Only ''spouses'' can ask to divide property and debt. Under the ''[[Family Law Act]]'', for the purposes of dividing property and debt, "spouse" includes people who:

Note that the people who qualify as "spouses" for the division of property and debt are different than the people who are "spouses" for child support and spousal support.

Under the ''[[Family Law Act]]'':

It's important to know that under section 198(5), the two-year countdown from the date of divorce or separation stops while the spouses are trying to resolve their dispute outside of court with the help of a family justice counsellor, a mediator, a lawyer, or an arbitrator.

Excluded property also includes certain property received by each spouse during their relationship, such as:

If you buy new property using excluded property to pay for all or some of the new property, it's important to keep track of how much of your excluded property you spent on the new property! If you can't trace your excluded property into the new property, you may wind up having to share all of the new property with your spouse.

''Family property'' is the property either or both spouses got after the date they began to live together or got married, whichever was first. "Family property" includes:

Most importantly, family property also includes the increase in value of excluded property during the spouses’ relationship, beginning either at the date the spouses began to live together or the date of their marriage, whichever is first. Say, for example, that a house had equity of $100,000 when a relationship started, and equity of $150,000 when it ended. The spouse who owns the house would keep the $100,000 the house was worth at the beginning of the relationship as excluded property, and each of them would share the $50,000 in growth as family property.

Under section 81(a) of the ''[[Family Law Act]]'', spouses are presumed to:

When spouses separate, under section 81(b) of the act, they each become one-half owners of all family property as tenants in common and one-half responsible for all family debt. (Owning something as tenants in common means that each spouse owns an independent share of the property, and if they die, their share goes to their estate. Owning something as joint tenants, the other way more than one person can own property in British Columbia, means that each spouse owns the whole property, and if they die their ownership interest just disappears and the surviving joint tenants continue to own the whole property.)

Despite the strong presumption in the act that family property should be divided, the court can divide family property ''unequally'' under section 95, if an equal division would be "significantly unfair." The court can take into account a number of reasons why an equal division could be significantly unfair including:

====Excluded property====

Despite the strong presumption in the act that excluded property should ''not'' be divided, the court can divide a spouse’s excluded property if:

====Valuing property====

===How is foreign property divided?===

The court can decide to divide property or debt inside British Columbia to compensate for each spouse's interest in property outside of British Columbia, instead of trying to divide that property. The court can also divide excluded property between spouses if it can’t divide property outside of British Columbia.

===What about children’s property?===

A guardian may apply to court to be appointed as the trustee of the child’s property. Someone appointed as a trustee never owns the child's property, that remains the property of the child, and the trustee can be required to provide an accounting of how they have managed the child's property. Only the Supreme Court can make orders about children’s property.