What is the difference between family property and excluded property in BC?
Family property is everything either spouse owns on the date of separation, and each spouse is presumed entitled to half of it. Excluded property is what a spouse brought into the relationship or received personally during it, such as an inheritance or a gift from someone outside the marriage. The spouse keeps the excluded property itself, but the growth in its value during the relationship is divided.
The starting point: equal division
Unless an agreement or order says otherwise, both spouses are entitled to family property and responsible for family debt regardless of who earned or paid for what, and on separation each spouse has a one-half interest in all family property. What counts is fixed as of the date of separation; values are usually taken at the time of trial or agreement.
What counts as family property
All real and personal property owned by either spouse on the date of separation, including shares in a company, an interest in a business, bank accounts, pensions and RRSPs, and anything acquired afterwards with that property. It also includes the amount by which excluded property has increased in value since the relationship began or the property was acquired, whichever is later.
What is excluded
Property a spouse owned before the relationship began; inheritances; gifts from a third party; most damages awards and insurance proceeds, other than the part that compensates both spouses or replaces lost income; property held in trust for a spouse; a beneficial interest in a discretionary trust the spouse did not fund; and property derived from any of these. The spouse claiming the exclusion must prove it, which in practice means records tracing the asset from the day the relationship began to the day of separation.
Unequal division
A court can divide family property or family debt unequally, but only if an equal division would be significantly unfair. The factors include the length of the relationship, a spouse's contribution to the other's career, debt taken on outside the normal course of the relationship, a spouse running down assets after separation, and tax consequences of a transfer. The bar is deliberately high.
Time limit
A married spouse must start a property claim within two years of the divorce order; an unmarried spouse within two years of separation. The time stops running while the spouses are in mediation or another family dispute resolution process with a professional.
The law
Each link opens the section itself on BC Laws or Justice Laws. Checked on November 9, 2026.
- Family Law Act, SBC 2011, c 25, s 81 — equal entitlement to family property and responsibility for family debt
- Family Law Act, s 84 — what family property is, including the growth in value of excluded property
- Family Law Act, s 85 — excluded property, and the burden of proving an exclusion
- Family Law Act, s 95 — unequal division where equal division would be significantly unfair
- Family Law Act, s 198 — the two-year time limits
People also ask
- Is the house I owned before we married family property?
- The house itself is excluded property, but the increase in its value from the day the relationship began to the day of separation is family property and is divided. You must be able to prove the value at the start.
- If I put my inheritance into a joint account, is it still excluded?
- The Act says an exclusion survives a transfer of ownership to the other spouse, but you still have to prove the excluded money is traceable into what exists at separation. Mixing it with family funds is where exclusions are most often lost in practice.
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General information about the law in British Columbia, not legal advice. Laws change and every situation differs; speak to a lawyer before acting on anything here.