The courts encourage couples to reach their own agreement about finances rather than having a judge decide for them. However, even if both parties agree, the court must still approve the agreement before it becomes legally binding.

The court will not automatically approve every agreement. Under the law, it must check that the arrangement is fair and reasonable for both parties based on their financial circumstances. To do this, both parties must provide full details of their finances. Without complete financial information, the court cannot properly consider or approve the agreement.

There are standard court templates for financial consent orders, and these should be used wherever possible.

A consent order may also include:

• Recitals – background information or statements that explain the agreement. 
• Undertakings – promises made by one party to the court. 

Undertakings should be clearly worded, and the person giving the undertaking should fully understand the consequences if they fail to comply. Wherever possible, both parties should sign the order. At a minimum, the person giving any undertaking must sign it. A signature is also required where the order contains agreed child maintenance arrangements.

In most cases, applications for financial consent orders must be submitted online if at least one of the parties has a solicitor acting for them.

The rules set out how these electronic applications must be made and the limited circumstances where paper applications may still be allowed.

When a marriage or civil partnership ends, the court must consider whether it is appropriate for the parties to have a clean break financially.

A clean break means ending ongoing financial obligations between former spouses or civil partners so that neither can make future financial claims against the other.

Although there is no automatic right to a clean break, the court has a duty to consider whether one can be achieved and, if so, whether it is fair and reasonable in the circumstances.

Some financial orders can later be changed, suspended, restarted, or cancelled by the court, including:

• Interim maintenance orders. 
• Spousal maintenance payments. 
• Secured maintenance payments. 
• Lump sums being paid by instalments. 
• Certain pension-related lump sum arrangements. 
• Some property settlement orders made in judicial separation cases. 
• Property sale orders. 
• Pension sharing orders (if the application is made before the divorce is finalised). 

However, some orders cannot usually be changed, including:

• Lump sums paid in one payment. 
• Property transfer or adjustment orders. 

When deciding whether to change an order, the court will consider all the circumstances, especially the welfare of any children involved. It will also look at any significant changes that have happened since the original order was made.

An undertaking (a promise made to the court) cannot technically be varied because it is a voluntary promise. However, the court can release someone from an undertaking and accept a new one instead.

In limited circumstances, a financial order can be cancelled or reopened after it has been approved by the court.

Common reasons include:

• Fraud. 
• Certain types of mistake. 
• Failure by one party to disclose important financial information. 
• A major and unexpected event occurring after the order was made that fundamentally changes the basis of the agreement (known as a Barder event). 

The courts generally prefer financial cases to be final and settled. As a result, applications to overturn a consent order are only successful in exceptional circumstances and are relatively rare.

Sometimes one party believes that a binding financial agreement has already been reached, but the other party later tries to withdraw from it.

In that situation, the party relying on the agreement can ask the court to order the other party to explain ("show cause") why the court should not make an order reflecting the terms of the agreement.

This type of application was previously known as a Dean summons.