Property Settlements

There is no hard and fast rule for determining property distributions following a breakdown in a relationship but it may not always be 50/50%  – every matter is different and effected by circumstances specific to your relationship.

There are of course various aspects familiar to most property settlements which will lend themselves to determining your likely range of outcomes.

Such factors however can be broken down to 4 steps which the Court follows in assessing your entitlements following a breakdown:

• Firstly your pool of wealth needs to be correctly identified and valued. There may be valuation issues, disputed items and undisclosed assets which you need to investigate and take into consideration in the settlement.

• Secondly there needs to be an evaluation of the respective contribution of both yourself and your partner relating to the acquisition, improvement and maintenance of assets of your relationship including any special contributions such as inheritances, lump sum payments and gifts.  Contributions take into account financial, non-financial and homemaker/parent contributions.

• Thirdly, there is a consideration of what are sometimes called the ‘future needs factors’ which may lead to a change/movement of the percentage division arrived at in the second stage above, to apportion a greater share in favour of one or other of you and your partner who has greater future needs including such things as your ability or your partner’s ability  to earn an income in the future to maintain yourself; health issues (if any) of either you or your partner, whether you have any dependent children in your care.

• After careful consideration to the above stages the Court will then consider whether the settlement is fair and equitable to both you and your partner – this may effect what each of you and your partner will keep.

Proceedings for property settlement may be commenced in Court at any time after separation once the pre-action procedures have been complied with.

Most applications take approximately 12 - 18 months from the date of filing before a hearing date is allocated.  Of course, only a very small proportion of cases commence actually proceed to hearing.  Significant costs can be incurred by both parties during the Court process.

The Family Law Act provides that the parties bear their own costs of litigation unless in specific circumstances an order for costs is made.  The Act provides criteria upon which a costs order is to be determined and it is usually in exceptional circumstances where one party has been unresponsive, unreasonable or highly unsuccessful.

If it’s time to consider the way forward, call Julie at Shedden & Associates today on (02) 9891 0055 or 0411 667 699 for an initial conference to discuss your likely range for a property settlement.