Does a divorce include sorting out the house and finances?
A. In legal terms a divorce is purely the ending of a marriage. Any dispute about money or property is not part of a divorce case. Apart from interim maintenance, you have to obtain a Decree Nisi before the court will become involved in any dispute about matrimonial finances or property. Even then, the court does not do this automatically. One of the parties has to commence a separate case (called an ancillary case) by filing further papers at court and paying a fee. Ancillary cases take many months to go through the courts and are also very expensive. There are at least two, and sometime three court hearings, and this type of case costs several thousand pounds by the time you have included barristers fees, valuers fees and many other fees and costs. The best way to deal with matrimonial finances and property is to negotiate a settlement, and then ask the court to make an agreed final order. You don’t have to appear in court for this, and it is much, much cheaper than a separate court
