Milwood and Milwood

In *Milwood and Milwood*, Watts J of the Family Court of Australia considered an application to vary existing property settlement orders. The dispute concerned the sale of a property located in B Town, which was to be sold and the proceeds divided between the husband and wife.

The primary legal issue before the court was whether to vary the existing property settlement orders pursuant to section 79A(1)(a) or (c) of the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth). This involved determining the appropriate mechanism for the sale of the B Town property and the distribution of the sale proceeds.

Watts J reasoned that the existing orders required variation to facilitate the sale of the property. The court ordered that the B Town property be listed for sale by private treaty, with the sale price to be agreed upon by the parties or determined by a nominee of the Australian Valuers Institute if agreement could not be reached. The parties were also directed to agree on a solicitor for the conveyancing and a selling agent, with nominations to be sought from the Presidents of the Law Society of New South Wales and the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales respectively, should they fail to agree. After deducting sale costs and any mortgage discharge, the proceeds were to be divided, with the husband receiving $340,000 and the wife receiving the balance. Liberty was granted to either party to relist the matter on 14 days' notice if issues arose in the implementation of the sale order.