Form FL401: Applying for Protection From Abuse

Part of: Non Molestation Order

Form FL401 is the court application you use to ask for protection from abuse, or for a decision about who lives in your home. One form covers both, and you can ask for either or for both together (HM Courts & Tribunals Service guidance). There is no court fee. You must send a written statement with it (Family Procedure Rules 2010, r.10.2(1)), and that statement usually decides the outcome. Our non molestation order specialists assist and advise at every stage. This page covers the law of England and Wales only.

If you are in immediate danger, call 999. If the person you need protection from can see this device, GOV.UK lists organisations that can help, and you can close this page now and read it somewhere safer.

Reviewed by: Hannah Overton, Complex Children Specialist & Client Support, Kabir Family Law

What is form FL401, and what can it ask the court to do?

It is the single application form for Part 4 of the Family Law Act 1996. The cover page says so in as many words: “Apply for a non-molestation or occupation order — Family Law Act 1996 (Part 4)”. So the FL401 form is not one order. It is the door to two of them, and you choose at question 1.1 which door you are going through.

The current version runs to 22 pages, and every footer carries the number 02.23. Most of those pages are guidance notes down the right-hand side rather than boxes to fill in, so the form is shorter in practice than the page count suggests. GOV.UK publishes it alongside a template statement and an easy-read version.

Which of the two orders does your situation need?

Most people know what they want to happen. Fewer know which of the two boxes on the FL401 form delivers it. The difference matters, because one is about behaviour and the other is about a building.

Section 7 of the form deals only with the second of those, and its own note says so: “Please only complete this section if you are applying for an occupation order.” Before you ask for one, read our guide to the balance of harm test, because that is the question the court asks itself. Section 33(6) lists the factors it must weigh (Family Law Act 1996).

A third route exists in a handful of pilot areas, and it uses a different form. Our guide to domestic abuse protection orders explains that scheme, and GOV.UK lists the areas it covers.

Who can apply on form FL401?

You can apply if you are an “associated person”. That is a defined legal term, not a judgement about how serious things are. Section 4 of the form exists purely to test it, and its note explains why: “To get an injunction against the respondent, you will need to show the court that you have a connection to them.”

The statutory list is wide (s.62(3)). It reaches spouses and civil partners, past and present, and cohabitants past and present. Anyone who lives or once lived in the same household is on it too, along with relatives and people who agreed to marry. So are people who “have or have had an intimate personal relationship with each other which is or was of significant duration”. Two people who are both parents of, or who have parental responsibility for, the same child also count as associated persons.

Two limits catch people out. First, an ended engagement stops counting three years after it ended (s.42(4)). Second, a child under 16 needs the court’s permission before applying at all, and the court grants it only if satisfied the child has “sufficient understanding” (s.43). GOV.UK translates the intimate-relationship limb as a relationship of more than six months, although the statute itself uses the words “significant duration”.

What does form FL401 actually ask you for?

Eight numbered sections, and you will not need all of them. Knowing which ones apply before you start is the difference between an afternoon and a fortnight.

• 1. Your situation. Which order or orders you want, and whether you are asking for it without telling the other person first.
• 2. Your details. Your name, date of birth and contact details, plus how and when it is safe to contact you.
• 3. Respondent’s details. Who you want the order against, and where the court can reach them.
• 4. Your relationship with the respondent. The associated-person test.
• 5. Your family. Any children the order should cover, and any family court case already running between you.
• 6. Respondent’s behaviour. A tick-list summary of what you want stopped, with room to add anything the list misses.
• 7. The home. Only if you want a decision about the property: who lives there, who is on the mortgage or tenancy, and what you want to happen.
• 8. Going to court. Interpreters, adjustments for a disability, and measures to keep you apart from the other person at court.

Then comes the part that does the real work. Your application needs a written statement to support it (FPR r.10.2(1)), and GOV.UK publishes a template for it, which is why people search for “FL401T”. The tick boxes in section 6 summarise. The statement is where the court reads what happened, when, and what you are afraid will happen next.

The court reads whatever you write there under a statement of truth, so accuracy matters more than force. Our guide to statements in the family court explains how judges read them.

How do you keep your address off the FL401 form?

You leave it out, and you put it on a separate form C8 instead. The instruction on the first page of the application could not be blunter: “If you do not want your or your child’s contact details to be shared with the respondent, do not put these in at any point on the form, even when asked.”

The same page adds a second warning that people miss. Contact details must not appear on any other document you send either, including your evidence. If you are living in a refuge, that instruction is the important one on the whole form.

Three practical points follow from it, and all three come from the form’s own guidance notes. You can ask for your papers to go to a different address, in writing, on a separate sheet. You should not choose the telephone as your contact preference if calls are not safe, and you can give the court safe times to ring. Finally, if you think the other person can reach your email account, set up a new one and use that instead.

Can you apply on form FL401 without telling them first?

Yes, in the right circumstances. The court may make either order “even though the respondent has not been given such notice of the proceedings as would otherwise be required by rules of court”, where it is just and convenient to do so (Family Law Act 1996, s.45(1)). You ask for it at question 1.2, and question 1.3 then offers three reasons, straight out of the statute.

Those reasons are a risk of significant harm if the court does not act immediately, a real chance that you would give up the application without an order, and a belief that the other person knows about the case and is deliberately avoiding service. Your statement must then say why you did not give notice (FPR r.10.2(4)).

Two things are worth knowing before you ask. An order made this way “will usually last until your hearing”, in GOV.UK’s words, rather than for months. And the court must give the other person a proper chance to put their side of it at a full hearing afterwards (s.45(3)). So this route buys protection quickly. It does not end the case.

What happens after you send form FL401?

The rules fix the sequence below. Every step has caught somebody out, and the service steps catch the most people of all.

1. The court issues your application. It sends you a Notice of Proceedings, which tells you when the hearing will be.
2. Somebody serves the papers on the other person. They must reach the other person by hand, not less than 2 days before the hearing or within a period the court directs (FPR r.10.3(1)). You must never do this yourself; a court officer will do it free of charge if you ask on form D89.
3. The court hears it in private. “Any hearing relating to an application … will be in private unless the court directs otherwise” (FPR r.10.5). You can ask for a video or telephone hearing when you apply.
4. The court decides between three outcomes. GOV.UK lists them: the other person gives an undertaking, the court asks for more information and may make a short-term order meanwhile, or the court makes the order.
5. The court draws up the order. A court officer then adds a notice about the consequences of disobeying it, before anyone serves it — automatic on an order to stop behaviour, and on a home order if the court directs (FPR r.10.12).
6. The police get a copy. A copy goes to the officer in charge of the police station for your address, or another station the court names (FPR r.10.10).

An undertaking is a promise to the court rather than an order. It has one hard limit that is easy to miss. Where violence has been used or threatened, and an order is needed so that a breach counts as a crime, the court must not accept an undertaking instead (s.46(3A)).

If someone breaks the order, what actually happens?

This is where a lot of published advice is out of date, so it is worth being exact. Two different mechanisms exist, and which one applies depends on which order the court made.

The criminal law enforces an order to stop abusive behaviour. Doing anything the order prohibits, without reasonable excuse, “is guilty of an offence”, punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment on indictment (s.42A). That route began on 1 July 2007. On the same day, Parliament repealed the old power to attach a power of arrest to such an order, so the court can no longer attach one (s.47(1), repealed 1.7.2007). Section 47(2) now reads “an occupation order” and nothing else.

An order about the home works the other way round. Where the court makes one and it appears that violence has been used or threatened, the court “shall attach a power of arrest” unless satisfied you would be adequately protected without it (s.47(2)). A constable may then arrest without a warrant. Where the order carries no power of arrest, or where it is the behaviour type, you can still apply for a warrant for arrest, on oath (s.47(8) and (9)).

In plain terms: if someone breaks the behaviour order, you call the police, and it is a crime. That is a stronger position than the one it replaced, not a weaker one.

What if form FL401 has been used against you?

Some people reach this page holding the application rather than writing it. Being named on it is not a finding that anything happened. An application is one person’s account, supported by their statement, and the court has decided nothing yet. Somebody should hand you the application, that statement and notice of the hearing, not less than 2 days before it or within a period the court directs (FPR r.10.3(1)).

If the court has already made an order without hearing from you, that is not the end of it either. GOV.UK says such an order “will usually last until your hearing”, and the court must give you the chance to put your side of it at a full hearing (s.45(3)). Until that hearing, the order binds you exactly as it is written, whatever you think of the account behind it.

Two things follow immediately. Doing anything an order to stop behaviour prohibits, without reasonable excuse, is itself a criminal offence (s.42A), so the order has to be obeyed to the letter while it is disputed. And do not try to settle it directly with the person who applied, because contact is usually the very thing the order stops. Changing or ending an order once it exists is a separate application on form FL403. If a hearing date is already on your papers, a free initial consultation is worth having before it, not after.

Before you fill in form FL401: are you on track?

Choose what you are asking the court for, then tick what is already true. The list shows you what the court will be looking for and where the gaps are. It does not fill anything in for you.

Where an FL401 application goes wrong, and what it costs you

Almost none of the damage comes from the tick boxes. It comes from the parts nobody reads twice.

• Contact details on the evidence. The form tells you to keep them off every document, not just off the application. One address in a paragraph of your statement undoes the whole precaution.
• Serving the papers yourself. The rules forbid it outright: “An application must not be served personally by the applicant himself or herself” (FPR r.10.3(1A)). A court officer will do it for free.
• Leaving out an address for the other person. The form warns that the order “cannot be enforced until it has been served on them or they are aware of it”. Give an alternative address if you do not have their home one.
• A statement that argues instead of describing. The court needs incidents, dates and effects. Conclusions about character do not carry the same weight.
• Asking for the home decision without the housing picture. The court must weigh housing needs and resources on both sides (s.33(6)). An application that ignores that is answering a question the judge is not asking.
• Accepting an undertaking too readily. The court cannot attach a power of arrest to one (s.46(2)), and breaking it is not a criminal offence.
• Letting the order run out. An order lasts for the period the court set, or until further order (s.42(7)). Extending it means applying before it ends, on form FL403, not after.

How do our specialists assist and advise on an FL401 application?

Our specialists assist and advise from the first conversation. They explain which of the two orders fits what you actually want to change, and what the court will weigh before it makes one. A specialist also explains how a judge reads a statement, and what that judge listens for. The practical safety choices the form puts in front of you come into that conversation too, such as keeping an address confidential and asking for measures at court. If a hearing is coming, our guide to attending court after abuse and to special measures covers what the building will be like.

A free initial consultation is a conversation with a specialist, who gives you initial advice on your circumstances. It does not include drafting or reviewing documents. Before the call, it helps to have in mind the dates of the two or three incidents that worry you most, and whether any family court case is already running.

Frequently asked questions

General information about the law in England and Wales, not advice on your circumstances.

Expert Tip

People spend hours on the tick boxes and twenty minutes on the statement, when the court spends it the other way round. The boxes tell a judge what you want. The statement tells them why it matters now, and it is the only part that can do that. So before you write a word of it, decide what you are asking for and why now, rather than after the last twelve months. A short, dated, specific account carries further than a long one.

Iblal Iqbal, Partner & Family Law Strategist