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What are the Reasons for Uneven Division Of Assets

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  • What are the Reasons for Uneven Division Of Assets

    Hello why question is what are the reasons for an uneven division of assets?
    It appears that my wifes lawyer is asking the court for this and I have aske for a fair division which would be a 50/50 .

    Thank You DVR

  • #2
    hi dvr,

    Jeff stated in a recent post, "Assets and debts themselves are not divided. Instead, at the end of the day, one of you will need to pay the other an equalization payment."

    I am assuming that your wife is claiming that you retained the full amount of a joint asset, or that she perhaps assumed the full responsibility of a joint debt. So, what she is asking for is an unequal division of property, or an adjustment to the equalization payment.

    In most cases where this is being asked for, the party will provide a net family property statement as well as a statement of adjustments. While the NFP statement may show joint accounts as being split 50/50, the statement of adjustments will likely explain why that party is claiming an unequal division, and will show their calculations in support of this. The statement should show the total amount they feel should be added to the equalization payment they are entitled to, or the total amount they feel should be deducted from the equalization they are required to pay to the other. Some parties tend to show the unequal division in the NFP statement itself. Nevertheless, your wife must make clear somewhere in her NFP statement why she is claiming an unequal division of property.

    If you do not agree with this, look through your financial disclosure and try to find any bank statements, letter correspondence, deposit slips, etc. that will disprove your wife's claims.

    I hope this clears things up.

    Lindsay

    Comment


    • #3
      Section 5(6) of Ontario's Family Law Act set out the reasons:

      The court may award a spouse an amount that is more or less than half the difference between the net family properties if the court is of the opinion that equalizing the net family properties would be unconscionable, having regard to,

      (a) a spouse’s failure to disclose to the other spouse debts or other liabilities existing at the date of the marriage;

      (b) the fact that debts or other liabilities claimed in reduction of a spouse’s net family property were incurred recklessly or in bad faith;

      (c) the part of a spouse’s net family property that consists of gifts made by the other spouse;

      (d) a spouse’s intentional or reckless depletion of his or her net family property;

      (e) the fact that the amount a spouse would otherwise receive under subsection (1), (2) or (3) is disproportionately large in relation to a period of cohabitation that is less than five years;

      (f) the fact that one spouse has incurred a disproportionately larger amount of debts or other liabilities than the other spouse for the support of the family;

      (g) a written agreement between the spouses that is not a domestic contract; or

      (h) any other circumstance relating to the acquisition, disposition, preservation, maintenance or improvement of property.
      Except in cases of marriages less than 5 years or where one spouse has really behaved egregiously regarding the family finances, it's difficult to be successful at a claim for unequal division of assets.

      Some lawyers just automatically toss this sort of claim in as boilerplate. You may want to check a bit further as to how serious this claim really is.
      Ottawa Divorce

      Comment

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