Family law agreements in Surrey put your own terms in writing

Which family agreement do I need?

The document follows the stage of the relationship. A couple moving in together signs a cohabitation agreement; a couple marrying, or already married, signs a marriage agreement; separated partners sign a separation agreement; and married spouses who have been apart a year with everything settled apply for an uncontested divorce.

• Cohabitation agreement: property, debt and support if you later separate; signed, witnessed and with separate advice; before or soon after moving in.
• Marriage agreement: the same questions for a married couple, often a home, business or family money; full disclosure as well; before or during the marriage.
• Separation agreement: property, debt, support and children once the relationship ends; disclosure and separate lawyers; after you separate.
• Uncontested divorce: the legal end of a marriage, granted on paper by the BC Supreme Court; a year apart and BC residency; married spouses only.
• Mediation or arbitration: a neutral person helps settle, or decides, the open terms; safety screening first; when one or two issues are stuck.
• Property settlement: listing, valuing and transferring what you own and owe; agreed values; usually inside the separation agreement.

What can a family agreement decide, and what can't it?

A family agreement can settle how property and debt are divided and whether spousal support is paid, and those terms generally hold. Parenting arrangements and child support are different: a court can always measure them against the child's best interests and the Federal Child Support Guidelines. And no agreement, however complete, ends a marriage.

Property and debt terms are the most durable. Once the agreement is written, signed by both spouses and witnessed, a court will set those terms aside or replace them only in limited situations, such as undisclosed assets or a result that has become significantly unfair. Spousal support terms can be revisited on similar grounds. Terms about children stay open, because a court's duty to the child can't be contracted away.

Filed with the court, support and parenting terms can be enforced much as an order would be.

When is an agreement the wrong tool?

An agreement is the wrong tool when the conditions for one are missing: there is violence or fear, one spouse hides their finances, someone needs an urgent order, or you are stuck on parenting or a support figure. Those situations usually need a court, and court cases are outside Sidhu Legal's agreement practice.

The Family Law Act expects lawyers and mediators to raise out-of-court options and to screen for family violence first (s. 8). Court is a different route, not a failed one, and many court cases still settle. Only the BC Supreme Court can grant a divorce or divide property; the Provincial Court hears parenting, support and some other family matters.

• Safety: if anyone is in danger, call 911. VictimLinkBC is the provincial help line for people affected by family violence and answers at any hour. Protection orders come from a court, which puts them with Ng Sidhu Law (ngsidhu.com).
• Hidden finances: an agreement rests on disclosure. Where a spouse won't produce records, a court can order it, and that is litigation.
• Urgency: an order to stop a sale of the home, set interim support, or decide where the children live for now comes from a court.
• Parenting or a support figure: Ng Sidhu Law's parenting, child support and spousal support pages at ngsidhu.com describe the court route for those disagreements.

How does a separation or marriage agreement affect my home and my will?

A signed agreement usually has to be carried out elsewhere: a title transfer at the Land Title Office, a refinance or a mortgage release from the lender, new beneficiary designations, and a new will. Real estate and wills are the other two parts of Sidhu Legal's practice, and the pages for each explain those steps in order.

Separation changes a will before anything is signed. Under the Wills, Estates and Succession Act, a gift to a separated spouse and their appointment as executor are generally treated as revoked unless the will says otherwise, without waiting for a divorce. Marriage works the other way: it no longer revokes a will in BC, so an existing will carries on and should be checked against a marriage agreement. The guides to separating when you own a home and to your will after separation take each step in turn.

We were never married. Which of these pages apply to us?

Most of them. Unmarried partners use the cohabitation, separation agreement, property and mediation pages much as married couples do, because the Family Law Act treats spouses alike whether or not they married. The uncontested divorce page doesn't apply: divorce ends a marriage, and an unmarried relationship ends with the separation itself.

The main difference is timing: the s. 198 limitation period for property and spousal support claims runs from separation for unmarried spouses, and from the divorce order for married ones.