When is spousal consent required in an Ontario real estate transaction?
When you’re buying or selling a home in Ontario, one detail that often catches people off guard is spousal consent. Even if only one spouse is on title, the other spouse may still have legal rights in the property – and those rights can affect whether your deal is allowed to close.
Can You Buy a Home in Ontario After Separation But Before Divorce Is Finalized?
Separation marks a major transition, not just emotionally, but also financially and legally. One of the most common questions we receive is whether someone can buy a new home in Ontario after separation but before a divorce is finalized, especially when no separation agreement has been signed. The short answer is yes. Yes, you can […]
Does My Common Law Spouse Get The House?
One concern clients have when it comes to ownership of the home on separation is: who is going to take the house when we separate? Will my common law spouse be able to take the home from me? The quick answer to this is: probably not. What this means is that if a person is […]
Access in a COVID-19 World
The COVID-19 pandemic has put all of us into a very unprecedent time in our lives. All of us are making adjustments to our regular routines and taking measures to ensure that our families are safe. As a result, one major complication that has arisen during this time is regarding access to children. Many clients […]
Types of Spousal Support: Compensatory and Non-Compensatory
Our previous blog post on spousal support dealt with how spousal support is calculated, specifically the amount of spousal support and the duration of its payment. I also made mention to the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines (“SSAG”) and how they influence the calculation of spousal support in Ontario. In this post, we will be delving deeper […]
Occupation Rent: Exclusive Possession Continued
In my last blog post I discussed the concept of exclusive possession and how a spouse may be able to claim such a remedy. S. 24(1)(b) of the Family Law Act (“FLA”) provides for the remedy of exclusive possession that applies to MARRIED SPOUSES. This section provides that: Regardless of the ownership of a matrimonial home and […]
Exclusive Possession of the Matrimonial Home
One of the more difficult choices to make when separating is deciding who will get to live in the matrimonial home, or what is otherwise known as exclusive possession. Both parties have likely developed an attachment to the home, and uprooting your life to move somewhere else can be a daunting and stressful experience. So […]
Can I Secretly Record My Ex-Spouse?
Seems like something you should be able to do right? If an ex-spouse is talking to the children, or anyone else, some parents try to record those conversations to use against the other spouse later on in legal proceedings. What parents will need to be mindful of is that this may actually trigger parts of […]
Unequal Division of Net Family Property
When married spouses separate, s.5(1) of the Family Law Act (“FLA”) provides that there will be an equalization payment made from the spouse with the greater net family property to the spouse with the lesser net family property (see our blog post here for an introduction to how net family property and equalization work). To […]
Breakdown of Marriage: Physical and Mental Cruelty
Separation alone is difficult to deal with. When the issues concerning adultery, physical and mental cruelty become involved, it can make a difficult situation that much worse. If these concerns are a part of the separation between two spouses, courts here in Canada will implement a “no fault” regime. This means that when a person’s […]