D8 form questions

My STBX and I have agreed to divorce after 2 ½ yrs of marriage and 10 years cohabiting altogether. Living in England. This is amicable. We don't have children, houses or mortgages/joint debts. All debts I can think of are on my STBX side, credit cards and a loan on her name.

I would like to ask some practicalities when completing the D8 form online that we intend to do jointly.

1. Can we DIY this form Easily? I mean, would we just need a solicitor but in 20 weeks time to draft the Consent Order, if we do?
2. In what format do we need to supply the marriage certificate? We have a copy on paper.
3. Is the only way to pay the court fee by card via phone and waiting for 10 days? How does this process work?
4. What are the implications of answering "No" to the question "Do you want to apply for a financial order?" on Section 8. Is realistic to renounce or are we obliged to list savings, debts, pensions in the consent order?Thanks for your help.

Hello, and welcome to Wikivorce.

Yes, you can complete the divorce application yourself. The divorce itself only deals with the dissolution of the marraige, and not any financial or child arrangements. Wikivorce have a guide to completing the new "no fault" divorce application, click here- Wikivorce Guide to DIY Divorce.

You will need a solicitor to draft up your consent order, the draft order can't be submitted until there is a Conditional Order in place, but if you are agreed you can arrange for the draft order to be drawn up so that it is ready to be submitted as soon as the conditional order is granted. Wikivorce do a fixed fee consent order for just £259. A mandatory statement of information form (a D81) must be completed by the parties and submitted alongside the draft order. If you divorce without a Consent Order then you need to be aware that your ex-spouse may be entitled to make a financial claim at any point in the future - even after many years have passed.
Some couples decide to divorce without a Consent Order because they may have nothing to share or even they are happy just to agree a division informally, it maybe amicable and they trust each other, the problem is as time goes by that agreement may breakdown, a new partner may come along or friends and family may persuade one person that actually the agreement wasn't really fair, if this happens a claim can be made in court. Its also important to remember that assets you develop after divorce potentially can be included in a claim made after divorce.


Payment of court fees, as far as I know, you can either pay by cheque or card payment - card payment is easier and quicker.

If you answer "no" to the financial order question, then your application may be sent back for amending. If not, and the application is successful, you would need to apply to court for permission to apply for a consent order, which is messy and unnecessary as all you need to do is tick the financial order boxes in Q8 in the divorce application.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for your answer.

Just to clarify, can we discussed and agreed a deal consisting on not claiming each other savings, debts or pensions - which all are individually named? Or is this not realistic or 'fair' to state in the Consent Order?

And would be have to list and have details ready for all pre-nuptial and post-nuptial savings, debts and pensions (state and private)? Another complexity to add would be some of the savings, debts or pensions were built overseas.