What Can A De Facto Spouse Claim?

Our clients going through separation regularly have questions about how the asset pool will be split if they were not married to their ex-partner. Read this post to understand how the Court makes decisions regarding property settlement for parties who were in de facto relationships and how it is calculated the same way as those parties who were married.

For the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia whether the parties were married or in a de facto relationship does not affect the overall division of the asset pool.
Therefore the way in which the parties entitlements are calculated is exactly the same.

The Court will look at the length of the relationship and the parties initial, financial and non financial contributions, post separation contributions and future needs and make adjustments until a final percentage is reached.

Once the percentage is known the Court will look at and allocate the various assets and liabilities of the relationship between the parties and work out as a cash value, the total net value of the assets and liabilities for each person are. If one of the parties then has retained assets worth more than the cash value of the percentage they should be retaining the Court will Order that the person who has retained "too much" either make a cash payment to the other person or transfer some superannuation to the person who does not have enough.

This is why often when one person retains the house they need to be able to borrow enough money to discharge whatever mortgage is owed and enough to make a cash adjustment to the other person so they each walk away with the correct portion of the asset pool to reflect a just and equitable percentage of the pool.

If you would like to understand how the Court is likely to consider your contributions in your de facto relationship, contact us to discuss your matter with a Solicitor.