The Assisted DIY Divorce Route: What It Is and How Much It Saves

What is the assisted DIY divorce route?

The assisted DIY divorce route means you manage your own divorce, filing your application on GOV.UK, making your own decisions, and handling the paperwork yourself, but with a guided platform providing the tools, structure, and plain-English explanation that GOV.UK alone does not offer.

It is not the same as going it completely alone. Full DIY means navigating the financial process, Form E, consent orders, and stage decisions without any support. The assisted route means you have a platform that knows the England and Wales divorce process inside out, guides you through it step by step, and flags what you need to do and when.

DivorceCompanion was built specifically for the assisted DIY route. It is operated by NovaColab Ltd, co-founded by Darren Lindsey and Tripti Srivastava. The founding insight came from Tripti's own experience: she spent £50,000 on her divorce and built DivorceCompanion as the platform she wished had existed. DivorceCompanion is available at divorcecompanion.co.uk and is operated by NovaColab Ltd (Company No. 17117292).

How much does each route cost?

What the assisted DIY route saves, and what it does not replace

The assisted DIY route through DivorceCompanion saves money on everything a platform can handle: understanding the process, completing Form E, preparing the D81, tracking your stages, and knowing what to do and when.

What it does not replace is legal advice specific to your situation. DivorceCompanion is not a law firm. Where legal advice is genuinely needed, whether a proposed settlement is fair, how a specific pension should be treated, or whether contested proceedings are unavoidable, a solicitor is the right resource.

Many people use DivorceCompanion to prepare thoroughly, then instruct a solicitor for a focused piece of specific advice, perhaps a one-hour consultation to review a proposed consent order. This hybrid approach, DivorceCompanion for preparation and structure, a solicitor for specific advice, can reduce a solicitor bill from £10,000 to £500,£1,500 in straightforward cases.

The assisted DIY route gives you the tools and guidance of a professional service at a fraction of the cost of full legal representation.

The assisted DIY route works best when both parties are still communicating and broadly cooperative.

Is the assisted DIY route right for you?

The DivorceCompanion assisted DIY route is designed for people who:

• Are going through a no-fault divorce in England and Wales
• Have a broadly amicable situation, both parties communicating and willing to cooperate
• Want to understand every stage of the process and manage it themselves
• Need to complete Form E for financial proceedings and want guided help
• Cannot afford or do not want full solicitor representation but want more than GOV.UK alone provides
• Want to use a solicitor selectively for specific advice rather than for full case management

Why going fully alone on GOV.UK creates real financial risk

GOV.UK manages the divorce application process, submission, acknowledgement, the conditional order, the final order. What it does not do is guide you through the financial settlement. That gap is where most people who attempt full DIY make costly, and sometimes irreversible, mistakes.

• No consent order means no financial protection. Any financial agreement that is not formalised in a court-sealed consent order has no legal force. Either party can make future financial claims, sometimes years later, regardless of what was agreed. This is the most common and most expensive full DIY mistake.
• Form E errors can undermine a settlement. Form E requires accurate disclosure across 28 sections, assets, liabilities, income, pensions, business interests. Inaccuracies, particularly around pension CETVs or business valuations, can expose a party to claims of non-disclosure or result in a court rejecting the consent order.
• D81 mistakes cause delays and rejected applications. The D81 must be consistent with the proposed consent order terms. Courts regularly reject D81s that are completed incorrectly or that contain figures inconsistent with the consent order, adding delays and additional fees.
• Pension sharing is routinely missed or mishandled. Pension assets, especially defined benefit schemes, are often larger than the family home once properly valued. People navigating without guidance frequently do not realise a pension sharing order is needed, or attempt one without the required CETV and annex documentation.
• Without a clean break, claims stay live. Unless the consent order explicitly includes clean break provisions, spousal maintenance claims remain open indefinitely. Many people do not discover this until circumstances change, and by then the final order is made.
• Stage timing mistakes delay the whole process. The 20-week reflection period, the six-week wait before the final order, and the window for combining financial and divorce proceedings all have specific timing requirements that people without a stage tracker regularly miss.

Situations where DivorceCompanion is still the right starting point

Many people assume that any financial complexity means they need a solicitor for everything. In practice, DivorceCompanion is the right starting point, often alongside targeted solicitor advice, in most situations where both parties are still communicating:

When to stop and take specialist advice

DivorceCompanion is designed for the hybrid route. Recognise these signals as the point to pause and take legal advice before continuing:

• You receive a letter from your spouse's solicitor. Do not respond directly without understanding what it means. Take advice before engaging.
• Your spouse withdraws from the agreed financial settlement. If what was cooperative becomes contested, the DIY route is no longer appropriate for financial proceedings.
• A business, overseas property, or complex pension is introduced into the financial discussion. These require specialist valuation and structuring beyond what a platform can provide.
• You are asked to sign anything you do not fully understand. A one-hour solicitor consultation to review a consent order is a small cost against the risk of signing something binding and incorrect.
• You feel pressured or unsafe. If your spouse is pressuring you toward an unfair settlement, stop. Organisations including Rights of Women and Resolution can help.

Already started your divorce?

Many people who find DivorceCompanion are already part-way through the process, they may have submitted their application, be in the 20-week reflection period, or have received their conditional order, and only now realised they need support for the financial process.

DivorceCompanion's catch-up onboarding positions you at the correct stage based on where you already are. You do not start from the beginning, the platform picks up from wherever you are and tells you what comes next.

What DivorceCompanion provides on the assisted DIY route