When a marriage or adult interdependent relationship ends, the property to be divided can disappear quickly if one party moves assets, sells or encumbers property, drains accounts, or incurs debt. Alberta’s Family Property Act allows the Court of King’s Bench to restrain a spouse or partner from transferring property to someone who is not a bona fide purchaser for value, or from making a substantial gift, where the transfer or gift may defeat the other’s claim, and that order can be sought without notice and even while the parties are still living together. The Act also allows a property application to be commenced early, before the usual conditions are met, where a spouse or partner is transferring property to defeat a claim or dissipating it to the other’s detriment, and it allows a certificate of lis pendens to be registered against land so that any later dealing with the land is subject to the claim. The Court of King’s Bench lists preservation orders among the civil matters it will hear urgently.
The same weeks often bring an urgent need for money. A spouse who has been cut off from the household accounts, or whose partner has stopped paying the mortgage or the children’s expenses, can apply for interim child support and interim spousal or partner support under the Divorce Act or the Family Law Act, and for orders directing that specific expenses continue to be paid while the case proceeds. A preservation order is not a property division; it holds the position so that the division can happen fairly later, and the Court will expect evidence of the specific risk, such as a listing, a transfer, a withdrawal or a pattern of concealment, before it will act. Once property proceedings have begun, the Act also prohibits either party from disposing of or removing household goods without the other party’s consent or a court order.
Keystone Legal brings preservation and urgent financial applications at the Calgary Courts Centre. The firm moves on the evidence first: land title searches, corporate registry searches, banking and statement history showing the movement of funds, and a disclosure request directed at whatever the searches have not already revealed. The draft order names the accounts, the properties and the corporate interests it covers so that a bank or a registry can act on it, and the firm registers a lis pendens against land where the claim supports it. Where the client needs interim support to keep the household running, that application is brought at the same time. The firm also defends against overbroad preservation applications, seeking terms that protect legitimate business operations while the property claim is resolved.
The practice is virtual, so meetings take place by video, telephone and email, with in-person meetings available on request in Cochrane or in Calgary. Advice is available in English or in French. Contested matters proceed at the Calgary Courts Centre, where counsel appears in person, and advisory and uncontested work is available anywhere in Alberta. Where property is already being moved or encumbered, the firm can be reached at (587) 328-3328 so that an application can be prepared without delay.
