Consent Order Family Law

The Property Consent Orders commonly include provisions regarding spousal maintenance, superannuation divisions, lump sum payments, and the transfer of real estate properties. Property or parenting consent orders can be applied for at the same time or separately. Prior to making your application, it is important to obtain legal advice to ensure that your application complies with current legislation and is likely to be approved by the Court. Please contact our experienced team of Family Lawyers to discuss how we can help you make a successful application for consent orders.

Filing Consent Orders For Property Or Financial Orders

There are generally three steps in a successful Consent Order application:

Negotiation

You must demonstrate to the Court that the parties have negotiated and come to an agreement. Negotiations can be done privately between the parties, mediation or through legal representatives. If you have found that privately negotiating with your former partner is unsuccessful, please contact us so we can advise you as to your rights and assist you in liaising with your former partner to achieve a mutually agreed outcome.

Drafting

This process involves the preparation of the necessary papers to be filed with the Court. When pursuing either property or parenting orders, you will need to prepare the following documents:

• An Application For Consent Orders
  Depending on your application, this can include disclosure of properties, and financial incomes of each party and attaching the Orders sought.
• The Consent Orders
  This document contains the agreement made between the parties and outlines their obligations under the agreement and any applicable time limits within which they must fulfill their obligations. These will become legally enforceable upon approval of your application. It is best to obtain legal advice from our team of family lawyers so that the orders are drafted to ensure that the orders are practically achievable and to guard against further legal proceedings. Consent Orders need to be properly drafted to make sure that they can comply with the law and can be enforced if needed to. It is common for the Courts to reject applications for Consent Orders drafted by parties themselves as they do not include all of the necessary provisions to effect the agreement or are unclear.
• Notice To Third Parties
  Any third parties involved with the property division must be informed before filing, and their notification of compliance has to be submitted in the Court at the time of filing. For example, the trustee of a Superannuation Fund must be informed if you are seeking a superannuation split, and they must provide a letter of compliance to the Court stating they will abide by the decisions taken by the Court about the same fund.

Benefits of Consent Orders

There are several benefits of filing and drafting a consent order family law in a family court of Australia such as:

• The orders are final and legally binding once they are made. However, if necessary, the orders can be varied by mutual agreement and new orders made.
• After the Court approves the consent orders, they become enforceable by different means, including exercising signatory authority on behalf of a non-compliant party. A partner can seek enforcement orders to assist with the compliance of an existing order if more concrete action is required.
• Any transfer of property, including marital homes, means that the parties only pay nominal stamp duty as long as the transfer is to a party or the child of the relationship.