The highly rated and reviewed lawyers at MacLean Law want the public to be aware that the new BC Family Law Act has changed key dates for our family law clients in Vancouver, Surrey, Kelowna and Fort St John, BC. The new Act has been passed and will be implemented very shortly. If you are starting a new relationship or are concerned about the unhealthy state of a current married or common law relationship contact us. The following is proposed for the new legislation as extracted from the White Paper Summary:
Triggering Events
The Act will replace the existing triggering events with one triggering event – the date of separation. Spouses would not be required to go to court to trigger entitlement to an interest in family property. Using the date of separation accords with most people’s expectations; that is, it makes intuitive sense for spouses to use the date of separation as the point from which to disentangle their overlapping financial lives. The recommended approach should also eliminate problems that can arise in the existing model if, for example a spouse dies or declares bankruptcy between the date of separation and the occurrence of the triggering event.
Valuation Date
The New Act is a game changer for division of family property as it institutes a sharing of only the gain on assets brought into a marriage as follows:
85 (1) The following is excluded from family property:
(a) property acquired by a spouse before the relationship between the spouses began;
The new Act requires our top rated lawyers and our clients to value assets and debts at two dates-the start of the relationship and the end date valuation points as set out above being the date of an agreement or trial. This means you need to talk to us before you commence a relationship to ensure you are protected as well as when you feel your relationship is in serious trouble. The new law provide for a valuation date that, absent a contrary arrangement is either the date of an agreement or the date of a court order dividing the property. Making the valuation date clear in the statute should make the rules easier to understand and to apply. Flexibility is ensured by allowing spouses to set a different valuation date by agreement.
This rule has huge implications for high net worth and other spouses. Talk to our top rated lawyers about strategies to protect yourself with respect to restraining or sale orders to preserve assets and company and other asset value fluctuation.
Time Limits
The new act increases the time limit for common-law spouses to start a claim for property division or spousal support from one year to two years after separation. For married spouses the time limit will remain at two years after a divorce order or a declaration of nullity. These time limits will no longer be part of the definition of “spouse”. While this will make the law clearer on its face and will promote greater consistency between married and common-law spouses, time limits will not be identical for married and common-law spouses. The date of separation which starts the time limit running for common-law spouses is earlier than the date of divorce which starts time running for married spouses.
