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The ''[[Family Law Act]]'' talks about three things when it comes to dividing property and debt: ''family property'', ''excluded property'', and ''family debt''.
All property owned by either or both spouses (including property owned by a spouse jointly with a third party such as a parent) at the date of separation is ''family property'' unless it is ''excluded property''. Family property includes things like real property, bank accounts, pensions, business, debts owing to a spouse, and so forth. Family property is presumed to be shared equally between spouses, regardless of their use of or contribution to that property.
''Excluded property'' is any property that is excluded from the pool of family property to be split between spouses. This includes the property a spouse owned before the date of marriage or the date the spouses began living together, whichever is earlier, plus certain kinds of property acquired during the spouses' relationship, including:
*property that was bought with the property brought into the relationship,
*inheritances and gifts(provided that the gift is a gift to just the spouse and not to the couple), and
*certain kinds of insurance proceeds and court awards.
The sort of excluded property that can be acquired during a relationship is described in s. 85(1), and includes:
*gifts from a third party(provided that the gift is a gift to the spouse and not to the couple),
*inheritances,
*certain court awards and settlements,
In this example, Baljinder's house is his ''excluded property''. It was worth $300,000 when Harkamal began living with him, and it has increased in value by $100,000. The ''family property'' is the RRSPs that Baljinder saved, plus the increase in value of Baljinder's house during the relationship. The ''family debt'' is Harkamal's loan which was incurred entirely during the parties' relationship and is now up to $12,000.
Boiling this all down, subject to a claim for reapportionment, Baljinder would get:
*$300,000 as the value of the home he brought into the relationship,
*responsibility for $6,000 of Harkamal's loan.
Harkamal would , subject to a claim for reapportionment, get:
*$50,000 for one-half of the growth in the value of Baljinder's house,
* [http://www.bcrelinks.com/download/ptt/pttform2.pdf Special Property Transfer Tax Return]
{{REVIEWED | reviewer = [[Matthew OstrowHelen Chiu]], October 1May 14, 20182019}}
{{JP Boyd on Family Law Navbox|type=chapters}}