The law in Victoria has recently changed so that a DeFacto partner of two years or more will get 100% (yes 100 percent) of the estate of their partner who dies without leaving a will.
This sounds fine in theory but how do you tell a real Defacto partner from a housemate or a more casual kind of relationship when your prime witness is dead ?
This is going to be a horribly tricky area in coming years. Recently I spoke to the Mother of a boy who had been living with his first ever serious girlfriend for about 18 months. The boy and the girlfriend then split up for approximately six weeks, then got back together for another eight months before the boy announces to his Mother that the relationship with his girlfriend is over and he is going to move out. That weekend, before actually moving out, he is drowned in a boating accident. The girlfriend says that the six week breakup was just them taking some "Space" and that the boy certainly had not told her that it was over.
The boy has purchased his first house, has substantial superannuation and savings, even though he is only 25 years old. His Mother has contributed, obviously, in a substantial way both financially and non finacially, to the boys position. The girl, it seems, was a non contributer and a spendthrift who wants no contact with the Mother and is already in a new relationship.
The girl will probably get the entirety of her former boyfriends estate pursuant to the combined effect of the Administration and Probate Act and the "Relationships Act".
This sounds fine in theory but how do you tell a real Defacto partner from a housemate or a more casual kind of relationship when your prime witness is dead ?
This is going to be a horribly tricky area in coming years. Recently I spoke to the Mother of a boy who had been living with his first ever serious girlfriend for about 18 months. The boy and the girlfriend then split up for approximately six weeks, then got back together for another eight months before the boy announces to his Mother that the relationship with his girlfriend is over and he is going to move out. That weekend, before actually moving out, he is drowned in a boating accident. The girlfriend says that the six week breakup was just them taking some "Space" and that the boy certainly had not told her that it was over.
The boy has purchased his first house, has substantial superannuation and savings, even though he is only 25 years old. His Mother has contributed, obviously, in a substantial way both financially and non finacially, to the boys position. The girl, it seems, was a non contributer and a spendthrift who wants no contact with the Mother and is already in a new relationship.
The girl will probably get the entirety of her former boyfriends estate pursuant to the combined effect of the Administration and Probate Act and the "Relationships Act".
Excellent first post, I am sure you have lots of fascinating stories covering issues that most of us just are not aware of.
ReplyDeleteYou can hit the little "t" button at the bottom of your post to tweet it out to people and that saves you having to cut and paste the URL.
I think you would have to be the first from SM Bootcamp to have a blog up!
Really enjoyed your post, helps explain an important legal concept in a very digestible way. Looking forward to your future posts!
ReplyDeleteGreat meeting you Melb at the social media boot camp.