What counts as 2yr Seperation?

I am the friend of someone seeking a divorce. The whole thing is confusing the hell out of both of us. We have sought legal advice and come to the conclusion that he can only file for divorce on grounds of seperation. However the solicitor is so useless that we have given up trying to get help from him. The situatuion as it stands is that my friend (the husband) is currently living in the house with his wife and their 2 children. However they have been mutualy seperated and living in seprate rooms since last Feb. Our concern now is that he will have no grounds to file as he is living under the same residential address as he cannot afford to move out as the house and morgage is in soley his name and she refuses to work. So we are wondering what acctually constitutes the 2 year seperation? Do they need to be living seperatly or what? HELP PLEASE!!!!!

aanalore,
You can be sharing the same address, but living separately. Sadly many couples have to endure this, as their family budget simply doesn't stretch to two homes.

If they are living separate lives - Not sharing a bed, not cooking together, not doing each other's laundry etc then they are separated.

I take it that your friend's wife does not want a divorce? He could petition her right now on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour. The reasons need not be too severe - do a search on the site. However, if she really doesn't want to divorce, she could contest the divorce and it could be very expensive and messy.

Hope it helps,

Mike

Seperation means that they are not living as man and wife. So seperation is what they say it is. Many people "back date" there seperation by mutual consent. If your friend petitions on the grounds of 2 years (with consent of course) and the other party agrees then thats that. He will get his divorce on 2 years sep with consent. The courts are not that interested realy. If both of them say the marriage is over then no court in the land will deny them provided the petition is duly signed and returned without being contested.

Chris.

Thats good help. He has beeen the source of adulery in the relationship so is there anyway he can use that to file against her? As she will not file under adultery. Also how do you prove you have been living seperatly? She refuses to work he is left with the responsibility of all the bills so does that mean technacly they are not seperated?

You cant purjor yourself. You cant petition on the grounds of your own wrongdoing. If she wont accept 2 years sep then he will have to look at ways of UB. You dont have to prove anything in divorce. Its all no blame in the UK. But the other party can contest and as others will say thats when it gets complicated and expensive. But your friend will get his divorce. It will just be harder. Chris.

Separation With consent 2 year rule:-

Both parties have to agree to the divorce, the H could claim that he has lived an entirely separate life to his W and needs to confirm that they have not slept, eaten, cooked or washed together for a period of 2 years or more

However the option does not apply as you say the W will not consent to a divorce

Adultery:-

The petitioner, that is the person applying for the divorce cannot use their own adultery as grounds for divorce

Again this option does not apply as it is the H who is seeking it and he committed the adultery

Unreasonable behavior:-

There is no time limit on this ground, the courts will accept almost anything as unreasonable that a petitioner finds intolerable to continue to live with and needs only to provide some examples of this behavior

This appears to be H's only option, in filing it is highly unlikely that the W would succeed in defending it, keep the allegations 'mild' and the divorce should sail through

Unless your friend is exempted from court fees, the costs of filing oneself are £300.00 for the petition and £40.00 for the absolute

A solicitor will typically add £500.00 to that for their costs, if using one

If the W contested/defended the divorce the likely costs can increase to about £2000, the divorce would still most likely go through and the defending party would find themselves having to pay the costs

In reality there is only one ground for divorce and that is "irretrievable breakdown", the causes for it are known as facts and Judges are only really interested that if one party has decided the marriage has irretrievable breakdown then in all probability it has

All the advice above is excellent, but just to point out it only applies in England & Wales. If by chance your friend lives in Scotland he can divorce after two years separation without consent.