Difference between revisions of "Property and Debt in Family Law Matters"

}}This chapter focuses on the division of property and debt between spouses according to the laws in parts 5 and 6 of the provincial ''[[Family Law Act]]''. Under these parts of the ''Family Law Act'', the term ''spouse'' refers to both married couples and people who lived together in a marriage-like relationship for at least two years.  

Under the ''Family Law Act'', after spouses separate the presumption is:

* each spouse keeps the property they brought into the relationship, as well as specific kinds of assets they might have acquired during the relationship (this is called ''excluded property''), and  

* the spouses equally share the rest, which means most of the assets either one of them acquired during the relationship, as well as any increase in value of excluded property (these assets are called ''family property'').  

The same rules apply to debt. Spouses are presumed to share responsibility for the debts that accumulated during their relationship, but remain individually responsible for debts they had before the relationship began.  

'''Side note:''' The ''Family Law Act'' is still relatively new, having replaced the old ''Family Relations Act'' in 2013. If what you've read so far about property division seems unfamiliar, it might be because you are more familiar with how property division used to work in this province before 2013. The old legislation talked about ''matrimonial property'', which made sense because it only applied to married people. Another major difference was that all property that was "ordinarily used for a family purpose" (including what spouses owned before the marriage) was presumed to be divided up when the marriage ended. When the ''Family Law Act'' came in, it changed the law dramatically. It broadened property division to treat married couples and unmarried people in long term relationships the same. But it also narrowed down the entitlement period to focus on what was acquired, what accrued in value, and what debts were incurred while the parties were together in a relationship.

This introductory section of the chapter provides basic information about property and debt. It also looks at the rules about property that apply to couples who are not spouses, and reviews some of the income tax issues that can come up when dividing property. The sections of the chapter that follow will go into:  

* [[Dividing Property and Debt in Family Law Matters]], which explains how property and debt are divided by judges (where things end with a court order) or by spouses (when they can reach a ''separation agreement'').