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I have been separated from the wife for 6 years. In that time I have looked after kids (they resided with me) and she's refused to contribute to their financial wellbeing at all. She left, leaving me to pay the mortgage, car loan and about 70k of credit card debt. The fact that she didn't contribute to the kids, caused us financial hardship and for a while I had to borrow even more money to get through each month, until such time as I restructured debt and had fantastic assistance from my family.
We sold the house and she agreed I could have the equity (circa 20k), to use as a deposit for somewhere for me and the kids. II've made great strides on the debts and the car loan has gone and credit cards are down to about 30k.
I've been granted a decree nisi about 2 months ago. I said I would pay all court costs as she said she was happy to do a clean break order, where we both simply walk away from each other retaining and debts in our name, but also any pensions and the property etc. However when it came to signing the order she has refused, but still insists she doesn't want anything from me. Shes suggested we just wait 2 or 3 years and do the decree absolut then !
I asked her to go to a mediator, which she agreed to. However once she found out there was a cost involved(I'm no longer willing to pay her costs) she refused. I went to see the mediator alone, who has now issued me with an FM1 form, for the courts, which essentially says mediation isn't an option as my wife wont go along.
What do I do know. I have the decree nisi and the FM1 form. I don't wish to wait three years until she agrees and wish to press ahead with the divorce. However I'm unclear of how I proceed through the next and final step. do I just send the court the FM1 form and the application for the decree absolut and they will, send us both the forms to fill in for financial details etc, to allow the court to make the final judgement on finances etc.over the coming months. Or do I need to send something else in with these documents ?
Any help and advice gratefully received.
I'm sorry I can't help you with advice about this as I have no experience of divorce. Hopefully someone will come along and respond.
It might be helpful to,call the court and ask them what the accepted procedure is, they are usually very accommodating.
I think you best bet is either to go and see the Citizen's Advice Bureau, or to pay for an hour with a divorce lawyer, purely to get advice on what your options are. If you do this, make sure you have all your questions bullet pointed on a piece of paper, and don't get sidetracked into stuff that isn't important - ie make the best use of the time you are paying for. You are under no obligation at all to let them handle the case.
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