Category Case Analysis & Legal Insights

This article was written by Nancy Wang Principal Solicitor at W & G Lawyers. 

It is one of the most common scenarios in Australian family wealth: parents lend money to an adult child to help buy a home, build a business, or get a foothold in the property market. Sometimes the loan is documented carefully. Sometimes a caveat is even lodged on the title. The family is satisfied that the money is “protected.”

Then the child’s marriage breaks down. The parents expect that their loan will be deducted from the property pool before the assets are divided, leaving more for their child (and, in their minds, less for the departing spouse). They are often shocked to discover that the Family Court treats the loan as if it does not exist.

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This article was written by Nancy Wang Principal Solicitor at W & G Lawyers. 

A recent decision of the Supreme Court of Queensland has provided helpful clarification on the registration of foreign judgments in Australia, and in particular on what is meant by the “amount payable under” a judgment where the foreign court has ordered that the debt be paid in instalments.

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This article was written by Nancy Wang Principal Solicitor at W & G Lawyers. 

Introduction

A recent Queensland Supreme Court decision contains a warning that every business owner, director, and commercial operator in Queensland should take seriously. The case is about a share buy-back — but the legal principles at the heart of it apply to virtually any commercial agreement where one party performs their side of the deal and the other uses contractual timing language to avoid or delay payment.

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