Consent Orders Explained: How to Formalise Your Agreement Without Going to Court (2026)

A consent order is a written agreement, approved by the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, that records what you and your former partner have agreed about parenting, property or finances. Once the court makes the order, it has the same effect as an order made by a judicial officer after a full court hearing. In other words, it is enforceable.

The key word is 'consent'. You and the other party have already worked out the arrangement, whether directly, through mediation, or with lawyers. You are not asking a judge to decide who gets what. You are asking the court to formalise an agreement you have both signed, so that it becomes binding and enforceable rather than an informal understanding that either side can walk away from.

Parenting and financial or property orders can be sought in the same application, so a separating couple can deal with the children and the asset split in one go. A consent order cannot, however, replace a child support assessment or set ongoing periodic child support, which is administered separately through Services Australia (Child Support).

Consent order applications are almost always decided 'on the papers', meaning a registrar reviews your documents and makes the orders without either party attending a hearing. That is the whole appeal: it formalises your agreement without the cost, stress and delay of a courtroom appearance.

You file at least two documents. The first is the Application for Consent Orders form, which sets out your circumstances and financial position. The second is a signed copy of the orders you are asking the court to make. You must also provide an identical unsigned Word (.docx) version of the proposed orders that is not locked for editing and contains no tracked changes, images or macros, so the court can finalise the wording.

Where you are seeking parenting orders, both parties must also file a Notice of child abuse, family violence or risk. This is mandatory and exists so the court can identify any safety concerns before approving arrangements for children.

Applications should be filed electronically (eFiled) through the Commonwealth Courts Portal at comcourts.gov.au, or at a court registry if you cannot eFile. A registrar then reviews the application. As a rough guide, practitioners commonly report a review turnaround of several weeks, often in the order of six to eight weeks depending on registry workload, but this is indicative only and varies. The court does not publish a guaranteed timeframe, so treat any figure as approximate.

The court filing fee for an Application for Consent Orders is $205, effective from 1 July 2025. That is the fee paid to the court itself, not legal fees. If you eFile, you pay it by credit or debit card when you lodge; if you file at a registry, you pay it there.

Fee help is available. If you hold an eligible government concession card (such as a Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card), receive legal aid, are under 18, or can demonstrate financial hardship, you may be exempt or pay a reduced fee. Court fees are indexed and reviewed regularly, so always confirm the current amount on the official FCFCOA fees page before you file.

Beyond the filing fee, your main cost is any legal help. Many firms offer fixed-fee consent order packages, and quoted ranges for preparing the application and drafting orders commonly sit in the low thousands of dollars depending on complexity. These are market figures from law firms, not government rates, so treat them as a guide and get your own quote. You can also prepare the application yourself using the court's free 'do it yourself' Application for Consent Orders kit.

Note that a divorce is a separate application with a separate, much higher fee (around $1,125 from 1 July 2025, with a reduced fee of roughly $365 for eligible applicants). You do not need a divorce to get consent orders, and getting consent orders does not divorce you.

If your consent orders deal with property or spousal maintenance, strict time limits apply. Married couples have 12 months from the date a divorce order takes effect to apply. De facto couples have 2 years from the date of separation.

You do not have to wait for a divorce to start. You can file an Application for Consent Orders any time after you separate, and you can finalise a property split without ever divorcing. The 12-month clock for married couples simply starts when the divorce order takes effect, so the date of divorce is the trigger, not a prerequisite.

If you miss the deadline, you are not automatically barred, but you must ask the court for special permission ('leave') to apply out of time. To get it, you generally have to show that you, or a child of the relationship, would suffer hardship if the application did not proceed. That adds cost, delay and uncertainty, so it is far better to act within time.

Parenting orders are not subject to the same fixed limitation periods, because arrangements for children can be revisited as circumstances change. Even so, formalising parenting arrangements promptly gives both parents certainty.

A common misconception is that the court simply approves whatever you both sign. It does not. Even by consent, the court can only make the orders if they meet the requirements of the Family Law Act 1975.

For financial and property orders, the orders must be 'just and equitable'. The registrar reviews your asset and liability position (set out in the application) to check the split is fair and within the range a court could properly make. If the agreement looks plainly one-sided or the financial disclosure is thin, the court may ask questions or decline to make the orders as drafted.

For parenting orders, the orders must be in the 'best interests of the child'. The court's paramount concern is the child's safety and wellbeing, which is why the Notice of risk is mandatory and why arrangements that could expose a child to harm will not be approved.

Because the court applies these tests, full and honest financial disclosure matters. Orders obtained by hiding assets or providing misleading information can later be set aside, which would undo the very certainty you were trying to lock in.

The Family Law Amendment Act 2024 introduced significant property changes that commenced on 10 June 2025. These apply to all separating couples, whether a court decides the matter or you negotiate your own agreement and formalise it by consent, so they directly shape what orders the court will approve.

The reforms codify the steps the court follows in a property settlement. The court must identify each party's legal and equitable interests in property and their liabilities, weigh contributions and current and future circumstances, and ultimately only make an order if satisfied it is 'just and equitable'.

Crucially, the court must now consider the economic effect of family violence where relevant, and the changes make clear that economic or financial abuse (such as one partner controlling all the money) can amount to family violence. This can affect how contributions are assessed.

The amendments also introduced specific rules for 'companion animals' (pets). The court must consider a defined list of factors about a pet, and it cannot order joint ownership or a shared-possession arrangement for a pet. If pets are part of your agreement, your consent orders need to reflect these rules.

Family law in Australia is mostly federal, but Western Australia runs its own Family Court of Western Australia. If you live in WA, you generally apply there rather than to the FCFCOA, and some procedures differ.

The biggest practical difference is for de facto couples. While married couples across Australia (including WA) fall under the federal Family Law Act 1975, de facto financial matters in WA are dealt with under WA's own legislation. When de facto partners in WA seek property orders by consent, the applicant typically must file an 'Affidavit as to jurisdiction' setting out how long the relationship lasted, where it was mainly based, and that it either ran for more than 2 years or that substantial contributions were made such that not making an order would cause serious injustice.

The underlying concepts (a written agreement, approved by the court, with the force of a court order) are the same. But if you are in WA, use the Family Court of WA's forms and guidance, and confirm WA-specific fees and requirements, because they will not always match the federal court's.

Everywhere else in Australia (NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, TAS, ACT and NT), consent orders go through the FCFCOA under the federal Family Law Act.

For property and finances, the main alternative to a consent order is a Binding Financial Agreement (BFA). They achieve similar outcomes but work very differently, and the right choice depends on your situation.

A consent order is approved by the court, which checks it is just and equitable, so it carries court oversight and is harder to challenge later. A BFA is a private contract between the parties that does not go to court for approval, which gives more flexibility (for example, you do not have to meet the 'just and equitable' test) but less external protection.

Independent legal advice is what most cleanly separates the two. For a BFA to be valid and binding, each party must obtain independent legal advice and the lawyers must certify it. That makes BFAs typically more expensive to set up. For consent orders, independent legal advice is strongly recommended but not a legal precondition, which is one reason consent orders are often the cheaper, lower-risk route after separation.

A further difference is timing. You can only seek consent orders once a relationship has ended, whereas a BFA can be entered before, during or after a relationship (a 'prenup' is a type of BFA). If you have already separated and reached agreement, consent orders are usually the more straightforward option. Either way, getting advice from an accredited family law specialist before you sign is sensible.