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Surviving the Separation | Your First Steps to a Fair Property Settlement

 

Welcome to the crazy world of life after separation.

You need to sort out your property, but how?

This Blog is the first in a series of blogs designed to assist you to navigate the murky, perhaps shark infested waters of property division and end up safe at shore, with your deal done.

I want you to end up with an outcome that is fair and one that ideally, is negotiated with your former partner, and agreed between you. Separated people who cannot agree how to divide their property and need the court to decide, will end up spending a great deal of money in legal fees. You have better things to do with your hard-earned money, then spend it on legal fees. Particularly if you have children.

We start with some legal stuff that will help you to understand the wording more easily and tell you what the law says has to be done or might be done if you end up before a judge. You need to know this. You need to pick your battles sometimes and not waste time and money arguing about something you are just not going to get.

We will tell you about the 5-step process that we use to advise clients about what is a fair outcome.

Later blogs step you through the process and what you need to do, to get to an agreed outcome (and then we tell you what to do with that outcome, once you have it.) I've broken down the process into 9 easy to understand steps.

Here’s a very ‘lawyery’ disclaimer- this is information only, not advice and you can’t rely upon it as advice. Use this information as a guide, to point you in the right direction and to help you understand the legal language and principles. I cannot stress enough, to obtain legal advice that is specific to you, as you go along. Here are some notes as well:

When I talk about “relationship” and “partner” – it means both defacto (never married) and married couples; and includes same sex relationships.

These blogs will talk about “what the court will do” as that is our benchmark, that is how we advise you. Please note, I will encourage you to think of going to court as a last resort, so just because we talk about “court” doesn’t mean you should make an application to the court. UNLESS!! It is an application for consent orders.

An application for consent orders is a form that is filed with the court once people have agreed how to divide their property and/ or what arrangements they want in place for their children. As the name of the form suggests, you are asking the court to make orders by consent, that you have both agreed to. Even though you file the application in the court you don't actually go to court. Once the application is filed a registrar of the court will give you a date when he or she will consider your application and on that date, you will be informed whether the application has been granted or not. If the application is not granted the court will “requisition” it. The court won't dismiss your application straight away, you will be given information by the court as to why the registrar was concerned about your application and you will be given an opportunity to rectify the issue may have arisen.

There's further information about this in the blog entitled “filing your application for consent orders.

Are you ready!

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