What Happens to Inheritances and Gifts Under a Prenup in Ontario?

Even without a contract, property you receive as a gift or inheritance from a third person after the date of marriage is excluded from your net family property, but a matrimonial home is the exception. A marriage contract can go further, because property the spouses agree by a domestic contract is not to be included is also excluded.

The matrimonial home is where people are caught out. A property is a matrimonial home if you and your spouse ordinarily occupy it, or occupied it at separation, as your family residence. Without a contract, no gift or inheritance exclusion applies to it, and Ontario's guidance says its full value must be shared unless the spouses agree otherwise. Whoever claims an exclusion must prove it.

A contract must be in writing, signed and witnessed, and a court can set it aside for non-disclosure of significant assets or debts, lack of understanding, or other contract-law grounds. A term limiting a spouse's matrimonial home rights is unenforceable. How a gift or inheritance is treated once it is used for the home depends on the facts, so a lawyer can confirm it.