Warning

The draft was written for another province

A Canadian family agreement is classified by the province whose statute actually applies, not by the filename prenup.

Thirteen statutes, not one national prenup

If the file recites Ontario Family Law Act equalization while the couple has lived in Vancouver for years, the useful question is which province’s family-property statute a court would actually apply. This product will not pick the conflicts answer. It will not treat a British Columbia unmarried-spouse claim as Ontario Part I.

Québec family patrimony is of public order. Pasting a common-law waiver into a Montréal marriage contract does not make the Code look like the FLA. The reverse is also true.

Ask for the original text file. Photos are rejected. If the only copy is a U.S. template, the province pack still has to be chosen honestly.

What to bring a lawyer

Where each of you lives now, where you lived while the draft was negotiated, and where you intend to marry or keep living together.

Whether you are already spouses for that province’s property statute, or only hoping the contract will fill a gap the statute never created.

limitationsstatute

Family Law Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. F.3, ss. 52, 55, 56(4)

What this pack will not invent

Do not import U.S. UPAA waiting periods or Swedish Skatteverket registration into Ontario analysis.

  • Conflicts of laws if the couple later lives in another province or country are a gap.
  • Tax, immigration, and Indigenous family-law systems are not fully catalogued here.
limitationsstatute

Civil Code of Québec, CQLR c. CCQ-1991, arts. 391, 414–426, 431–443

What this pack will not invent

Do not apply Ontario FLA equalization, British Columbia FLA unmarried-spouse property, or U.S. UPAA formalities to Québec. French and English versions of the Code are official; this pack cites the English LégisQuébec text.

  • Conflicts of laws if the couple later lives in another province or country are a gap.
  • Tax, immigration, and Indigenous family-law systems are not fully catalogued here.
propertystatute

Family Law Act, S.B.C. 2011, c. 25, ss. 3, 81, 92–93

Default property position if unmarried

s. 3 treats as spouses persons who are married or who have lived in a marriage-like relationship for a continuous period of at least two years, or who have lived in a marriage-like relationship and have a child together. Unmarried spouses can have Part 5 property claims. That is not Ontario and not Québec.

  • Do not assume the couple is already in a spouse-like property statute. Read this province’s trigger.
  • Do not analyze BC using Ontario FLA Part I or Québec family patrimony.