutary lesson regarding D81s. My partner's was written when she was unrepresented. An innocuous looking clause was put into section 9 by the opposition solicitors which 9 years later has had catastrophic results. So my point in writing is to make sure you get legal advice on the content. Best of luck