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===Property and Debt in British Columbia=== | ===Property and Debt in British Columbia=== | ||
Section 97 is the | Section 97 is the key to Part 5 of the ''Family Law Act'' and gives the court its general power to make orders about the division of property and debt. Under this section, the court may: | ||
#make decisions about any issue concerning the ownership, possession or division of property or debt; | |||
#make any order necessary to divide property or debt; | |||
#declare who should own or possess property; | |||
#make a spouse to pay compensation if or she has sold or transferred property that should have been shared; | |||
#require the sale of a property and payment to the spouses from the proceeds of the sale; | |||
#make one spouse be responsible for debt; | |||
#require the sale of property to pay debt; and, | |||
#make orders transferring property to a spouse. | |||
Under s. 97, the court can make whatever orders are needed to equally divided family property and family debt between spouses, whatever extra orders are needed to divide family property and family debt unequally under s. 95 and whatever extra orders are needed to divide excluded property under s. 96. | |||
====Interim Orders==== | |||
An ''interim order'' is a temporary order made after a court proceeding has started and before it has wrapped up with a trial or a settlement. Under s. 88, a spouse can apply to court for an interim order about property at any time until a final order or a final agreement has been made about the division of property and debt. | |||
=====Paying for Dispute Resolution Processes===== | |||
Under s. 89, the court can make an order for the interim distribution of some of the family property to pay for: | |||
#the cost of the court proceeding; | |||
#the cost of another dispute resolution process, like mediation, arbitration and collaborative settlement processes; and | |||
#the cost of expert's reports, like needs of the child assessments under s. 211, property assessments or business valuation. | |||
=====Exclusive Occupance of the Family Home===== | |||
Under s. 90, the court can make an order that one spouse have the exclusive right to live in the family home and use the property kept at the family home. | |||
====Dividing Property and Debt Equally==== | ====Dividing Property and Debt Equally==== |