How Long Does a Consent Order Take in the UK?

Once you and your ex have agreed on how to split your finances, the natural next question is how long does a consent order take before it becomes legally binding. The honest answer is that there is no fixed timescale, because the order passes through several stages, and each one is influenced by different factors. This guide walks through the full timeline, from drafting to a sealed order arriving in the post, and explains exactly what causes delays and how to avoid them.

How long does a consent order take from start to finish?

For a straightforward clean break with one property and no pensions, the typical timeline from agreement to a sealed order is around 8 to 12 weeks. For more complex finances involving pension sharing, businesses, or multiple properties, it is more realistic to plan for 3 to 5 months.

The journey breaks into three distinct phases, and only one of them is in the court’s hands.

Phase	What happens	Typical timing
1. Drafting	Solicitor drafts the order and Form D81; both parties review and sign	1 to 3 weeks
2. Submission	Documents and court fee filed at the family court that issued your divorce	1 to 5 working days
3. Court approval	A district judge reviews the order, checks fairness, and seals it	4 to 10 weeks
Total	From signed agreement to sealed order in your hand	6 to 14 weeks

The drafting phase is the part you have most control over. Choose a service with strong turnaround times, get your financial information together in advance, and respond promptly to drafting queries, and this stage can be wrapped up inside two weeks.

The consent order timeline, stage by stage

Stage 1: Reaching agreement (variable)

Before any drafting can begin, you and your ex need to have agreed how your finances will be divided. This is the stage with the widest range of timescales. Some couples agree the principles in a single conversation; others take months or even years of negotiation or mediation.

If you have not yet reached agreement, family mediation is usually the fastest route. Most couples settle their finances in 3 to 6 mediation sessions, which typically run over 2 to 4 months. That sits a long way under the 12 to 18 months a contested court process can take.

Stage 2: Drafting the consent order (1 to 3 weeks)

A qualified family solicitor turns your agreement into a draft consent order, a formal legal document that uses precise wording the court will recognise. At the same time, a Form D81 is prepared, which is the Statement of Information that summarises both parties’ finances before and after the order takes effect.

Fixed-fee specialist services typically draft within 7 to 14 working days. Traditional high-street solicitors can take 2 to 4 weeks, particularly if there are multiple billable revisions. Both parties then read the draft, raise any queries, and sign once they are happy with the wording.

Stage 3: Submitting to court (a few working days)

The signed consent order, the Form D81, and the court fee of £62 (since July 2026) are filed at the family court that issued your divorce. Submission itself is quick, the court will date-stamp your documents on receipt. The clock for judicial approval starts here.

Stage 4: Judicial review and sealing (4 to 10 weeks)

A district judge reads the consent order and the Form D81, checks the agreement looks fair given both parties’ circumstances, and considers whether any children’s needs are properly accounted for. If satisfied, the judge approves the order, seals it with the court stamp, and a sealed copy is sent back to each party by post.

If the judge has questions, they will either ask for more information by letter, or in rare cases list the case for a short hearing. Either of those steps will add weeks to the timeline, so a well-drafted application with full disclosure is genuinely the difference between 4 weeks and 4 months.

When can you submit a consent order during divorce?

Under the no-fault divorce system introduced in April 2022, a consent order can only be submitted to the court once your divorce has reached the conditional order stage. This is the modern equivalent of the old decree nisi.

The conditional order can be applied for 20 weeks after the divorce application is issued, and there is then a further 6 weeks before the final order (formerly decree absolute) can be applied for. That 6-week window between conditional and final order is actually the perfect time to submit your consent order, because the court can deal with both at roughly the same pace.

If you have already finalised your divorce without getting a consent order in place, you can still get one afterwards, though you will want to act quickly to protect yourself from future claims. The Wyatt v Vince [2015] UKSC 14 case famously showed that financial claims can be brought decades after divorce when no consent order has been sealed.

What causes a consent order to take longer?

Most delays fall into one of six categories. Understanding them in advance is the best way to keep your timeline on track.

1. Incomplete Form D81: missing pension CETV values, no recent property valuation, or vague figures will almost always trigger a judicial query, adding 2 to 6 weeks.
2. Court backlog: courts in busy regions and central London hubs often run slower than regional family courts. Some courts work through orders in 3 weeks, others take 10 or more.
3. Time of year: January and September are the two busiest months for family courts. Submissions just before judicial holidays can also sit untouched for several weeks.
4. Pensions and businesses: where pension sharing orders, business interests, or share schemes are involved, the judge will scrutinise the figures more carefully. Pension implementation periods after sealing can also add 4 months on top.
5. Poorly drafted wording: DIY consent orders or those drafted by non-specialist solicitors are far more likely to be rejected for unclear or unenforceable wording. A rejection and resubmission can add 6 to 12 weeks to the total.
6. One party stalling: if your ex changes their mind about signing, or delays returning the signed copy, the court cannot do anything. This is purely a between-parties delay.

How to speed up your consent order

You cannot control how busy the court is, but you can control everything before the order reaches the judge. These are the steps that consistently produce the fastest turnarounds:

• Get full financial disclosure done first: provide current property valuations, mortgage statements, pension CETVs, the latest three months of bank statements, and any debt balances before drafting begins. See our guide to Form E documents you need for a useful checklist.
• Use a specialist drafting service: family law specialists know what wording the court will accept and what it will reject. A £499 fixed-fee online service typically drafts faster than a traditional high-street solicitor.
• Submit during a quieter court period: avoid the January and September spikes if your timing is flexible. Submissions in April, May, October, or November often move quicker.
• Sign and return promptly: once the draft arrives, both of you need to read it, raise queries, and sign it. Drafts sitting on a kitchen table for a fortnight are a very common cause of unnecessary delay.
• Pay the court fee at submission: payment with the application avoids a back-and-forth chase from the court office.
• Make sure your divorce is at the right stage: an order submitted before the conditional order has been made will be rejected outright.

How long does a complex consent order take?

A “complex” consent order is one involving significant pensions, business interests, multiple properties, overseas assets, share options, trusts, or any non-standard financial arrangement. For these cases, realistic timelines look like this:

• Drafting: 3 to 6 weeks, because the wording needs to handle the complexity carefully and may involve a pensions on divorce expert (PODE) report.
• Judicial review: 6 to 12 weeks, as judges scrutinise complex orders more closely.
• Pension implementation: where pension sharing is involved, the pension provider has 4 months from the order being sealed to implement the share. This sits outside the court timeline but is worth knowing.
• Total realistic timeline: 4 to 6 months from agreement to a sealed order, plus the pension implementation period if relevant.

If your case involves complexity, the legal time saved by using a specialist drafting service typically far outweighs the cost difference. A rejected order or one returned for clarification can wipe out 2 to 3 months. To understand the wider picture of how assets are split in these cases, see our guide on how assets are split in a divorce.

How long does a consent order take if it is rejected?

Consent orders can be rejected, queried, or sent back for amendment. The most common reasons are unclear or unenforceable wording, an inadequately completed Form D81, an apparent unfairness the judge wants explained, or missing information about pensions or children.

A query from the court usually requires a written response, which then has to be re-considered by the judge. Expect this to add 3 to 8 weeks per round of correspondence. An outright rejection that requires a redrafted order and a fresh submission can add 6 to 12 weeks to the total.

This is why DIY consent orders, although tempting on cost, end up taking longer overall in a meaningful percentage of cases. A properly drafted order through a specialist service is far less likely to be queried or rejected. You can also read our guide on whether you can get a consent order without financial disclosure for more on what the court actually requires.

Does a consent order take longer in some courts than others?

Yes. The Family Court is a single national court, but it sits in different physical court centres across England and Wales, and the workload varies enormously between them. The court that deals with your consent order is the one that issued your divorce, so you do not get a choice.

In our experience, central London family courts and the busiest regional hubs can run longer than smaller regional courts, although this is not always the case. The Bury St Edmunds Regional Divorce Centre, which handles online divorce applications, processes a high volume of consent orders and timescales there are usually consistent.

You can find a useful overview of court procedure on the Family Procedure Rules portal. For more on the wider consent order process and the procedural background, see our complete guide to consent orders.

Frequently Asked Questions