No-Fault Divorce and Your Financial Settlement: What People Get Wrong

Why the confusion exists

The GOV.UK divorce portal is streamlined and intuitive. You apply, wait 20 weeks, apply for the conditional order, wait six weeks, apply for the final order. Done. The marriage is over.

But the portal handles only the legal dissolution of the marriage. The financial settlement, who keeps the house, how pensions are divided, who takes on which debts, whether either party receives maintenance, is a completely separate process with separate forms, separate timelines, and separate court involvement. GOV.UK does not prompt you to start it. It does not tell you it exists as a separate process. For many people going through divorce without legal advice, this gap is genuinely unknown until it is too late.

What "too late" actually looks like

The consequences of not obtaining a financial order range from inconvenient to catastrophic:

• A former spouse who remarries can still make financial claims against their ex, unless a clean break order is in place
• A former spouse who later inherits a large sum, wins the lottery, or builds a successful business can be subject to a financial claim from an ex-partner years later
• Property transferred informally between parties, without a court order, may not be legally effective
• Pension sharing can only be achieved by court order, an informal agreement to divide a pension has no legal effect whatsoever
• A verbal or written agreement between the parties about who gets what is not enforceable without court approval

Property transfers, pension divisions, and financial agreements all require a sealed court order to be legally binding.

The two financial routes

Once you understand that the finances are separate, the next question is which financial process applies to you. There are two main routes:

The consent order route

If you and your spouse have agreed how to divide your assets, who keeps the house, how pensions are split, whether any maintenance is payable, you need a consent order. This is a legal document drafted in the correct court wording that records your agreement and is submitted to a judge for approval. Once sealed, it is legally binding on both parties.

The consent order must be drafted correctly, courts regularly reject self-drafted orders that do not use the required wording. Alongside it, you submit a D81 (Statement of Information) giving the court a summary of both parties' finances so the judge can check the agreement is broadly fair.

The financial remedy proceedings route

If finances are contested, you issue a Form A application to start financial remedy proceedings. Both parties then complete Form E, the detailed financial disclosure document, and attend a series of court hearings (FDA, FDR, and if necessary a final hearing) before a judge makes a financial order.

Does the removal of fault affect the financial settlement?

No, and this is an important misconception to clear up. The fact that divorce is now no-fault does not change how courts approach financial settlements. Fault, who caused the breakdown of the marriage, is not a factor courts consider when dividing assets. It was largely irrelevant to finances even under the old law, and it remains so now.

Courts in England and Wales apply the factors set out in the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, including the length of the marriage, financial contributions of each party, future needs, childcare responsibilities, and standard of living. The no-fault reform did not change any of this.