Property Settlement - De Facto
Until recently the law governing defacto relationships was vague and confusing to say the least but now there is new Legislation in the Queensland Property Law Act which will hopefully make things easier when defacto couples separate.
One plus is that defacto couples in Queensland will now have easier access to the Courts to settle their disputes. Previously, a defacto spouse generally had to rely on the law of trusts to establish a claim on property which was not registered in his/her name. The new Legislation is similar to the law governing division of property for married couples.
Who is a defacto spouse? The Act describes a defacto spouse as “one of two persons, whether of the same or the opposite sex, who have lived together as a couple”.
The first thing that you will notice is that the Act covers same sex couples.
Two people are a couple if they have lived together on a genuine domestic basis, in a relationship based on intimacy, trust and personal commitment to each other. Therefore, two people living together merely as flatmates cannot be considered as living in a defacto relationship and cannot come within the Act.
On the next page we will talk about property division as amongst defacto relationships. |
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