The Sale of your BC Matrimonial Home
At the time of marriage breakdown, separation or divorce selling and dividing the proceeds of the Family Home is an issue that we as BC family lawyers deal with daily for our clients at our Vancouver, Kelowna, Surrey, and Fort St. John family law offices.
As British Columbia’s largest and most diverse family law firm with 10 lawyers and 4 offices across British Columbia and with lawyers who speak Farsi, Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi, Hindi, as well as English, we love to provide free information to the public through the use of social media. This free information does not replace the critical need for parties going through BC family law separation and BC divorce to meet with a qualified BC family law lawyer however. If you need help call us toll-free at 1 877 602 9900.
The matrimonial home is often the most valuable and emotion laden family asset a couple or family may have. Although it seemed easy to combine your incomes and assets to invest in new endeavours such as your family home, separating your contributions may seem difficult if not impossible at points.
At MacLean Law, we often meet homemakers, wives, husbands, fathers and mothers who want to keep and live in their matrimonial home regardless of separation. This is completely understandable. Losing the most stable asset of your family may seem difficult and frustrating. Many couples live and establish families in these homes and do not want to relocate. When divorce conflicts arise, often the first property dispute between the parties is the very home they live in. Some want to stay and some want to move. A home cannot be physically divided in half between the parties so they either have to sell the home or buy each other’s interest out.
Before your family trial which may be months if not years away, sometimes it is necessary bring an urgent application before the court to get what’s called an “interim order for the sale of the matrimonial home”. This means selling your family home and dividing the sale proceeds between you and your ex-spouse before other issues are finally determined at trial. You may need such sale to meet your daily expenses or to buy new property. Sometimes your equity in the home may be at risk and you may need a sale because after separation your partner may fail to make the required mortgage payments on the home to prevent it from foreclosure.
Various factors must be proven in order to get the Judge or the Master to order the sale of the family home before the parties have a chance to prove their case at trial. It is a difficult task needing precise evidence and a strong case: courts do not like to divide or reapportion a certain asset before a determination is made regarding all the assets the parties own. If the court orders the sale of your matrimonial home before trial, often the sale proceeds will be placed in trust for further determination. If you need some or all the monies in trust before trial, you must show the court that it is something necessary and urgent.
Self represented litigants often have an idea or logic about how things should be divided or how fast they should be decided for. Such opinions may be right but arguing and proving them is not a common task and must be left to professionals who properly know how to present the strongest available case you may have. What you ask the courts to do before trial may affect your chances and entitlement to your family assets after trial.
If you need help or assistance with your family or divorce case, call us.
