Difference between revisions of "Basic Principles of Property and Debt in Family Law"

For awhile longer it's going to be important to know to know how family property is divided under the ''Family Relations Act''.

The division and distribution of property between married spouses was governed by Parts 5 and 6 of the ''Family Relations Act''. Part 5 of the act dealt with the division of property, including personal property, financial assets and real estate. Part 6 dealt with the division of pensions. Unmarried couples, including couples who qualify as unmarried spouses, were expressly excluded from the parts of the act that deal with property.

As long as an asset qualified under the act as a ''family asset'', each spouse was presumed to have a one-half interest in that asset. Family assets were defined in s. 58(2) of the act, and the focus under the act was on how an asset was ''used during the relationship'' rather than on who bought it, when it was bought or how it was bought:

<blockquote><tt>Property owned by one or both spouses and ordinarily used by a spouse or a minor child of either spouse for a family purposes is a family asset.</tt></blockquote>

This section cast a very broad net: as long as an asset was owned by a spouse and was ordinarily used for a family purpose, the asset would be a "family asset" for the purposes of the ''Family Relations Act'', and it didn't matter whether the asset was brought into the marriage by one spouse, bought afterwards, or bought during the marriage.

Under s. 56 of the ''Family Relations Act'', each spouse was presumed to have a one-half interest in all family assets. This was, however, only a presumption, a presumption which could be challenged. When assets were divided more in one spouse's favour than the other, the assets were said to have been ''reapportioned''.