Settling Other Money Matters

Unless we say otherwise, the legal rights described in this section apply to people who are married or who live common-law for at least two years.

Spousal support

Depending on your circumstances, you or your spouse (married or unmarried) might have to contribute to the other person’s financial support after your relationship ends. Spousal support is partly intended to:

compensate (make up) for any financial advantages or disadvantages either or both spouses might have because of the relationship or the separation, and
help each spouse become financially independent within a reasonable period of time after separating.

If you and your spouse can’t agree on whether one of you should pay spousal support or how much you should pay or for how long, try to sort things out with the help of a mediator or another dispute resolution professional. If you can’t agree, you can go to court to ask for a court order.

See Final order.

If you apply for spousal support, the court looks at the following:

how long you and your spouse lived together,
if you stay or stayed at home most of the time with the children,
if you worked outside the home during the marriage or relationship,
if you can support yourself,
whether you earn a lot less than your spouse, and
if your spouse is able to pay.

If you were married, you must apply for spousal support under the Family Law Act no later than two years after you get a divorce order or annulment. If you lived together and weren’t married, you must apply within two years of the date you separated. There is no time limit for a married spouse to apply for spousal support under the Divorce Act.

Spousal support amount

If you must pay spousal support, the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines can help you figure out the amount of support you should pay. Lawyers, dispute resolution professionals, and judges all use these guidelines to help them make a decision. The guidelines take into account:

how much each of you earn and the sources of your income,
how long you were together,
your ages, and
whether you have children.

For Indigenous spouses, if the spousal support payor is a Status Indian who lives and works on reserve and doesn’t have to pay provincial or federal income taxes, the courts adjust their income amount upward. This adjustment is called grossing up income.

It’s very important to know for sure whether the payor gets non-taxable income.

The MySupportCalculator website has a calculator that can give you a good idea of how much spousal support should be paid. You have to enter information about both spouses.

If both spousal support and child support must be paid, you need to calculate each of those amounts. Calculations are complicated, especially if you have children. You can see a lawyer to get a more accurate calculation of the payment amounts.

How long spousal support lasts

A spousal support agreement or court order can be for a specific period, or might not have an end date. If it’s for a set period, how long support is paid depends on many things, including:

the length of your relationship,
your roles in the relationship,
your and your spouse’s ability to become self-sufficient, and
each of your standards of living.

If your agreement or order doesn’t have an end date, it can set out circumstances when support ends; for example, retirement. Your agreement or order can also say you must review the spousal support after a set period. It can be helpful to review your circumstances regularly.

You might need to extend spousal support. You can change support more easily while the agreement or order is in place than after it has ended. If your order or agreement doesn’t say it has to be reviewed after a set period, it’s a good idea to apply for an extension before the agreement or court order ends. It’s also a good idea to get help from a lawyer.

BC Family Maintenance Agency

Once you have an agreement filed at the court registry or an order for spousal support, you can enroll it with the BC Family Maintenance Agency (BCFMA), formerly known as the BC Family Maintenance Enforcement Program (FMEP).

The BCFMA is a free BC government program that helps you collect any support owed to you. You don’t have to wait until the payments are late to register. You can register the order or agreement immediately after it’s made.

See Other free legal services for BCFMA contact information.

Changing the spousal support amount

You can apply to set aside (cancel) a spousal support agreement if the agreement is unfair or was made unfairly. For example, if one spouse:

provided inaccurate financial information or withheld important information,
took advantage of the other spouse, or
didn’t understand the agreement.

The court might also set aside an agreement and replace it with a court order if the agreement is “significantly unfair.” To figure out if the agreement is unfair, the court would look at:

the length of time since the agreement was made,
any changes in either of your circumstances,
whether (and to what extent) you both intended this agreement to be final,
how much you both rely on the current agreement, and
whether the agreement meets the Family Law Act spousal support goals.

You can apply to change a spousal support order when a significant change happens in the “condition, means, needs, or other circumstances of either spouse.” These changes could include the following circumstances:

The payor becomes unemployed or disabled and can’t pay.
One of the spouses lives with someone else or remarries, so their expenses decrease.
One of the spouses gets a financial windfall, like a lottery win.

Property and debt

The Family Law Act sets out the law for how property and debt are divided after a couple separates. In most situations, the law is the same for married spouses and unmarried spouses living together for at least two years. The information here explains when the rule is different for unmarried spouses.

How to divide family property and debt

Unless you have a written and signed agreement that says otherwise, the law assumes all family property and family debt will be divided equally. This applies unless it would be “significantly unfair” to divide it equally.

It isn’t easy to convince a court that an equal division would be significantly unfair. To decide if it would be, the court looks at many factors, including:

how long the relationship lasted,
if both spouses made any agreements other than written and signed ones,
how much each spouse contributed to the other’s career or career potential,
how the family got into debt,
each spouse’s ability to pay a share of family debt if one spouse’s debt is more than the family property is worth, and
if one spouse did something to raise or lower the family debt or property value after the separation.

If you were married, you must apply to BC Supreme Court to divide family property or debt no later than two years after you got an order for divorce or annulment.

If you were unmarried, you must apply to BC Supreme Court within two years of the date you separated.

It’s best not to agree to get a divorce until you deal with property division issues.

Family property

Family property is everything either you or your spouse own together or separately on the date you separate. This includes:

the family home,
RRSPs,
investments,
bank accounts,
insurance policies,
pensions,
an interest in a business,
the amount that pre-relationship property (property owned by one spouse before the relationship started) increased in value since the relationship started, and
companion animals.

Companion animals (pets)

Family property also includes companion animals (pets). As of January 15, 2024, the Family Law Act states that separating or divorcing spouses can make their own agreement about the possession and ownership of pets. The agreement may include that the spouses:

jointly own a pet,
share possession of a pet, or
give exclusive ownership or possession of a pet to one of the spouses.

For more information about reaching agreement, see the BC Government website.

If you and your spouse can’t agree on who gets the family pet, one of you can apply to BC Provincial Court or Supreme Court for an order. The court will consider various factors and make a decision about which spouse gets ownership and possession of the pet. (The court can’t declare that spouses jointly own the pet or require spouses to share possession of the pet.)

People who aren’t spouses may be able to resolve a pet dispute by agreement or by going to the Civil Resolution Tribunal, BC Small Claims Court, or BC Supreme Court, depending on the value of the claim.

It doesn’t matter whose name the property is in.

Excluded property (not family property)

Not all property that each of you have is family property. You and your spouse can take some things out of the marriage without having to share them. These exceptions to family property are called excluded property. This includes:

property that one spouse owned before the relationship started, and
gifts and inheritances given to one spouse during the relationship.

If excluded property increases in value during your relationship, the increase is considered family property. For example, say your spouse owned a house when you started living together. You aren’t entitled to an equal share of the house’s total value. But you’re entitled to half of the increase in the house’s value since you started living together.

Also, excluded property remains excluded property, even if you put it into joint names. For example, say one spouse inherits $100,000 and uses it to buy property in joint names with their spouse. Under the Family Law Act, the $100,000 stays excluded property after separation as it can be traced back to the spouse who contributed it. But a court can decide to divide excluded property in certain circumstances if a claim is made.

The law in this area changes and can be complicated. Get legal advice if you can. For information about this area of law, see the Family Law in BC website.

Property division for Indigenous people with non-Indigenous spouses

Information in this section applies to:

Status Indians, and
non-Indigenous people who have children with Status Indians.

For financial assets, like cash, bank accounts, stocks, and bonds, the same personal property division laws apply to Indigenous and non-Indigenous spouses. This is because financial assets are kept off reserve.

Homes on reserve for Indigenous and non-Indigenous spouses

The Family Homes on Reserves and Matrimonial Interests or Rights Act (FHRMIRA), in place since December 2014, means if you live on reserve, you’re protected:

during your relationship,
if you and your spouse or common-law partner separate, and
if your spouse or common-law partner dies.

The FHRMIRA applies to married and common-law couples living on reserve, if at least one person is a First Nation member or a Status Indian. It applies to opposite-sex couples and same-sex couples. The Indian Act says common-law means living together in a marriage-like relationship for at least one year.

The FHRMIRA intends to give the same rights and protections to the family home that people who live off reserve have. It gives people who live on reserves protections and rights until a First Nation community makes its own matrimonial real property laws under the Act or other legislation.

What matrimonial real property means

Under the FHRMIRA, matrimonial real property means houses, land, and structures a family uses. You might have got this real property before or during your relationship. The act doesn’t include other property you use for a family purpose, such as cars, money, and household furniture.

Matrimonial real property doesn’t include gifts you got in a will, or when someone died without a will, or real property you bought with money from those gifts.

When a relationship ends

Under FHRMIRA, when a relationship ended and only one spouse or common-law partner had a certificate of possession, the other person might have had to leave the family home. The courts could only make orders for families on reserve to divide the value of matrimonial property (house, cash, cars, etc.).

Under the Family Homes on Reserves and Matrimonial Interests or Rights Act, the courts can make orders about the home. These include who can live in it and for how long, how matrimonial property is divided, and other protections about the home. This means the court can:

remove violent partners from the family home, and
apply a First Nation’s own matrimonial property laws when they exist.

This means that even if you aren’t a First Nation member, and even if your children aren’t First Nation members, you and your children might be able to stay in your home on reserve.

If you or your spouse or common-law partner want to decide what to do with your family home on reserve after you separate, the law says:

you must first get the “free and informed” consent of your spouse or common-law partner, and
you must get their consent in writing.

First Nations laws

First Nations can make their own matrimonial real property laws. Or they can follow the FHRMIRA until they make their own laws.

The act doesn’t cover:

First Nations who have their own matrimonial real property laws (you can ask the Nation if they have their own laws),
First Nations with a self-government agreement (unless they have reserve land and choose to follow the act), and
First Nations with land codes in place under the First Nations Land Management Act.

Family debt

Family debt includes all debts that either spouse took on during the relationship. This might include:

mortgages,
loans from family members,
bank lines of credit or overdrafts,
credit card payments, and
income tax.

Family debt also includes debts taken on after spouses separate if the money was spent to take care of family property.

It doesn’t matter whose name the debt is in.

Both spouses are equally responsible for family debt. The court orders an unequal sharing of debts only if it’s “significantly unfair” to divide it equally.

However, creditors can demand payment only from the spouse who took on the debt. If a couple has joint debts, creditors might choose to demand payment from only one spouse.

You might want to do the following when you separate:

Tell all your creditors in writing you’re no longer with your spouse. Keep a copy of your written notices.
Cancel any joint and secondary credit cards.
Talk to your bank about any joint accounts you have.
Reduce the limits on overdrafts and credit lines to what you owe now. Or see if you can change the account so that two signatures are needed to withdraw money.
If you need credit, ask the bank to open a line of credit in your name only.
Think about changing the beneficiary of your investments, RRSPs, insurance, and will to someone else, such as your children, if your spouse is the beneficiary.

This can get complicated. You might need to get some legal advice. See Help from a lawyer to find one.

Benefits

If you and your spouse separate, you also have to think about what to do about the benefits you get through your work.

Extended medical/dental plans

If one spouse’s extended medical plan provides coverage for the whole family, you need to find out the rules for separated or divorced spouses. Usually, the plan continues to cover the children.

If the plan covers a separated or divorced spouse, your agreement or order should say the coverage continues. If the plan doesn’t cover a separated or divorced spouse, you have to apply for separate coverage.

Financial help

If you don’t have enough money to live on, here are some options for getting financial help.

Welfare

Welfare is money and other benefits the BC government gives to people who don’t have an income (usually wages or a salary). There are rules about who can get these benefits.

If you’re already on welfare, tell the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction (the ministry) you separated from your spouse. This affects how much welfare you get each month.

See How to Apply for Welfare, Welfare Benefits, and When You’re on Welfare.

If your children live with you and there isn’t a child support agreement or order in place, the ministry might arrange for you to meet with a family maintenance worker to talk about getting child support from the other parent. The ministry might try to arrange for a child support agreement or court application to get an order for child support from the other parent. If you don’t want the ministry’s help to apply for support, you can tell them that.

Seniors’ benefits

Spouses who were married or lived together in a marriage-like relationship for at least one year are entitled to federal benefits such as the Old Age Security (OAS) pension, the spouse’s Allowance, and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS).

The spouse’s Allowance is for couples with low incomes. It’s paid to spouses who are 60 to 64 years old if their spouse is 65 and getting an OAS pension. If you’re getting the spouse’s Allowance, and you’re between 60 and 64 when you separate from your spouse, your Allowance stops three months after you separate.

GIS is based on your and your spouse’s combined income. If you separate and are living on a low income, you might qualify for GIS as a single person. Let the GIS office know right away that you separated from your spouse.

Canada Pension Plan credit splitting

When a relationship ends, the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) pension contributions a couple made while they lived together can be shared equally between them. This division is called credit splitting. You must ask to have your CPP credits split. To qualify, unmarried spouses must have lived together for at least one year.

If you are or were married, there’s no time limit to apply, unless your spouse dies. Then you must apply within 36 months of the date of death.

If you were living in a marriage-like relationship for one year, you can apply for credit splitting after you live apart for 12 consecutive months. You must apply within four years of the date you began living apart.

If you signed an agreement with your spouse or partner that says you won’t split CPP pension credits, you usually have to stick to that agreement.

For more information, see the online booklets When I’m 64 on the People’s Law School website. Or contact Department of Employment and Social Development Canada.

1-800-277-9914 (English)
1-800-277-9915 (French)
1-800-255-4786 (TTY)

Taking care of other details

Separation or divorce doesn’t automatically change your banking or beneficiary information. If you separate from your spouse, you might want to take the actions listed in the Family debt section above.

Also let the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) know you’re separated after you’ve been apart for at least 90 days. In some cases, you might qualify for extra Canada child benefit or GST credit payments.

To change your marital status, call CRA at 1-800-387-1193 (press 1 for the Canada child benefit, then press 1 to speak to a representative). Or fill out a Marital Status Change form and send it to the tax centre in your area. For more information and to get the form, see the Government of Canada website . In the search bar, type marital status change. Click the link to open the page.

Get legal advice to protect your finances and credit, and to learn about your options. You especially need legal advice if you own a house, car, or other property (like joint bank accounts) with your spouse.

See Help from a lawyer for how to find one.

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