Annulment

[hattie]

Does anyone know how I would find out whether a marriage had been annulled?

Thanks as always in advance

Hattie

[Janet]

There are some questions to ask yourself and the following applied as of January 2007

Do you qualify?
How long does it take/cost?
A religious annulment

“A Nullity Decree essentially means your marriage was void or that it was never legal in the first place,”

Non-consummation is usually the primary reason for an annulment, but there are other ways to get one.

Do you qualify?

If one of you was already married at the time of your marriage
If you didn’t give your valid consent to the marriage
If your spouse was under 16 at the time of the wedding
If you weren’t a fully male/female couple
If your spouse had a communicable form of a sexually transmitted disease when you got married
If your spouse was pregnant with someone else’s child and you didn’t know about it
If you didn’t conform with the proper legal requirements – i.e. not filling in forms properly.

How long does it take/cost?

“Annulments are still quite rare in the UK,” “But, if you are eligible, it will take between six to eight months to process and cost, on average, £2,000.”
Unlike divorce, which is usually done on paper, you will have to make a court appearance in order to get an annulment, which his why it costs so much.

A religious annulment

If you are religious, you might want to seek a religious annulment for spiritual reasons and so, in the future, you can remarry in the church.
“It is more difficult to get religious annulments in terms of the hoops you have to jump through. You have to have a lawyer involved and go to a few tribunals and sometimes people don’t appreciate that it’s not that easy. Remember – a religious annulment is separate to a legal annulment and you can also seek one following a divorce, if you feel you need one.”

But, if you do find yourself seeking a quick exit from a marriage, at least you now know the options.

Take note that annulments as of January 2007 were and still are quite rare in the UK, so if you are going back a few years annulment will be even rarer.

How you get hold of annulments or even possible annulments looks as though you have to go through the courts/church. You could maybe start with TNA

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Janet

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

The Principal Registry of the Family Division (PRFD) has responsibility for maintaining the index of all Decrees Absolute (Divorce and Annulments) in England and Wales.


The Court Service
Principal Registry of the Family Division
Decree Absolute Searches Room 2.03
First Avenue House
42-49 High Holborn
London
WC1V 6NP

I think they will do a five year search for you, but there's a fee and I don't know how much it is any more!

[hattie]

I half hoped that if I obtained a copy of the original certificate from the registry office that it would have in big letters across it ANULLED but obviously this would be too simple!

Thank you Janet and Merry for your help

[Olde Crone Holden]

Hattie

If a marriage is annulled, then the certificate will be suppressed, as no marriage took place!

You could test this by applying for the marriage cert and seeing if you get it or not, lol.

Why do you think the marriage was annulled? (Rather than a divorce)

OC

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

If a marriage is annulled, then the certificate will be suppressed

I think "should be" would be fairer!

Obviously if you apply for a cert and the register office say they cannot send it and you already believed the marriage to have been annulled then you can be pretty sure that's the case, but if they cend the cert you can't be at all sure the marriage was not annulled!

[Olde Crone Holden]

Quite right Merry, I forgot the qualification "should be suppressed" lol.

OC