Glossary of NZ relationship property terms

The vocabulary of New Zealand relationship property, defined in plain English. Each definition links to the full guide where one exists.

Contracting out agreement: An agreement under section 21 of the Property (Relationships) Act 1976 in which a couple sets its own property rules instead of the Act's defaults. Known informally as a prenup. Read the guide
Prenup / prenuptial agreement: The everyday name for a contracting out agreement. In NZ it is available before or during a marriage, civil union or de facto relationship. Read the guide
Postnuptial agreement (postnup): A contracting out agreement signed during a marriage or relationship rather than before it. Same instrument, same requirements, later date. Read the guide
Property (Relationships) Act 1976 (PRA): New Zealand's law for dividing a couple's property when a relationship ends by separation or death. Formerly the Matrimonial Property Act 1976. Read the guide
Relationship property: The pool of property the Act divides, generally equally: usually the family home and chattels, property acquired during the relationship, income earned during it and relationship-period KiwiSaver. Read the guide
Separate property: Property that stays with its owner: broadly, what each partner brought in and kept separate, plus inheritances and third-party gifts. It can convert into relationship property through mixing, use or contribution. Read the guide
Family home: The home the couple lives in. Generally relationship property shared equally whenever and however it was acquired, which is why home ownership is the biggest single reason couples contract out.
Family chattels: Household property like furniture, appliances and family vehicles. Generally relationship property regardless of who paid.
De facto relationship: Two people over 18 living together as a couple without marriage or civil union. After about three years the Act's equal sharing rules generally apply. Read the guide
Equal sharing: The Act's default: relationship property is divided 50/50 once a qualifying relationship has lasted about three years, treating financial and non-financial contributions as equal.
Three-year rule: Shorthand for the Act's general threshold: marriages, civil unions and de facto relationships of about three years or more attract the full equal sharing regime. Read the guide
Section 21: The provision letting spouses, civil union partners and de facto partners make their own agreement about the status, ownership and division of their property. Read the guide
Section 21F: The validity requirements: written and signed, independent legal advice for each partner, signatures witnessed by the advising lawyers, and certification that effect and implications were explained. Non-compliance makes the agreement void. Read the guide
Section 21J: The safety valve: a court may set aside a contracting out agreement if giving effect to it would cause serious injustice in all the circumstances. Read the guide
Independent legal advice (ILA): Advice each partner must receive from their own lawyer, not shared with the other partner, before signing a contracting out agreement. Read the guide
Certification: The advising lawyer's certificate that they explained the agreement's effect and implications before their client signed. Part of validity, together with witnessing. Read the guide
Serious injustice: The high threshold a court applies before setting aside an otherwise valid agreement, weighing how it was made, time elapsed, fairness then and now, and the parties' wish for certainty. Read the guide
Disclosure: Each partner's honest statement of assets, debts and interests, recorded in the agreement's schedules. Incomplete disclosure is a leading reason agreements are set aside.
Family trust: A trust holding property outside personal ownership, extremely common in NZ. Trust property is generally not relationship property, but the protection has limits an agreement should address. Read the guide
Survivor's election: On a partner's death, the survivor's choice between taking under the will or applying for division of relationship property under the Act. A contracting out agreement can settle this in advance. Read the guide