During the relationship, your finances may become mixed together, and you may acquire real estate, business interests, investments, and other forms of property.
If you are married, generally speaking, whatever you built together will be split up equally when you separate, no matter whose name is officially on the property. If you are not legally married, the basic principle is that what’s yours is yours, and what’s theirs is theirs.
This sounds a lot simpler in theory than it is in real life.
When you see a lawyer, you will need to consider:
- Common-law relationships: Even If you are not legally married, you may still need to discuss dividing your property fairly, especially if one partner claims that they helped the other to acquire property even though their name wasn’t on it. For example, a common-law spouse who spent years helping their partner to build a small business may have some claim on that business.
- Marital home: The marital home is treated very differently from the rest of your property. You will need to understand each partner’s rights to the home, and decide whether one of you will buy the other one out or whether you will sell the house and split the proceeds.
- Debts: Generally, your individual debts are your own to pay off. However, they can have a large impact on the division of property.
- Retirement savings: Pensions can pose some interesting challenges. We will take a look at what kind of pension you are working with, and how much of the value of the pension was acquired during the relationship.
- Exclusions: Some gifts, inheritances, or large amounts of property held before the relationship may not be counted as part of the “family property” to be divided between you.
Claudia Bordes 