Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) If the intestate
dies leaving a de facto partner but no husband or wife, then where the de
facto partner and the intestate lived as de facto partners for a period of at
least 2 years immediately before the death of the intestate, the de facto
partner shall be entitled, in accordance with section 14, to the intestate
property to which a husband or wife of the intestate would have been entitled,
had the intestate died leaving a husband or wife.
(2) If the intestate
dies leaving a husband or wife and a de facto partner, then where —
(a) the
de facto partner and the intestate lived as de facto partners for a period of
at least 2 years immediately before the death of the intestate; and
(b) the
intestate did not, during the whole or any part of that period, live as the
husband or wife of the person to whom he or she was married,
the de facto partner
shall be entitled, to one-half of the intestate property to which the husband
or wife would have been entitled in accordance with section 14 but for this
subsection and the husband or wife shall be entitled to the other half of that
property.
(3) If the intestate
dies leaving a husband or wife and a de facto partner, then where —
(a) the
de facto partner and the intestate lived as de facto partners for a period of
at least 5 years immediately before the death of the intestate; and
(b) the
intestate did not, during the whole or any part of that period, live as the
husband or wife of the person to whom he or she was married,
the de facto partner
shall be entitled, in accordance with section 14, to the intestate property to
which the husband or wife would have been entitled but for this subsection.
(4) Where under this
section a de facto partner is entitled to intestate property and the intestate
dies leaving more than one de facto partner so entitled, those de facto
partners are entitled to that property in equal shares.
(5) Where under this
section a de facto partner is entitled to intestate property, then for the
purposes of section 14 and the Fourth Schedule, the de facto partner is to be
taken to be a husband or wife, as is applicable, and all references to a
husband or wife in those provisions are to be construed accordingly.
(6) In this section
—
intestate and intestate property have the same
respective meanings as they have in section 14.
(7) The amendments
made to this Act by the Family Court Amendment Act 2002 do not apply to or in
respect of the estate of a person who died intestate as to all or any of the
person’s property before the commencement of that Act, and the estate of
such a person is to be distributed as if that Act had not been passed.
[Section 15 inserted: No. 25 of 2002 s. 52.]
[ 15A . Deleted: No. 138 of 1976 s. 4.]