Separating, buying with a partner or remarrying changes three sets of legal documents at once

Which guide fits my situation?

Start with the event that has just happened or is about to. Separating while you own a home, updating a will after a separation, buying with a partner you haven't married, and planning an estate around a second family each have a guide. If two apply, read the one closest to your next deadline first.

Separating when you own a home together: the three usual outcomes for the house (one of you keeps it, you sell, or you co-own it for a set time), what the agreement must say about each, and how the transfer, mortgage and tax filing follow.

Separated, or about to be, with a will that names your spouse: what BC law already cancels in that will, what it leaves in place, why registered plans and life insurance are separate, and what to sign now rather than later.

Buying a home with a partner you haven't married: joint tenancy against tenancy in common, recording that one of you paid more, when BC's family property rules start to apply to you, and the will each of you needs.

Remarried, or in a long relationship, with children from before: providing for your spouse without disinheriting your children, who can challenge the will, and how a trust, a marriage agreement, title and designations carry out one plan.

Why does the order of the paperwork matter?

Each document depends on another. A separation agreement decides who keeps the home, so the transfer and refinance come after it. Title decides who inherits a jointly held home, so the will has to be written around it. Change them out of sequence and one document can undo what another was meant to do.

Separating with a home: a buyout in an agreement only works if a lender will finance it, so test it with the lender before signing, or both names may stay on a mortgage neither of you wants.

Your will after separation: BC law removes a separated spouse from your will but chooses no replacement. Whoever the will names next takes over, so the new will usually comes before the agreement is finished.

Buying unmarried: title is fixed when the transfer registers on completion, so an agreement recording unequal contributions has to be signed by then and match the shares on title.

Blended families: a will leaving the house to your children can't reach a house held in joint tenancy with your spouse, who takes it by survivorship. Title has to be settled first.

Which documents does each change involve?

Every guide deals with three sets: a family agreement (separation, cohabitation or marriage agreement), the title and mortgage on the home, and the will with the estate documents around it, such as beneficiary designations and powers of attorney. The table below shows what each life event asks of each of the three.

When do I need a lawyer rather than a guide?

A guide explains the general rules; a lawyer applies them to your facts. Get advice when a limitation period may be running, the other person already has a lawyer, children are involved, property sits outside BC, or something has already been signed or registered. Each of these narrows the choices a guide describes.

The guides draw on the Family Law Act, the Wills, Estates and Succession Act, the Land Title Act, the Property Transfer Tax Act and, for ending a marriage, the federal Divorce Act.

Sidhu Legal's family work is limited to agreements, uncontested divorce, mediation and arbitration, and dividing property by agreement. A contested family case that a judge has to decide is outside it; that litigation is Ng Sidhu Law's, at ngsidhu.com.