You’ve finally agreed on your property settlement or future care arrangements. While formalizing it involves hiring a lawyer and incurring costs, there are several factors to consider before opposing it.
Reason 1
For instance, if you’re planning to transfer property ownership from joint to a single name, you should know the stamp duty implications. The Office of State Revenue will levy stamp duty on half the property’s value, which is the portion being transferred. For a property valued at $500,000, this could mean a stamp duty of approximately $8,750. However, by formalizing your agreement through consent orders, you can avoid stamp duty. Our services to prepare consent orders, avoiding court, cost $990—a significant saving.
Reason 2
If you’re proposing to split up one party’s superannuation, so that some of one party’s super goes into the other party’s account, you can’t just agree to that. You can’t just ask the fund to sort it out. They’ll want to see a court order setting out how the superannuation split will be done, and in fact, they have to consent to that order being made. There’s no point reaching an agreement about something like this if you then find you can’t get the super fund to implement it for you. If you have your agreement about a superannuation split formalised by way of consent orders, the fund will sort out the split with no problems. If you come to us, we’ll charge you $880.00 to get the super fund’s consent, and then draft up all the documents you’ll need to get consent orders made without going to court. You’ve done the hard work by getting to an agreement. Don’t let something like this get in the way of getting everything finalised smoothly and promptly.
Reason 3
You’ve spent ages to-ing and fro-ing and you’ve finally been able to get to an agreement with your ex that you can both live with. That’s the hardest part done. If you don’t formalise your agreement, there is little to stop one of you coming back, maybe in a few years’ time and seeking a formalised property settlement. The whole thing has to get reopened. Any assets you’ve acquired post-separation are in the property pool and available for distribution between you. Your previous agreement might be relevant, but there might be reasons why the court is happy to revisit everything that you thought already finalised your property settlement. Formalising your property settlement finalises it. Everyone knows where they stand. Everyone gets to get on with their lives without wondering if assets they accumulate after separation will be divided again later on. We can formalise, and finalise your property settlement for $990.00. It’s worth considering for your peace of mind.
Reason 4
You and your ex have worked hard and spent more hours than you remember working out an arrangement that you think will work well for your kids into the future. Maybe you referred to mediation and sorted it out that way. You’re pretty amicable and you don’t believe that formalising your agreement is really necessary. But what if things change? What if you’re the one doing all the drop off’s and pick up’s and then your former partner leaves and moves ten suburbs away? What if your former partner re-partners and all of a sudden, they want to change the weekends around so that your kids spend time with the new partner’s kids? What if your ex wants to move away with the kids? It’s great when things are amicable and you’re working together, but sometimes things get in the way of that. If you’ve had your agreement formalised into consent orders, any changes must be negotiated. You’re going to get a say in that. One party can’t just unilaterally change the orders and the kids’ routine without consulting you, like they can if it’s an agreement. We can formalise the future care arrangements for your kids for $880.00. Yours or the kids’ circumstances might still change in the future. But any changes made to the orders as a result are made with your input.
Reason 5
You’ve got your agreement and everything is going well. You’ve divided up your property like you agreed you would and the kids are settling into the new routine. What if something happens that you didn’t think of? What if a debt that you forgot about suddenly surfaces. It’s in your name, but you both accumulated it. Or you want to take the kids on an overseas holiday, but your agreement doesn’t cover that sort of thing. When you get a lawyer to put together your agreement, they think of things like this. They make sure that no assets or liabilities are left out or forgotten about. They draw your attention to things that you might not have thought about, but which might arise down the track with your kids. We can formalise an agreement for a property settlement or for the future care arrangements for your kids. This is all the while ensuring that nothing gets left behind or not considered. We charge just $880.00 to draw up consent orders for either a property settlement or for future parenting arrangements (or $1,320.00 for both). We think it’s the best price going around, but we know it’s a lot less expensive than having to get a lawyer involved if you’re having trouble trying to sort out things like this down the track.
So if this has given you a reason to re-think your decision not to formalise your agreement, you might want to take the next step and give us a call. We can talk you through the process, confirm the price is what we’ve said it’s going to be here, and get you started. If you’d like more information about our fixed fees, just click on the link.
Disclaimer
The material contained is property of Kate Austin Family Lawyers. It has been prepared to provide general and basic information only and does not constitute legal advice. Any material obtained on this e-book or from our website should not be relied upon as a substitute for detailed particularised advice from a qualified lawyer.
For more information on your particular circumstances, please feel free to contact us, request a call, or visit our website www.kateaustinlaw.com.au
Kate Austin Family Lawyers is a specialised boutique Family Law firm. Our head office is in the Melbourne CBD and we also have an office in the Sydney CBD. Kate Austin Family Lawyers act in all Family Law matters however we specialise in fixed fee matters for clients all over Australia who have reached an agreement with their former partner and wish to see it documented
