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Difference between revisions of "Basic Principles of Property and Debt in Family Law"
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Basic Principles of Property and Debt in Family Law (view source)
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{{JP Boyd on Family Law TOC|expanded = assets}} | {{JP Boyd on Family Law TOC|expanded = assets}} | ||
People who are married or who lived together in a marriage-like relationship for at least two years are entitled to share in the property they acquired during their relationship, and are entitled to keep any property they each brought into the relationship. The same thing goes for debt. Spouses are presumed to be equally responsible for debt accumulating during the relationship but be separately responsible for any debt that they had going into the relationship. | |||
This all sounds pretty straightforward but there are lots of details that can make the division of property and debt complicated. This page talks about how property and debt are divided between spouses under the ''Family Law Act'', what property is shareable family property and which property is excluded from division, and the role marriage agreements and cohabitation agreements can play in controlling the impact of the ''Family Law Act''. | |||
==Introduction== | |||
The basic plan for the division of property and debt under the provincial ''Family Relations Act'' is pretty straightforward. ''Keep what you bring into the relationship and you split what you get during the relationship.'' Of course it's a lot more complicated than this, but this is the basic concept that the act is built on. | |||
Part 5 of the ''Family Law Act'' deals with the division of property and debt, and provides the definitions of ''family property'' and ''family debt'', the things that are presumed to be shared between spouses, and ''excluded property'' which is presumed to remain the property of the spouse who owns it. Part 6 talks about the division of pensions between spouses and says which portion of a pension is supposed to be shared and which parts remember the property of the pension member. This page looks into the nooks and crannies of Part 5 in some detail but it doesn't say much about pensions because the division of pensions can be extremely complicated. For information about that, you should speak to a family law lawyer. | |||
===Standing=== | |||
The people who are entitled to ask to divide property and debt are ''spouses'', but not all spouses just spouses who are married to each other or who have lived together in a marriage-like relationship for at least two years. Section 3 says this: | |||
<blockquote><tt>(1) A person is a spouse for the purposes of this Act if the person</tt></blockquote> | |||
<blockquote><blockquote><tt>(a) is married to another person, or</tt></blockquote></blockquote> | |||
<blockquote><blockquote><tt>(b) has lived with another person in a marriage-like relationship, and</tt></blockquote></blockquote> | |||
<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><tt>(i) has done so for a continuous period of at least 2 years, or</tt></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> | |||
<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><tt>(ii) except in Parts 5 [Property Division] and 6 [Pension Division], has a child with the other person.</tt></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> | |||
<blockquote><tt>(2) A spouse includes a former spouse.</tt></blockquote> | |||
Unmarried spouses who have lived together for less than two years are not eligible to ask for orders about the division of property or debt under the ''Family Law Act''. | |||
===Period of Entitlement=== | |||
====Date of Cohabtation or Marriage==== | |||
====Date of Separation==== | |||
====Time Limits==== | |||
===Partnership of aquests=== | |||
====Family Relations Act and the Family Law Act==== | |||
====Transition Provisions==== | |||
==Who Keeps What== | |||
===Family Proeprty and Family Debt=== | |||
====Trriggering Event==== | |||
====Valuation and Valuation Date==== | |||
===Excluded Property=== | |||
==Cohabitation Agreements and Marriage Agreements== | |||
This presumption, however, only applies between spouses. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, the only owner of an asset is the persion with legal title to the asset, which might be: | This presumption, however, only applies between spouses. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, the only owner of an asset is the persion with legal title to the asset, which might be: | ||
