WA Separation with De Facto - Reasonable Property Settlement?

[Rach]

Can anyone tell me what happens if consent orders are not sort before the cut off of 2 years for de facto separation? I understand that leave can be applied for, and not always granted, other than that and cost what becomes the issues, e.g. is it harder to for the party not living in the jointly owned home to claim rights?

Another curly question is with regards to property. My partner split with his ex 13 years ago, at he time signed a Form 11 in relation to property they jointly owned. He took a small financial and property settlement and signed to waive all rights and any future claim to the property. They got back together a few years later and had 2 kids.

They lived in the same property together for about 2 years which he financially contributed to, then they moved to another house they purchased, kept the one in her name as an investment property for another few years. When the property was sold she put the proceeds, about 250k, into their family home mortgage.

Now they are dividing assets, given the original form 11, does the 250k come off the top of the asset pool (or as she wants given back to her) or would this be considered to be included she contributed the money willingly?

Could it be that she be offered say 5% on her split to cover this contribution. She is currently claiming an 80/20 split of assets after the 250k is taken out. Surely the courts won't see this as 'fair and reasonable'?

 

[Sophea]

I believe that if you miss the 2-year cut-off and you are not granted leave to apply, then you need to sort it out through the general court system, which doesn't have the same powers with respect to property divisions. I doubt it would necessarily impact one party or the other's interest in property.

Regarding your other curly question, there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to any property settlement let along one with unique circumstances such as this. The parties must come to an agreement on their property division themselves, if they can't and a court is requested to make a determination of their financial affairs and divide their assets it will make a decision it deems as fair based on all the facts and circumstances and its impossible to predict what it will decide.

Unfortunately I don't know of any çases with similar scenarios. Perhaps some other contributors can provide information on any similar cases that have been decided on by the court?

 

[Hayder Shkara]

can anyone tell me what happens if consent orders are not sort before the cut off of 2 years for de facto separation?

Hi Rach,

Yes, you can apply for leave to file the orders. Basically you will have to explain why you didn't file them in the first two years and why it would be slack for the courts not to hear your claim. If drafted correctly, leave can be granted by the courts fairly easily.