Do I need a consent order if we agree?
Yes, if you want the agreement to mean anything. A divorce on its own leaves financial claims open indefinitely. Here's what a consent order is, what it costs, and what happens without one.
Short answer: yes. The divorce ends the marriage. It does not end the financial claims you each have against the other. Those stay open until a court order closes them, and a consent order is the way to do that when you agree.
How people end up divorced with nothing settled
The online divorce application never asks about money. You apply, wait twenty weeks, click for the conditional order, then the final order, and the marriage is over. Nothing in that process requires you to deal with the house, pensions or savings, and nothing warns you that claims stay open. So most couples split things informally and walk away thinking it's done.
The Nuffield Foundation's Fair Shares study in 2023 found only around a third of divorcees had any financial order, and a large share didn't know pensions could be shared at all.
What happens without one
The problem surfaces later: one of you inherits, builds a business, or wins big, and the other makes a claim. There is no time limit. The 2015 Supreme Court case of Wyatt v Vince allowed a claim nineteen years after the divorce.
Even without a dramatic claim, open finances cause friction. Remarriage, a new mortgage application, or a pension scheme asking whether a former spouse has rights all become harder when nothing was formally settled.
What a consent order is
A consent order is a document, in court wording, that records what you have agreed about money and property and asks a judge to make it binding. It covers the house, pensions, savings, debts, any lump sum, any maintenance, and usually a clean break clause ending all future claims.
It goes to the judge with a D81 statement of information: a summary of both your finances before and after the order. The judge reads both on paper, with no hearing, and checks the order looks fair against the numbers. Most are approved. Some come back with a question.
What it costs
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Court fee to file the consent order | £62 |
| Drafting and filing with Agreeable | £249 for both of you |
| Fixed-fee solicitor hour, if you want a review | £150 to £300 |
The court fee is the same whoever drafts it. The judge does not know or care who wrote the order.
When you can file it
Not before the conditional order is granted. You ask for that yourself at the end of the 20 week wait (which runs from the day the court issues your application), and it typically arrives 2 to 6 weeks after you ask. You can have it drafted and signed well before then, so it is ready to file. See the dated timeline.
Do we need a solicitor to do it?
No. Drafting a consent order is not a reserved legal activity. What you need is someone who understands what a judge looks for, so the order is approved first time. A solicitor is worth paying for if either pension is large, if there is a business or overseas property, or if one of you has had much less to do with the money than the other.
See what this means for your numbers
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This guide is general information about the law and process in England and Wales. It is not legal advice and Agreeable is not a law firm. Figures are correct as of October 2026.