Separation Agreement - is it legally binding?

Not legally binding no but much better than nothing, to make it final and binding you need a Consent Order which you can only have if you are divorcing and have the Decree Nisi.

Why is the value likely to be more than it was? Is it because your husband has made more contributions during the separation or are there are other reasons?

I don''t know if you can vary the original sep agreement to take account of the intervening months, but can tell you that CETV valuations are much lower than an acturial valuation. Thing is, the latter costs a fortune to do! Furthermore, police pensions, as with all servicemen and women, are one of the best to have. And if your ex only has 8 years to serve and with factors like your length of marriage and ages of your children and the usual sec 25 aspects, your own income et al, et al, this will be a very valuable asset indeed to pursue. Your orignal sep agreement is not legally binding as yet, but DJ may give some consideration to the fact it was agreed 18 months ago, so I don''t know if you can vary it or not.

Finally, he will have to get a CETV done for form E so any discrepancies in value may show up then assuming you had a CETV done 18 months ago. Don''t forget to add State pension and loss of widows benefit in divorcing when you do your Form E.

Hope this helps! Now can anyone help me? I am needing a FM1 - since am I right in thinking can''t even put a Petition in, without at least an attempt at mediation? Long story, all in my intro, but suffice to say, mediation will not work for us, due to his lies, deceit and domestic violence. I don''t qualify for FM1 to be signed off as unsuitable in any of the criteria, since been seperated much longer than last incident of DV re the time stipulated.

Looks like we both have to attend - will ask for seperate appointment times, so I don''t even have to see him in the car park.

I resent the need to even pay for something that will not work at all in our case ( he has already been disposing of assetts so I need to get going with this. Just wish I''d done it sooner.... will a divorce petition be rejected without a FM1? Be much safer ( physically for me - he has a temper) if we get this FM1 form AFTER I have done the Petition.

I am an Lp''ing all this, and even the cost of mediation to get the form is crippling me financially let alone the cost of the Petition. Anyone got any advice for me?

Love this site: newbie on here - so many kind people giving of their knowledge freely. Thanks

Ok so two issues here

The divorce is the first

The financial settlement the second

They are both separate

You only need an FM1 if you intend to ask court to help with the money side, you do not need one in order to make a divorce application.