Our home has been in my wife’s family for generations…

The short answer is yes. A matrimonial home is always subject to sharing, according to Ontario divorce law, and there can indeed be more than one matrimonial home.

You could have the cottage, the ski chalet, and the condo in Florida, and all of them are subject to rights of sharing, unless a marriage contract signed by the parties and properly witnessed makes the property exempt from sharing.

This indeed is the reason for many marriage contracts, particularly if one spouse brings into the marriage a full or partial ownership of a real-estate property long held within the family. It is far better that the family allows use of, but retains ownership in their own hands of, the property if they wish the child or grandchild not to share the property with a spouse.

Judith Holzman is a collaboratively trained family lawyer who has practiced for over 33 years in the Toronto and York Region area. She has participated in amendments to the Family Law Act (provincial) and the Divorce Act (federal) in the area of religious divorce.