A regular parenting schedule answers what happens during an ordinary school week. It does not necessarily answer what happens at Christmas, during March Break, on a child's birthday or when one parent wants to take two weeks of summer vacation. Those exceptions are worth addressing directly. There is no single arrangement that works for every family. The schedule should reflect the child's best interests, the family's traditions and the practical circumstances of both househo

A parenting plan should do more than say when the children are with each parent. A useful plan explains how parenting will work after separation. That can include the regular schedule, holidays, important decisions, communication, travel, exchanges, extracurricular activities and what happens when circumstances change. A parenting plan is a written document setting out how separated parents will care for their children and make important decisions about them. There is no sing

After separation, buying another home can feel like an important step toward establishing a new household. But before deciding what you can afford, it helps to understand what a mortgage lender will actually see. Your income may now be assessed on its own. You may have child or spousal support obligations. Your name may still appear on the mortgage for the former family home. Joint credit may still be open. And money expected from the property settlement may not yet be availa

Separation can mark the beginning of significant legal, financial, and personal changes. Understanding what happens next can help you make informed decisions about your rights, responsibilities, and future.

A parenting schedule tells parents when the child is with each of them. It does not necessarily explain how the parents will exchange school information, report a medical issue, respond to a request, communicate about an extracurricular activity or handle an urgent change. That is where a communication clause can help. A useful parenting plan does not need to dictate every conversation between separated parents. But it can establish enough structure that routine communication

An income gap alone doesn’t determine spousal support in Ontario. Learn how entitlement is assessed, who may qualify, and what factors matter after separation.

You signed an Agreement of Purchase and Sale together. Then, before closing, you separated. The relationship may have changed, but the purchase contract does not necessarily change with it. If both purchasers signed a binding Agreement of Purchase and Sale, they generally remain responsible for completing the transaction unless the agreement itself provides a way out, the seller agrees to change or terminate it, or another legal right applies. That can create an immediate pra

Selling a home requires decisions about price, timing, repairs, offers and closing. During a separation, there is another layer. Before the property is listed, the spouses may also need to decide whether either of them wants to keep it, whether a buyout is financially possible, who will pay the carrying costs while the property is on the market and what will happen to the sale proceeds when the transaction closes. For married spouses in Ontario, there are also special legal p

After separation, one of the most practical questions is often: Can I qualify for a mortgage on my income alone? For some people, the answer determines whether they can keep the family home. For others, it determines what they can afford to buy next. Separation can change both sides of a mortgage application at once. Household income may drop from two incomes to one. Support payments may become a continuing financial obligation. An existing joint mortgage may still appear as

When children spend substantial time in both parents' homes, child support is calculated differently than it is in a more traditional parenting arrangement. The number most parents hear about is 40%. Under Ontario's Child Support Guidelines, shared parenting applies for child-support purposes where each parent exercises at least 40% of the parenting time with the child over the course of a year. The Federal Child Support Guidelines use the same threshold. But reaching 40% doe

The monthly child-support table amount is not always the entire child-support obligation. Some costs relating to a child can be added on top of the basic table amount. These are commonly called section 7 expenses, after section 7 of the Child Support Guidelines. But not every expense for a child qualifies. The first question is whether the expense falls within one of the categories recognized by the Guidelines. The second is whether it is necessary in relation to the child's

If you are separating with children, child support is usually one of the first financial issues that needs to be understood. Ontario's child-support framework is designed to make the calculation more consistent than many other areas of family law. But that does not mean every case is solved by typing one income into an online calculator. For many families, the starting point is a table amount based on income and the number of children. The calculation can become more complica

When parents separate, a lot of attention naturally goes to the parenting schedule. Where will the child sleep? How will weekends work? What happens during school holidays? But another question is just as important: Who will make the significant decisions about the child's life? In Ontario, this is called decision-making responsibility. It can include decisions about a child's education, healthcare, culture, language, religion or spirituality, and significant extracurricular

If your parenting agreement or court order was made several years ago, it may still use the words “custody” and “access.” If you are creating or changing a parenting arrangement today, you are more likely to see different terms: decision-making responsibility, parenting time and contact. The federal Divorce Act stopped using “custody” and “access” when major amendments came into force on March 1, 2021. Ontario's Children's Law Reform Act was also amended effective March 1, 20

If you are separating and have children, you may still find yourself using words like “custody” and “access.” Those terms were used in Canadian family law for many years. But since March 1, 2021, the federal Divorce Act and Ontario's Children's Law Reform Act have used different language for new parenting arrangements: decision-making responsibility and parenting time. The change is useful because these two terms describe different parts of parenting after separation. One ans

Saving for a down payment is only one part of preparing to buy a home. Before the property becomes yours, there are also legal fees, taxes, adjustments, insurance costs and other expenses that may need to be paid before or on closing. For first-time buyers, the important question is not simply: “How much is my down payment?” It is: “How much money will I actually need available to complete the purchase?” CMHC and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada suggest budgeting appro

When one spouse wants to keep the family home after separation, agreeing on who gets the property is only part of the process. The spouse keeping the home may also need to qualify for financing in their own name, pay the other spouse the agreed amount, deal with the existing mortgage and complete a legal transfer of title. That brings two processes together: the family-law settlement and the real-estate refinance or transfer. The buyout has to work both legally and financiall

Buying a condominium means buying more than the unit itself. You are also becoming part of a condominium corporation with its own finances, governing documents, common expenses, reserve fund and obligations. For buyers of resale condominiums in Ontario, one of the most useful ways to understand that bigger picture is the status certificate. A status certificate can reveal information about the condominium corporation and the particular unit that may not be obvious from a show

Spousal support may be based on the circumstances that existed when a separation agreement was signed or a court order was made. Those circumstances can change. A payor may retire. Someone may lose their job. A recipient may remarry or begin living with a new partner. Each of these events can raise legitimate questions about whether spousal support should continue at the same amount—or continue at all. But none of them creates one automatic result under Ontario family law. Th

Spousal support may have been reasonable when an agreement or court order was made. Years later, the financial circumstances of one or both former spouses may look very different. A job may be lost. Someone may retire. Income may increase or decrease substantially. Health may affect a person's ability to work. But a change in circumstances does not automatically mean spousal support changes too. Where someone is asking a court to vary an existing spousal-support order, the fi