Hi,
I have been going through the joys of divorce for over 2 years now. My wife and I have completed our
form E''s, attended a 4-way meeting, and produced a draft
Consent Order. This was done a year ago!
Since then, changes have been made by my wife to the
Consent Order, she is now without legal representation and I continue to pay legal fees.
What I wish to know is, how legally binding is a draft
Consent Order? Neither party has signed and nothing has been submitted to Court. However, my solicitor states that I do have to follow, or at least show intent to, what has been written down. To that end, I currently fulfill the following: -
1. Placed the house on the market with the intent to sell. She will get circa 90% of the capital from the sale, so I have marketed the property for an inflated price. Thus why it hasn''t sold yet. I do intend to drop the price once she has signed the
Consent Order and we have degree Absolute.
2. Pay £500 a month in
child maintenance for my son; who lives in Scotland with his mum. My teenage daughter lives with me. My wife pays nothing towards her.
3. Pay £250 a month in spousal maintenance.
4. Paid £2,500 to assist with her removal costs.
5. Pay travel costs to facilitate both children visiting mum and dad. This includes flights to and from Inverness and meeting up in either Newcastle or Gretna. This is a 750 mile round trip for me.
My wife is putting pressure on me to sell the
marital home, as she claims to be missing out on certain benefits. Housing benefit, council tax rebate etc.
I believe that legally I do not need to sell, as I have to care for a daughter in full-time education.
I have offered my wife numerous financial options, such as a buy-out plan, but she continues to push for the max!
The logical option is to go to Court, but I am concerned about the potential costs and the fact that I may actually get a worse deal than I do now!!
Cheers,
Mark