How can I prepare for my property settlement mediation in family law?

Before mediation you need to have a very good understanding of your property pool. From our experience, determining the property pool and agreeing on the property pool is the most problematic thing. People think it’s more difficult to discuss percentages split such as 50/50, 60/40 or 45/55. However, we see the most problems from parties attempting to determine the property pool. Keep reading to find a solution.

The first thing, before mediation you need to have a very good understanding of your property pool. From our experience, determining the property pool and agreeing on the property pool is the most problematic thing. People think it’s more difficult to discuss percentages split such as 50/50, 60/40 or 45/55. However, we see the most problems from parties attempting to determine the property pool.

The property pool is very simple - it’s all assets less all liabilities at today’s date. You put all the assets together (the house, the motor vehicles, the boats, the shares, the savings, other assets), deduct all the liabilities (mortgage loan, credit cards, tax liabilities and other loans), and this will be the property pool…it’s pretty much the net total of everything.

However, people argue a lot about addbacks. Addbacks means if someone took something from the pool, it needs to be added back for calculation purposes. For example, if one party took $20,000 from the joint savings and spent the money and the other party is saying “look, that should come back to the pool, or it should be deducted from her entitlement.”

People argue a lot about liabilities, often loans from parents or some family members. One party might make an argument saying “we borrowed this money from my parents when we were purchasing the house, so we are supposed to pay the money back. It needs to come out of the pool and go to my parents.” However, the other party might say “no, it’s a gift, its not a loan. Well, yes, they just gave us money, but it was a gift, it shouldn’t come out from the pool.” Your understanding of the property pool can be different from the other party, but you need to make a table of assets less liabilities, all at today’s date.

Think about your lowest and highest offer. Seek legal advice about what your entitlements are, what would be a just and equitable split, and it still will be in the range. Be prepared to compromise and be prepared to think outside of the scope you have in your mind at the moment. Let’s say from this settlement, you think you should have a cash payment of $200,000 and the other party can keep the house. Think about whether we can explore other options, maybe superannuation splitting order - for example, you have $50,000 from superannuation and $150,000 as a cash payment.

If you have questions regarding your property settlement, please do not hesitate to contact us on 07 2113 4645 so we can book your initial consultation.