While mostly
weddings are considered to be the alliances of hearts and souls, every wedding
also has a legal background, changes in rights and most important changes in
property. In Canada
the Matrimonial Property is described as property owned by one or both of
married spouses. Needles to say that property and child support are the two
most argued problems during a usual divorce so in this article we will write
about Matrimonial Property Law in Canada. It was initially established
that after the marriage the property becomes common, but during a long period
of the development and creation if the Common Law only the husband had the
rights to manage the matrimonial property. But with time, when the legal
definition and status of the family changed, women also obtained the right to
manage property and naturally that brought in some additional legal rules.
While there are
numerous differences Matrimonial property law in each province and territory has
some general things in common. This law defines what things are considered
matrimonial property, applies to spouses automatically upon marriage, says
whether or not matrimonial property rights apply to common-law couples in the
same way as married couples, describes rights and interests during marriage (or
a common-law relationship, depending on the province or territory), describes
how to divide matrimonial property upon marriage breakdown, provides for the
enforcement of agreements regarding matrimonial property, provides special
rights in regard to the family home. Also in different cases the spouses can
ask the court for following matrimonial property decisions and protections: an
order for temporary or permanent possession of the family home, permission to
sell the family home in order to divide the sale price between the spouses, an
order preventing the sale of the family home without the consent of both
spouses, protection against a spouse unreasonably disposing matrimonial
property, such as cash in a joint bank account.
The four western
Canadian provinces still keep the Dower Act, this act is a very old spouse
protection mechanism. It guarantees the widow a third of the matrimonial
property, if no adultery was committed by her during the marriage. Also the
western provinces keep the "homestead legislation", it prohibits the
sale of the family home without the consent of the wife and a number of other
acts that protect the family home. So as you see the joint property is a very
serious thing and it is accordingly regulated by various laws. Various
provinces have various laws and legislations concerning this type of property
and there are numerous cases that can be examined during the case when the
property is divided. There is a good movie The War of The Roses that shows a
huge complexity of the Matrimonial Property during a divorce. There is a
spectacular scene, when Danny De Vito (who plays the family lawyer) throws a
huge book on the table, with the words “I found a similar case”. So if you need
to solve a property issue with your ex-wife don’t even start discussing it
without a lawyer. Also a marriage contract that regulates the property in case
of a divorce is a good solution, we already wrote about these documents so you
can just search our blog for all the details.
