Scenario

The couple is in Québec

If the instrument is Québec, use the Québec packs. Do not analyze a contrat de mariage as an Ontario marriage contract.

Public order and notarial form

A marriage contract is typically a notarial act. Family patrimony is of public order. De facto spouses do not enter family patrimony by cohabiting. Those three sentences are why Québec is first-class in this catalog rather than a footnote on the Ontario page.

French and English versions of the Civil Code are official. This product can report in French when you use the French review path.

formalitiesstatute

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

Marriage-contract form

A marriage contract is made by notarial act, except where the Code permits another form. This is not Ontario witnessing and not a U.S. acknowledgment.

  • Photos and unsigned templates are not a completed domestic contract.
  • If the file calls itself a prenup, the formation question is still this province’s marriage-contract form, not California Fam. Code or Sambolagen.
propertystatute

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

Default property regime for spouses

Default regime is partnership of acquests unless a marriage contract chooses another permitted regime. Family patrimony (family residence, furniture, vehicles, certain retirement rights) is a separate public-order mass.

  • The contract’s job is usually to modify or confirm that default, within what the statute lets parties do.
  • 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.
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.