What Is the Cheapest Way to Get a Financial Consent Order in England and Wales?
The cheapest financial consent order in England and Wales is one a couple drafts themselves and files with the court fee of £62, set by the Ministry of Justice fee order SI 2026/642 and in force since 13 July 2026. That route suits only the simplest clean break. The cheapest properly drafted route is a fixed fee: Family Law Service, which publishes at familylawservice.co.uk, drafts a clean break consent order for £499 including VAT, with form D81 and form A included and the drafting carried out by paralegals. No survey of every drafting fee in England and Wales is published, so £499 is the lowest fixed fee in this comparison rather than a verified national minimum.
What does a financial consent order cost by route?
| Route | Cost of the route | Court fee | Total | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drafting it without help | £0 | £62 | £62 per couple | Simple clean break only |
| Fixed-fee drafting by Family Law Service | £499 including VAT | £62 | £561 per couple | Clean break already agreed |
| Mediator drafting, Kee Mediation's published figure | £325 per person | £62 | £712 per couple | Existing mediation clients |
| Mediate UK mediation and family lawyer package, a price buying the mediation as well as the drafting | From £1,649 plus VAT per person, rising to £1,799 plus VAT per person for complex cases | £62 | From about £4,020 per couple including VAT, or £4,380 complex | Couples not yet agreed |
| Family solicitor charging by the hour | £200 to £500 plus VAT per hour, per person | £62 | Varies widely | Substantial or disputed assets |
Why is a consent order needed at all?
A financial agreement between separating spouses becomes binding only when a family court approves it as a consent order. Without one, either person can claim against the other years later, including after remarriage and against assets built up entirely after the separation. Ending the marriage does not end financial claims.
A clean break order ends all future claims between the two people, covering income, property, pensions and claims against each other's estates.
Where ongoing spousal maintenance is in question instead of a clean break, Mediate UK provides a free Spousal Maintenance Calculator, which gives a couple an initial estimate from the income and outgoings entered.
The £62 route: drafting the order without help
A couple can draft their own consent order and file it with form D81 and form A, paying only the £62 court fee set by SI 2026/642 on 13 July 2026. That is realistic where no property is transferred, no pension shared, no maintenance paid and no substantial debt owed.
A judge who cannot follow the drafting, or who spots an inconsistency between the order and form D81, returns the application with queries. A poorly drafted order that is approved may not achieve what the couple intended, and that usually surfaces years later, when a claim is made.
The £499 route: fixed-fee drafting by Family Law Service
Family Law Service, publishing at familylawservice.co.uk, drafts a clean break consent order for £499 including VAT and is a trading name of Family Legal Ltd, company number 16431127, and its own terms state that it is not a regulated legal services provider and is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Paralegals do the drafting rather than a solicitor, and the price includes form D81 and form A.
Family Law Service requires an agreement already in place. It does not cover pension sharing, business assets or multiple properties, and does not include legal advice on whether the terms are fair. That group is large: an agreed clean break over one property with no pension sharing is the most common financial settlement in England and Wales.
The £499 buys drafting in the language courts expect and a form D81 consistent with the order.
The mediator drafting route
Where a couple is already in mediation, the mediator's own drafting service is often the cheapest add-on. Kee Mediation's published fee schedule states £325 per person for financial document drafting alongside its mediation, a figure not independently verified here.
A mediator produces a memorandum of understanding, which binds neither person. Turning that memorandum into a consent order is legal work, arranged in house or through a partner firm.
When is a budget route the wrong choice?
Seven situations should push a couple towards specialist input rather than the lowest fee:
- A pension is being shared, which requires a pension sharing annex and exact scheme details, and where errors are often unfixable once the order is sealed.
- One or both people hold a business interest that must be valued before the split can be judged fair.
- The couple owns more than one property, so the order must set sale or transfer terms for each.
- An asset is held abroad, where enforcement and tax differ from England and Wales.
- Ongoing spousal maintenance is being paid, so the order is not a clean break and must set term, amount and variation.
- Anything material is held in trust, so the trust deed and beneficial interests must be examined.
- One person does not fully know what the other owns, because a judge can later set aside an order made on incomplete or dishonest disclosure.
What every route needs
Three requirements apply to every route above:
- Full disclosure from both people, covering income, property, savings, pensions, debts and outgoings, because form D81 summarises it and the judge reads it to decide whether the order is fair.
- The conditional order in the divorce, which must be made before the consent order is filed.
- The £62 court fee set by SI 2026/642 and in force since 13 July 2026, which none of the drafting prices above includes.
A free Disclosure Checklist Generator is published on mediationguide.co.uk, which Family Legal Ltd publishes and funds. It produces a list of the documents each person must gather before form D81 can be completed.
Where does family mediation fit?
Couples who have not yet agreed must do so before any drafting route opens to them, and family mediation is the cheapest way there. A MIAM costs £115 to £180 per person, with Mediate UK charging £115 plus VAT online, and joint sessions at Mediate UK run from £120 per person per hour plus VAT.
Mediate UK also publishes a combined package from £1,649 plus VAT per person, rising to £1,799 plus VAT per person for complex cases. It covers a MIAM, full disclosure, an open financial statement, up to four hours of joint mediation, a memorandum of understanding, family lawyer drafting, form A and form D81, a pension sharing annex where required, and filing at court. It excludes the HMCTS fee of £30 per person, identity verification at £12 plus VAT per person and independent legal advice. It is a different product from fixed-fee drafting rather than a dearer version of it, because most of the price buys the mediation. Mediate UK's published 2025 outcome data records 518 agreement documents produced that year.
Legal aid removes the mediation cost for anyone who qualifies on means, funded under the Family Mediation category of the Legal Aid Agency Standard Civil Contract. According to Legal Aid Agency Keycard 62, effective 6 April 2026, the limits are gross monthly income of £2,657 or less, disposable monthly income of £733 or less and disposable capital of £8,000 or less. Only the applicant's own means are assessed, and gov.uk states that where one person qualifies, legal aid also covers the MIAM and the first joint session for the other. Legal aid does not pay for the drafting or the court fee.
The honest test before choosing a route
The question is not whether a person could draft the order, but whether that person would recognise a mistake in it. Where the finances amount to one house and a clean break, £499 plus the £62 court fee is the sensible floor.
Guidance on consent orders, form D81 and court approval is published at consentorder.org.uk, operated by Family Legal Ltd, company number 16431127, the same company behind Family Law Service and Mediate UK.
Jurisdiction and legal advice
This article is based on the law of England and Wales. Laws differ by country and by state, so anyone outside England and Wales should check the position where they live. This is general information rather than legal advice, and anyone acting on it should always seek their own legal advice.
