# Common Law Agreement re no entitlement to claim for ownership



## Young&Ambitious (Aug 11, 2010)

So I'm going into common law status territory and further to reading up about the legal implications in BC (link: http://www.cba.org/bc/public_media/family/148.aspx ) I need an agreement stating that he won't have any ownership claim to the property upon making payments to towards housing expenses. 

While I am thinking I can easily write something up myself and have us both sign with a witness etc, does anyone know a template for this type of agreement? 

Thanks, Y&A


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## iherald (Apr 18, 2009)

Sorry you want to protect your house through a document (which makes sense) but you don't want to go to a lawyer to do it? I can almost guarantee that you'd lose in court if you drafted it yourself, or at very least pay a lot more fighting it than you would ensuring it was done properly in the first place.


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## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

Considering the consequenses, it is worth the money to pay a lawyer.


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## Mall Guy (Sep 14, 2011)

iherald said:


> Sorry you want to protect your house through a document (which makes sense) but you don't want to go to a lawyer to do it? I can almost guarantee that you'd lose in court if you drafted it yourself, or at very least pay a lot more fighting it than you would ensuring it was done properly in the first place.


In fact I would suggest you go one step further, and make sure you both have independent legal representation (even if you pay for his solicitor to review the document).


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

So here's what your link actually says:

_The law is different *for people in unmarried relationships. If just one partner owns an asset, that partner is presumed to be entitled to keep that asset.* If you own an asset together (the house, a car, bank accounts, etc.), you are presumed to have an equal interest in the asset. If you contributed to the purchase of an asset owned only by your partner, or paid more for the purchase of a joint asset than your partner, you may be able to get out what you put in, however you have to be able to prove your contributions to the purchase and that you didn’t mean to give your extra contributions to your partner as a gift.

However, *if you and your partner made an agreement about the ownership of assets – either during your relationship or after you separated – the parts of the Family Relations Act that apply to married couples’ property may be applied to your agreement*, if either of you go to court about the fairness of the agreement._

If you do NOT have an agreement, your partner has NO (automatic) claim (although you cannot prevent your partner from going to court to seek support or a share of the value of the asset). 

If you DO have an agreement, you bring the Family Relations Act in to apply to your situation. 

So IF you want to have an agreement, I'm mystified as to why you'd do this without legal counsel.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

It is really important that both parties willingly enter into the agreement and document it with a lawyer. The courts will throw any agreement out that do not represent a fair deal to the partners.

(Common law in BC.)


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## Young&Ambitious (Aug 11, 2010)

Thanks Moneygal for the clarification. I was speedreading the missed the part "you contributed to the purchase of an asset owned only by your partner, or paid more for the purchase of a joint asset than your partner, you may be able to get out what you put in, however you have to be able to prove your contributions to the purchase and that you didn’t mean to give your extra contributions to your partner as a gift.

I was hoping someone else had gone through this recently as we don't have a complicated situation and plan on getting married in a few years. People move in all the time together without taking this step so we weren't sure we would even need this. But, naturally we want to preserve ownerships over our own assets. Also our situations will be changing in the next few years we were planning on doing the formal agreement through lawyers at that time.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

Young&Ambitious said:


> People move in all the time together without taking this step so we weren't sure we would even need this. But, naturally we want to preserve ownerships over our own assets. Also our situations will be changing in the next few years we were planning on doing the formal agreement through lawyers at that time.


People "do this all the time without taking this step" because the common law is clear about ownership. What you are proposing takes a clear situation and makes it exactly the opposite of what you intend -- it brings the Family Relations Act in when you want to exclude it. If you want to exclude the Family Relations Act, do nothing.


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## Young&Ambitious (Aug 11, 2010)

Thank you MoneyGal!


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

You really should contact a lawyer, they're not that expensive.
And of course from that same link

"The law in this area is complex and you should to speak to a lawyer. "

I'd rather have a written agreement, than a "verbal" or "understood" agreement.


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