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I bought my car before our relationship started. Surely it belongs to me and isn’t relationship property. Find out below why that’s not necessarily the case.

 

If a chattel is classified as a “family chattel” it is subject to the equal sharing rule regardless of when it was bought.  “Family chattels” include the following items where used wholly or principally for family purposes:

 

Courts have held that it is proper to include the furniture in children’s bedrooms in valuations of family chattels, as the retention of these chattels by one party forces the other to acquire like property in order to accommodate the children on access visits.   

 

In one case the husband’s motorbike was considered a family chattel because it enabled him to engage in his normal daily routine while allowing the wife to use the family car. 

 

However, in another case, a painting valued at $120,000 that the husband had painted years before being married was not considered relationship property despite it being hung in the family home and therefore used for “family purposes”.  That is because he had told his children from his first marriage (prior to his second marriage) that the painting belonged to them.  The court agreed with his argument that he was holding the painting on trust for his children.  However, had he told his children that the painting belonged to them DURING his marriage, he would have had to compensate his wife for her share of the painting’s worth.  That’s because if you dispose of any relationship property during your relationship into a trust then your partner/spouse can seek compensation for their share.   

 

In another case, boats the family had ceased to use were classified as family chattels even though “the boats were not used wholly or principally for family purposes as at the date on which the parties ceased to live together”.  The court held that because the boats were used in the past for family boating, they were family chattels.  Yet in another case, the court held that a motor car which was no longer used as the family car at the date of separation was not a family chattel showing that it’s not always certain what would happen if the matter went to court.  

 

If you want certainty as to what will happen to your family chattels, you may wish to consider whether you need a Contracting Out Agreement (Prenup).  Please feel free to call me for a free 15 minute call on 021 077 7785 or email me at Hayley@caringestates.co.nz

 

For your free self assessment tool to find out if a Prenup is right for you, please click below.